Wii devs get new tool

In designing games around the Nintendo Wii's novel motion-sensing controller, developers are facing their own set of equally novel challenges, not the least of which is getting the system to recognize what motions the player is making.

"Just to get that gesture recognition working is nontrivial because people throw different ways," EA Canada head John Schappert told GameSpot back in June when the company announced Madden for the Wii. "It's easy to say, 'you just gesture a throw,' but there are so many different [types of] throws."

Though Schappert said his team devised a solution, help is on the way for developers only now encountering that problem. Nintendo and artificial intelligence tech firm AiLive today began offering LiveMove, a Wii development tool that allows programmers to "teach" the system gestures. For example, to program a gesture for a throw in a football game, the developers would simply need to hold the Wii controller and perform the throw motion several times.

LiveMove is being made available to Wii developers for $2,500. For more information, including a video demo of the process, check out the AiLive Web site.