AI-Powered, Creative Renewal — The 2025 Xiamen International Animation Festival “Golden Dolphin Award” 48-Hour Game Development Competition Concludes Successfully

GAME JAM

48 Hours of Creative Collaboration

Bringing together the nation's top developers and AI innovators

October 19, 2025

The 17th Xiamen International Animation Festival

"Golden Dolphin Award" 48-Hour Game Development Competition

A successful conclusion

This year’s event not only showcased groundbreaking applications of artificial intelligence in game development, but also provided Xiamen’s game developers with a comprehensive industry experience that combined learning, creation, and professional growth, thanks to its impressive lineup of mentors and hands-on training program.

The City of Creativity Ignites the AI Revolution Once Again

Hosted by the Xiamen Municipal People’s Government, organized by the Xiamen International Animation Festival Organizing Committee, and co-sponsored by China Telecom, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Unity China, and Tripo, the “Golden Dolphin Award” 48-Hour Game Development Competition has once again sparked a wave of creativity in this vibrant, innovation-driven coastal city.

Young developers, designers, and art and programming teams from across the country gathered in Xiamen to compete in an AI-driven creative challenge, harnessing code and imagination. Over the course of just two days, nearly 150 participants and 30 teams demonstrated the boundless potential of “AI-empowered creativity” through their projects.

From the Moment to Eternity: AI-Empowered, Guided by Mentors

Prior to the official start of the competition, the organizing committee partnered with Unity China, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and TRIPO to launch online training sessions and on-site workshops to help developers quickly master practical AI techniques for game development.

Li
Wei, Senior Unity Instructor at Unity China

Li Wei, a senior Unity instructor in China, shared that the Unity engine will gradually enhance its AI capabilities. The new AI artist workflow will significantly boost creators’ development efficiency. Its key feature is the ability to seamlessly integrate AI workflows into the engine’s core functionalities, allowing creators to select appropriate templates for specific modules to streamline their work. Additionally, integrating with third-party large language models is highly convenient, and calling third-party APIs is straightforward.

Tang Zhe,
Amazon Web Services Instructor

An Amazon Web Services instructor demonstrated how to use two AI tools—Amazon Q and IDE Kiro—to generate project blueprints and automate optimization logic before coding, helping developers bring their ideas to life more quickly;

Head of the Mogu
VAST Ecosystem

Mogu, Head of the VAST Ecosystem and Head of Tripo GameHub, demonstrated on-site how TripoAI is revolutionizing 3D creation, highlighting the core capabilities of its real-time generation model and its practical applications in game development, while offering a vision of how it will usher in a new era for digital content creation.

This series of training sessions and on-site discussions not only enhanced the participants’ technical skills but also inspired them to reflect on the boundaries of collaboration between AI and human creativity. As one mentor put it, “Creative inspiration may be fleeting, but perseverance and passion make it eternal.” This sentiment also became the theme of this year’s “Golden Dolphin Award” 48-Hour Game Development Competition—“A Fleeting Moment, Eternal Legacy.”

A Moment of Glory: Young Talent Shines a Light on the Future of AI

Based on a comprehensive evaluation by the judging panel and all participants

The competition awarded a number of prizes:

List of Winners

 Gold Medal Winners:

"The Ruins of Sound"

by the Sound Ruins Squad

 Silver Prize Winner:

"Legend or Underdog: It All Happens in an Instant"

by the "It's All About Participation" Team

 Bronze Prize Winners:

《The Seventh Sin》

by the Five Golden Mice Team

Individual Award

Best Game Design Award: *Traces: Twin Souls*
by The Ninth Art Mortar Squad

Best Game Art Award: *Memory Amusement Park*
by the Slacking and Mud-Slinging Alliance

Best Game Program Award: *Mirror of Time*
by the Three Schools Brave the Golden Dolphin Team

Best Student Game Award: *Waaa…ter*
by the Guazi Coin Team

When AI Becomes an Extension of Inspiration

From its origins as an animation award to its current status as a comprehensive platform encompassing games, VR, digital art, and AI creativity, the Golden Dolphin Awards continues to push the boundaries. The 2025 Game Development Competition marks a crucial step toward the "era of human-machine co-creation."

In the future, the organizing committee of the Xiamen International Animation Festival will continue to deepen the integration of AI, virtual production, digital twins, and other related fields, with the aim of creating an open, innovative, and internationally influential creative event that promotes the deep integration of AI technology and cultural creativity.

In Xiamen, a city renowned for innovation, the "Golden Dolphin Award" not only bears witness to the growth of young developers but also showcases to the world the remarkable pace at which China is leveraging AI to empower the creative industries.

When algorithms become the wings of creativity
, and human-machine collaboration becomes a reality, the gaming
era of the future
has already set sail from here
. END