Former Naughty Dog veterans Jason Hughes and Andrew Gilmour have formed Steel Penny Games, an independent studio based in Austin, TX. They’ve been accepted into the Nintendo WiiWare developer stable, and are currently developing an original IP, due to release in mid-2008.

The upcoming title “blends a challenging puzzle game with dramatic fantasy environments and appealing characters for an exceptionally satisfying experience.”

The company was formed early last year and they’ve spent that time building a proprietary engine geared toward the Wii platform’s capabilities, and creating a new intellectual property to span a series of games.

At Naughty Dog, Hughes was a senior graphics tools engineer, and Gilmour was a senior background artist.

Steel Penny Games is also certified for Xbox Live Arcade development.