Home >> Internet Games >> Nintendo Wii

How to Write Wii Applications

With its motion-sensing capabilities and more than 34 million consoles sold in the United States as of late 2010, the Nintendo Wii is an attractive video game console. Developing games for the Nintendo Wii is typically a large-scale effort, requiring the many programmers and the financial might of a large video game developer. However, through community efforts to unlock the security features on the Wii, a large community of independently-produced games, called "homebrew games," has developed. Writing homebrew applications for the Wii requires downloading a Wii developer kit.

Instructions

- 1
  Download a Wii developer kit. A developer kit is the software package used to write other programs. Many homebrew Wii developers use devkitPro (see Resources), which contains a compiler for C and C++, as well as debugging utilities and other libraries. Downloading devkitPro is free.
- 2
  Download additional software libraries for the Wii. Libogc (see Resources) is another compilation of programming libraries specific to the Wii. These libraries include software that allows a developer to access the Wii's video card, sound card, DVD drive and Wii remote controls. Additionally, the WiiBrew website maintains a list of many other libraries and utilities that may be useful in writing a Wii application (see Resources). These libraries are free to download.
- 3
  Write your Wii application. Depending on the scope of your Wii application, the process of writing may take anywhere from several hours to several months. Writing an application for the Wii requires proficiency in a programming language, such as C or C++, and the ability to write code.
- 4
  Publish your Wii application. Once you have written your application, it is ready to be shared with other users. There are a number of websites, including WiiBrew, that allow you to upload and publicize your new application. Additionally, by creating an icon.png and meta.xml file for your application, other Wii users may directly download and play your new Wii application via the Homebrew Channel.

Nintendo Wii