200,000 Yuan cash prize pool · Registration for the first Zaohua Voxel Game Creation Competition is now open
200,000 Yuan pure cash prize pool waiting for you: Zero-based participants welcome, no programming or art skills required; besides cash prizes, there are generous rewards such as Sony PS5 and direct access to Tencent Lightspeed Studios interview qualifications.
As AI large models begin to deeply participate in every link of content creation, the "means of production" in game development are being redefined. Zaohua Workshop officially launches its self-developed AI-Native game engine—Tiangong Engine, with the philosophy of "creating Everythinggj with Tiangong," designed for next-generation game development. It no longer treats AI as an external tool, but comprehensively redesigns Everythinggj from engine architecture and asset pipelines to runtime capabilities around AI, making the reality of "ideas growing into a runnable, playable, and competitive 3D world" possible.
I. Why We Need an AI-Native Engine
For decades, game engines have always been "written for humans": steep learning curves, heavy asset pipelines, inefficient collaborative design, and high cross-platform adaptation costs. Developers need months to build a gameplay prototype, with creativity constantly diluted by engineering details.
Today, AI Agents can already read documents, write code, and call tools. The real question is: traditional engine architectures were not designed for AI understanding and operation. Tiangong Engine has chosen another path—designed for next-generation game development, making Agents the primary element of creation, allowing human developers to return to creativity itself.
II. Five Core Selling Points of Tiangong Engine
Tiangong Engine has redesigned five key layers around "Agent First": from production tool forms, asset pipelines, built-in AI capabilities, scene compatibility, to evolution mechanisms. These five selling points together form a complete AI-Native game development solution.
(I) Transformation of Production Tool Forms: No longer limited by traditional engine carriers, driven by Agent framework
All functions of Tiangong Engine can be completed through natural language dialogue and scene import: simple conversations, one-click hierarchical scene building, one-click publishing to platforms, and one-click creation driven by large models. Developers are no longer limited by traditional engine editor interfaces; the Agent framework autonomously drives the transformation from ideas to playable content—the main interface for creation is simply a conversation.
(II) Disrupting Traditional Asset Production: Latest procedural generation, asset pipelines better suited for AI understanding
Traditional asset production relies on cumbersome division of labor and repeated import/export. Tiangong Engine adopts a procedural generation approach, using editable assets (TypeScript-first and pack.ts) to organize code, asset modeling, baking, and procedural content in ways that are easy for AI to understand and modify. Scenes, characters, gameplay, and interactions can all be procedurally generated by AI, transforming the asset pipeline from "manual processing" to "dialogue generation," with multi-style rendering adaptation ensuring artistic presentation is achieved in one step.
(III) Native Built-in AI Capabilities: AI capabilities fully integrated, more efficient, faster, and stronger
The engine architecture uses a Harness pattern, where Everythinggj is a plugin: rendering is a plugin, physics is a plugin, and your game itself is also a plugin. It can natively integrate various AI Harness scaffolds, such as embedding Deepseek Harness or Codex into game logic, using large model inference during gameplay to manage memory, call game tools, and achieve runtime AI dialogue, storylines, asset and scene generation, etc., making AI-native games truly "live" in players' hands. From development to runtime, AI capabilities permeate the entire chain, making creation more efficient, validation faster, and performance stronger.
(IV) Compatibility with Multi-Scenario Needs: Support for various workflows and publishing platforms
Tiangong Engine supports the creation of over 100 game types, covering practical works such as ARPG, racing, city-building, and survival, supporting visual effects like materials, reflection, refraction, and volume; on the distribution side, it provides specialized rendering and cross-platform capabilities, supporting various workflows and publishing platforms. Through the Zaohua plugin, Tiangong Engine further connects with mainstream frameworks, as well as AI Agent environments like WorkBuddy and Codex, linking more application scenarios and tools.
(V) Self-Evolving Your Engine: Deep symbiotic growth with AI large models in the future
The capability boundary of the engine should not stop at release day. Tiangong Engine continuously evolves from the source of AI large model capabilities—with every step forward in large models, the engine's creative capabilities advance accordingly. The accompanying industry-senior designer Skill collection consolidates the methodologies of senior game designers into callable professional abilities, assisting in gameplay conception, plan deduction, and experience review, and continuing to grow with large models and industry experience.
III. One-Stop Creation and Publishing: Zaohua Plugin
Centered around Tiangong Engine, the Zaohua plugin provides one-stop creation and publishing services: Skills break down creative goals and orchestrate tasks; CLI handles project read/write, dependency installation, and local run previews; MCP calls platform capabilities; preview and automatic validation check runtime status; publishing materials can automatically generate titles, covers, and landing pages; work packaging, uploading, archiving, and leaderboards are all included. Combined with Headless CLI automatic verification and RHI-Debug visual issue tracking, the distance between modification and validation is compressed to the minimum.
Creators use AI to make and publish games, while players discover, experience, and interact via Web and App, with the content ecosystem continuously growing.
IV. Get Started Immediately: Registration for the First Zaohua Voxel Game Creation Competition is Open
Want to see Tiangong Engine truly in action? Registration for the first Zaohua Voxel Game Creation Competition officially opened on November 3, 2026. This is the best stage to test the engine's creative capabilities—participants will connect the Zaohua plugin to AI Agents like WorkBuddy, using natural language to drive the engine to create voxel games, with no limits on gameplay types, including shooters, MMOs, puzzles, simulation management, narrative, etc.
Competition highlights are as follows:
l 200,000 Yuan pure cash prize pool: 1 First Prize winner receives 100,000 Yuan; 2 Second Prize winners receive 20,000 Yuan each; 5 Third Prize winners receive 10,000 Yuan each; 10 Finalists receive 1,000 Yuan each
l Zero-threshold participation: No programming or art skills required; supports individual or team entries (up to 10 people)
l Generous rewards: Submit your work on time for a chance to win a Sony PS5; the first 100 registrants receive WorkBuddy compute credits and LAP smart game asset platform points; invite friends to participate and earn referral bonuses
l Direct access to Tencent Lightspeed Studios interview qualifications: Outstanding creators get a fast track for career development
l Deep incubation: Winning works have the opportunity to receive massive distribution resource support and professional publishing team incubation
Cash Prize Settings for the First Zaohua Voxel Game Creation Competition
|
Award |
Quota |
Prize Money |
|
First Prize |
1 person |
100,000 Yuan |
|
Second Prize |
2 people |
20,000 Yuan each |
|
Third Prize |
5 people |
10,000 Yuan each |
|
Finalist Award |
10 people |
1,000 Yuan each |
Schedule:
l Registration and submission period is from November 3 to December 15 at 23:59;
l Voting sprint period is from December 16 to December 23 at 12:00;
l Public announcement period is from December 28 to December 30.