[This article originally appeared at Gamasutra. To see the original, click here.]

Emergent has licensed its Gamebryo game engine to Portugese developer Biodroid for the development of a Wii title based on popular South American brand Chiquititas.

Originally a TV series in Argentina, Chiquititas is a large cross-media property that has spread to music CDs, magazines and even a musical and forthcoming movie.

“The strength and diversity of the Chiquititas brand is a natural fit for Wii," said Bruno Patatas, co-founder of Biodroid. “Gamebryo is allowing us to do things beyond what we could have imagined.”

Emergent's CEO Geoffrey Selzer added: “Developing Chiquititas into a video game is a perfect example of why we created Gamebryo for the Wii. This exceptional brand has endless possibilities and building it on Gamebryo leaves the future open for continued evolution of the title.

“Gamebryo's Wii optimization enables Biodroid to focus on custom features, content and gameplay to make Chiquititas a truly unique Wii title. The flexibility of Gamebryo across genres and art styles truly highlights what we can do. From RPGs to FPSs and from photo real to toon shaded games, we facilitate everything a developer is looking for.”