The Motion Control Jam is here! This is a brand-new jam series where you get to experiment with motion control in PC games. Think of the thrill of a perfect swing in Wii Sports, the rush of exercising with Ring Fit Adventure, or the rhythmic fun of Beat Saber. These games show that motion controls can make game play feel alive when done well. Now it’s your turn to push controllers in bold and inventive ways.

While motion controls still lives on through VR these days, its high cost can be a significant barrier of entry to experience these games. This jam aims to encourage creating experiences around motion controls that are accessible, fun, and creative without needing specialized and expensive hardware.

For this first edition, we pay tribute to the humble Wii Remote, the controller that made its way into millions of homes, bringing motion controls to the masses.

Your challenge is to take this familiar controller and create control schemes that feel clever, intuitive, and fun, using its unique sensor data and form factor in ways that go beyond the infamous Waggle.

The theme will be chosen by public vote on Discord. Join the conversation and help shape the jam. This is mostly meant to serve as inspiration and is not strictly required to be followed. 

Wii remotes come in different versions, with some having only an accelerometer and others including the MotionPlus gyroscope. To account for this, the jam has two categories, and you can indicate which category your game fits when submitting. Participants can rate the entries, and I will take these ratings into account when making the final decisions. There will one winner in each category.

The rating criteria is as follows, with higher weight given to Creativity and Enjoyment:

• Creativity: How unique and creative is the control scheme? Does it enhance game play or is it just tacked on?

• Presentation: Do the visuals and audio complement the game play effectively?

• Enjoyment: Is the game fun to play? A unique control scheme is only effective if it does not hamper enjoyment.

The rating period will span 3 days from 22/09 to 25/09 and the results will be announced soon after.

• Games must be made specifically for this jam. The motion controls must form an integral part of the game play.

• You may only utilize the following Wii peripherals for this jam: (1) Original Wiimote with only accelerometer readings; (2) Original Wiimote with Motion plus extension; (3) Newer Wiimote with Motion plus integrated; (4) Nunchuk.

• Submissions may target Web, Windows and/or Linux platforms.

• Any game engine or framework is allowed.

• Pre-made assets are allowed but must be credited. Preferably no generative AI.

• Solo or team entries are welcome.

• No NSFW content.

Bug fixes may be allowed during the rating period, but a playable version must be submitted on time.

The Wii remote has certainly earned the title of legacy hardware at this point, however, the fact that it uses bluetooth lets us connect it to modern PCs with only a little bit of hassle. There exist a handful of software that allows communication with the remote to gather sensor data:

• Godot: GDWiiInput (I maintain this one!)

• Unity: Unity-Wiimote

• Unreal: UE5-Wiimote Plugin

• Custom: Wiiuse, XWiimote, SDL should also support Wii remotes.

The Wii remote uses somewhat non-standard Bluetooth protocols, so pairing it as a normal Bluetooth device may not work properly especially on Windows (it should be fine on Linux). For this purpose, one may either utilize WiiPair or Dolphin emulator instead.

Since most of these tools do not work on the web, submissions can target Windows or Linux. Try to use a cross-platform library to let more people try your game.