@JaggedSac

Maybe it's just me, but I'd say that motion capture is a subset of motion tracking.
On the other hand if I understood correctly the natal library will provide you the numeric trajectories of the tracked points, all work being done on the device itself. As such, I don't think it requires much work in the "tracking" part, just in the "elaborate and render" one.

Well, Natal provide the skeleton.  The developers still have to keep track of what it is doing and how to interpret that for their games.  Not all games will utilize the skeleton for an onscreen avatar.

If I were hiring for a motion capture and animation specialist.  I would have put that we are hiring for motion capping and animation work.  Not work in full body motion tracking.

^He also speaks of substantial 3D development experience, though. That's what pushes me to think of an animation coder, more than someone versed in interpreting full body gestures (is there even any such expertise?)

Could be.  This is quite clearly not an absolute confirmation of a Natal game.  But the chances are somewhat likely in my opinion.

Being that this is most likely a small team, I would assume that the person handling the body tracking would also need the skills to handle the display or mapping those inputs into a 3D viewspace.

@ Werekitten I think its pretty safe to assume that there is no ambiguity with the job posting. If he wanted someone for motion capture he would have specifically stated that was what he was looking for. In any case its unheard of for such a small studio to invest in motion capture as far as im aware.

If he was looking for an animation coder then he would likely specifically ask for an animator. I doubt there is ambiguity here, what he asks for is almost certain to be exactly what he asks for without requiring interpretation.

^Get a natal SDK and you have your little and cheap skeletal motion capture solution every studio can use, provided you have a 3d animation developer. Even if you're not going to use motion tracking as an actual gameplay input :)

I don't know squat, of course. Seeing what Braid turned out to be (conceptual, puzzle-based, light on resources, inclusive of any platform within reasonable resource constraints) this just seemed the most probable outcome to me instead of an interface-focused, niche market title.

But I'll be glad every time an author surprises me with a good project, so fingers crossed for whatever it's cooking in the pot - the guy deserves a lot of credit :)

Would be awesome if he was working on a Natal project. I'd like to see the next line up of XBLA Natal titles. (If he would go that route)