Most of the time, I think puns are really gross.

But when the pun describes a Western-themed Xbox game where players control a cowboy puppet by waving gun-fingers around in front of a camera, suddenly the lowest form of wit becomes the highest form of entertainment.

The Gunstringer, Austin-based developer Twisted Pixel's newest video game, lets players puppeteer a Dia de los Muertos skeleton equipped with spurs and a six shooter; it’s almost as if Twisted Pixel designed the game after Austin’s own taste for Tex-Mex food, joining two cultures together with an outrageous sense of humor and adventure.

"[T]he idea to do a puppet game was in the back of our minds for quite some time," says Jay Stuckwisch, marketing director at the Austin studio. "It wasn't until we were introduced to Kinect at a Microsoft event that we thought, 'Hey, we can make that puppet thing work.' When we presented the idea to Microsoft as an undead marionette cowboy they loved it. Our stage was set by being in Austin."

Previously, Twisted Pixel had only worked on smaller, downloadable games for Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade. The Gunstringer was scheduled for as a similar bite-sized release, but Stuckwisch points out that halfway through the title's development, the publisher had other plans.

"Some high profile people at Microsoft saw and played The Gunstringer at a retreat and wondered why it wasn't being pushed as retail. They liked it so much that our producers came to us with the opportunity to go retail, and we jumped at the chance."

Players control the puppet protagonist by waving their hands in front of the Xbox Kinect motion sensor like they’re controlling a… well, puppet. The left hand controls the character’s movement, and the right hand locks onto targets and fires when players shoot their fingers like a gun. If you’ve played pretend cops and robbers when you were a kid, you’ve already got in a lot of practice. Allowing the studio's trademark creativity more room to breathe, the live-action introduction to the game was even filmed in Austin’s own Paramount Theater, where the puppet-show stage makes the setting for the rest of the game’s antics.

​"[W]e knew that we wanted to do the game as a 'play' for a live audience," explains Stuckwisch. "The Paramount jumped to mind for use of our full motion video stuff because it is an historic landmark in Austin, and home to many talented acts across it's impressive lifespan. It had the exact look and feel for what we wanted. It was an honor just to roam the basement of that amazing theater."

The Gunstringer launches for the relatively cheap retail price of $40 and includes a free download code for Fruit Ninja Kinect, an Xbox port of the wildly successful iPhone game. Players eager to slice fruit, shoot down evildoers, and make ridiculous puns can pick up The Gunstringer on September 13th.