Porcelain heritage enters the game

The game's goal seems simple enough: become a master porcelain maker.

When the loading screen fades, players find themselves in a virtual Jingdezhen, the Chinese city located in Jiangxi province, whose kilns supplied emperors, merchants and royal courts around the world for centuries. Before touching a lump of clay, however, a few more pressing questions come to mind.

Why should I become a master potter?

"Because every piece of porcelain, from mud to fire, is in your hands," an elderly kiln master replies. "What you make speaks for you."

How do I get there?

He says: "Start by kneading clay and throwing it on the wheel. Then learn painting, glazing, and tending the kiln. Every step matters."

Where should I learn?

"If you want to understand porcelain," he answers, "there is nowhere else."

The voice belongs to the owner of Zhiyi Kiln, an AI-powered master potter in Digital Jingdezhen: Porcelain Craft Adventure, a mini-game released on the same day UNESCO inscribed the Jingdezhen Handicraft Porcelain Industry Sites on the World Heritage List.

More than a guide, the virtual craftsman serves as a teacher and storyteller, answering players' questions — including some unexpectedly difficult ones — as they progress from novice apprentices to skilled artisans. Along the way, they also discover the long history of Jingdezhen's ceramic industry and its centuries-old links with the Maritime Silk Road.

On July 25, delegates gathered in Busan, South Korea, for UNESCO's 48th World Heritage Committee session, where the Jingdezhen Handicraft Porcelain Industry Sites became China's 61st World Heritage site.

Soon after the announcement, Tencent Games and Tencent's SSV Digital Culture Lab, working with local authorities in Jingdezhen, launched what they describe as the world's first official game created for a newly inscribed World Heritage site to combine artificial intelligence with gameplay.

Rather than simply reconstructing an ancient city, the project re-creates the site's five heritage zones, 24 major production sites and workshops, dozens of historically documented tools, and more than 70 celebrated porcelain styles spanning multiple dynasties.

"If World Heritage status were the finish line," says Tu Ming, the game's producer, "there would be no need for this game.

"Jingdezhen's greatest heritage is a worldview about how people live with nature and create together. That shouldn't belong only to scholars or artisans. Everyone should be able to experience it."

Unlike many World Heritage sites, Jingdezhen is not a frozen monument preserved behind ropes or glass. It has produced porcelain continuously for more than a thousand years, sustaining an interconnected system of raw materials, kilns, workshops, transport routes, and generations of artisans.

That living ecosystem became the guiding principle behind the game's design. Players' very first task is to plant Masson pine trees.