Valve's Dota 2 may be the world's premier wizard dress-up game, but if you want to customise your wizard beyond mere appearance? Newly-announced Dote 'em up Deadbreed is touting the big selling point of meaningful customisation, where changing your wizard's clothing and weapons will actually affect how they play.

Buying new items is part of any Dote 'em up, of course, but they're bought during and only add or supplement wizards' abilities, rather than fundamentally changing how they play. While practical details are sparse for now, screenshots show the necromancer-ish chap from the announcement trailer being built as both a "wizard" with a spellbook and an "archer" with a bow.

"I wanted to play a MOBA where I could totally customize how my hero looked and, more importantly played, but I couldn't find one," Stefan Ljungqvist, one of the developers, said in yesterday's announcement. "Also, this was our chance to make a darker themed MOBA for hardcore gamers like ourselves and bring in some additional RPG gameplay features," he added. Ljungqvist was previously art director and animation director on Just Cause 2, and is now part of the mysterious Swedish "stealth startup" making Deadbreed.

Deadbreed is expected to launch on PC some time this year, and will be free-to-play. Hit the official website for more information, and cast your eyes over the announcement trailer: