VGTimes Exclusive: How Action&Link Turns Your Body into a Gamepad — Report and Interview from ChinaJoy 2025

At ChinaJoy 2025 exhibition, our editor-in-chief Rodion Ilin got acquainted with an unusual project — a body motion game control system from Action&Link company. Instead of the usual gamepad or mouse, you use your own hands, legs and even head. How it works and why in practice everything turns out to be more complex than it seems — in our interview.

And read about all our adventures at the Chinese exhibition in a separate article.

VGTimes: Hello! Please introduce yourself.

Jerry: My name is Jerry, I represent Action&Link company. We develop systems that allow controlling games through body movements, rather than through keyboard or gamepad.

VGTimes: Sounds cool. Can any games be adapted this way?

Jerry: Mainly RPGs, but yes — we can transform control in any game. Our technology replaces buttons with movements. Let's look at the example of Black Myth: Wukong, which is popular in China. You wave your hands — and the hero uses weapons. You dodge with your body — and he repeats it. You move your legs in place — he moves.

VGTimes: Can you explain how all this works? Some special sensor?

Jerry: All a player needs is a monitor, computer and smartphone. They stand in front of the monitor and place the smartphone underneath it. Then our application launches. The front camera captures human movements. The phone records how the player moves their hands and body, and sends this information to a remote server.

Jerry: There, the data is processed and converted into game commands: for example, if the player raised a fist — it's a strike, if they leaned to the side — it's a dodge. Technically, everything is implemented through Azure AD protocol. The system works with a small delay, so the player needs to practice a bit for movements to be accurately recognized.

VGTimes: How many movements can the system recognize?

Jerry: Currently about 14-15 different movements. The control doesn't just recognize hands — it distinguishes whether they're clenched into fists or open, and even counts how many fingers are shown. It's also important how far the hands are from each other. All this is used so the game "understands" what command the person gave. This is a new and unusual form of interaction, where body movements become truly gaming!

VGTimes: What about creating custom movements?

Jerry: Currently there's no such functionality. But the user can adjust the existing movement preset to themselves, train the model, so to speak. Also available is a large keyboard preset. We constantly expand their number, and also give the user the opportunity to independently configure movement correspondence to needed keys — whether keyboard or gamepad. For example, in some game a hand wave might be an attack, or it might be an ability or even a function (calling menu or opening map).

You can evaluate the approximate set of movements from the pictures in the slider:

VGTimes: Is this all still a demo or can you try it at home already?

Jerry: We're at the public beta testing stage. But we plan to enter the international market by the end of 2025.

VGTimes: What's needed to play, just download the app?

Jerry: The application is only available for China, it needs registration and only supports Chinese phone numbers. The key device for PC is available for 300 yuan (about $40), we sent it to selected testers.

VGTimes: Do you have partners, investors?

Jerry: Yes, we received funding from ZhenFund — one of the largest Chinese venture funds.

VGTimes: Can you play any game?

Jerry: Yes, the player decides. We just provide the tool, and they choose which game to apply it to. Everything is fully customizable for specific commands — both on PC and Nintendo Switch.

Everything sounds impressive — and we decided to try it. The game is Black Myth: Wukong, a dark action RPG with hardcore combat. In theory — simple: hand, leg and head movements turn into attacks, dodges, parries, aiming. In practice — sweat pours like rain.

VGTimes: So, if I wave both hands up and down, like this, — this is a light attack?

Jerry: Yes. To dodge, move your body, to stand firm — raise your hands up with index finger gesture, invisible — same, but with two fingers. To drink health potion — pretend you're really drinking it.

VGTimes: How do I run?

Jerry: Just move your legs 5 centimeters from the floor and move them while standing in place. Want to jump — jump.

VGTimes: I almost dislocated my shoulder! How to aim?

Jerry: Turn your head, and the camera will follow. To turn around — just look in the needed direction.

VGTimes: Still too complicated. Where's the "just play" button?

VGTimes: This is madness. I think you should make a separate demo game that's simpler — without Dark Souls-level combat.

Jerry: Yes, we're thinking about that too (laughs).

Action&Link offers not just an interesting idea, but a rethinking of the very principle of game control. But for now the project is more oriented toward physically prepared enthusiasts and esports players from Asia. The control really works — but requires precision, training and, preferably, free space. If the developers add more user-friendly settings and simple games for beginners, the technology could well go beyond the niche market. We'll be following the project's development.

Interview conducted by Rodion Ilin.