A group of developers formerly of Blizzard, Hasbro, Radical Entertainment and beyond have formed Switchblade Monkeys, and announced their debut title, spaghetti western multiplayer effort Secret Ponchos.

Secret Ponchos is headed to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 sometime this year, and will be playable at PAX East this weekend.

Players choose one of a number of statistically differentiated and customisable outlaws and engage in gunfights. Switchblade Monkeys said the game “rewards tactical awareness, precision timing and player skill”, and involves melee attacks, an original line-of-sight mechanic, cover fire and destructible cover objects and more to offer “exceptional depth”.

The press release announcing all this made mention of the team’s decision to eschew the “overtly corporate, money-driven world of commercial game development” to build a passion project based on members’ favourite games – team shooters, fighters and isometric action RPGs.

“Secret Ponchos was created by a new development philosophy. Instead of following a business-oriented studio model, we just set out make the game the way a group of friends gets together to form a rock band, and to see how far we can take it,” creative director Yousuf Mapara said.

“If we make something we love, put our all into it every day and enjoy the creative process, hopefully we will make something others like, too.”

Hopefully indeed. Check out the debut trailer below.