Behind "Infinite Warmth" Winning Apple Design Award: Chinese Gaming Industry at a New Turning Point
Text | Ma Xiaodi
Editor | Liu Shiwu
After a four - year hiatus, Chinese game manufacturers have once again won an award at WWDC.
Early in the morning on June 10th, Beijing time, at the awarding ceremony of the 2025 Apple Design Awards, which was held simultaneously with the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2025), the open - world dress - up game "Infinite Nuan Nuan" under the banner of Papergames officially lifted the trophy in the "Visuals and Graphics" category of the 2025 Apple Design Awards. This is the first time in four years that a domestic game has won this type of award again, and Papergames is the only Chinese game company among all the winning manufacturers this year.
At the 2025 Apple Design Awards ceremony, Yao Runhao, the founder and CEO of Papergames, is the first from the left in the back row.
In the mobile - device field, the value of this award is at the top of the industry. Winning this trophy not only means that a Chinese manufacturer has been recognized by WWDC again after "Genshin Impact", but also proves the phased success of Papergames in the open - world game field.
Looking at the trend of domestic game awards at WWDC, new changes are taking place in the Chinese game industry.
Why did the "Oscars" of the mobile app world choose "Infinite Nuan Nuan"?
Since its establishment in 1997, the Apple Design Awards have been regarded as a benchmark award for the integration of technology and art. Its selection criteria are so strict as to be almost "harsh": from interaction design, user experience to technological innovation and social value, every dimension has to withstand the scrutiny of the world's top jury.
Among previous winners, there are independent games like "Monument Valley" that subvert cognition with "optical illusion aesthetics", and also phenomenon - level products like "Genshin Impact" that conquer the global market with an "open world + cultural narrative".
This year, the awarding statement on the Apple official website for "Infinite Nuan Nuan" accurately pointed out the game's graphic characteristics: "What's novel about it is that the players' task is to collect various styles of clothing rather than weapons... 'Infinite Nuan Nuan' has gorgeous and comfortable - looking visuals, making it a rare example of high - quality mobile games."
The awarding statement on the Apple official website
In fact, many current open - world games focus more on the exciting experience brought by numerical stacking and combat upgrades, while "Infinite Nuan Nuan" has chosen a different path: the players' goal is not to conquer the world, but to "collect beauty"; the way to become stronger is not to pick up weapons, but to design and make a beautiful dress; the weapon to defeat enemies is not a sword, but to "purify" the polluted creatures with pure energy.
This "beauty - oriented" design not only allows the game to break out of the traditional open - world framework, but also creates a brand - new user experience. During the public beta period, IGN gave it a high score of 9, commenting that it "has in - depth open - world exploration gameplay, wonderful storylines, and the most beautiful game costumes in players' impressions"; Metacritic gave it a good score of 80 after comprehensively evaluating the scores of 29 overseas media.
In addition, the support of development technology is also the key for "Infinite Nuan Nuan" to be recognized.
In an interview on the media day of WWDC, a relevant person in charge of Papergames said: "As the first cross - platform open - world game developed based on the UE5 engine, the team has carried out a lot of technological innovation. For example, the self - developed 'PaperFur' hair system makes the small animals in the Miracle Continent look like fluffy balls from afar, and up close, you can see the arc of each hair; the Tone mapping visual effect jointly developed by the technical team and the art team, combined with the specially developed Global Illumination (GI) technology for mobile devices, can make the picture restore the unique style of the art design while retaining the real lighting effects of GI."
The beautiful lighting in "Infinite Nuan Nuan"
From "cultural going - global" to "technological breaking through circles": the industrial upgrading of domestic games is in progress
The victory of "Infinite Nuan Nuan" is not only an honor for a single product, but also a microcosm of the upgrading of the domestic game industry.
Looking back at the past decade, the path of domestic games going global has shown a clear feature of advancement "from content to technology": in the early days, "cultural themes" were used as the key to break into the market. Through the narrative and visual languages with distinct Eastern aesthetics such as Xianxia, Wuxia, and Chinese ink - wash style, global players have felt the unique charm of Chinese culture.
For example, "NARAKA: BLADEPOINT" integrates the Eastern philosophy of "overcoming the strong with the weak" into the combat experience through original Wuxia action systems such as "parrying" and "counter - parrying"; "JX3" integrates the chivalrous spirit and humanistic feelings into every large map and plot story, attracting a large number of players to spontaneously participate in secondary creation.
In recent years, with the full - scale emergence of technological accumulation, domestic games have entered a stage driven by both "technology and emotion" - top - notch engine, algorithm, and art engineering capabilities have not only become tools for "telling good Chinese stories", but also have the opportunity to be used to redefine the global players' evaluation criteria for "good games".
The essence of this transformation is the transformation of domestic game companies from "cultural exporters" to "experience creators": while many traditional overseas game companies still rely on traditional engines and mature narrative templates to dominate the market, Chinese developers have begun to break through the boundaries of gameplay with technological innovation, and at the same time, with a deep understanding of "emotional resonance", they have built a bridge of empathy across cultural differences.
As a product of industrial transformation and upgrading, the success of "Infinite Nuan Nuan" benefits not only from the support of self - developed technology, but also from the capture of "beautiful emotions" - some small animals will shyly cover their tails when being cleaned, players collect flowers with morning dew for making clothes, and quietly approach and catch flying insects... These "tiny beauties" magnified by technology are essentially a response to the common emotions of humanity.
Nuan Nuan, Da Miao and the small animals in the Miracle Continent
Nowadays, the ability of domestic games to "magnify beauty with technology" enables players from different cultural backgrounds to feel the healing feeling when cleaning small animals in "Infinite Nuan Nuan", the sword - light and shadow and the chivalrous world in "SIXTEEN SONG OF YANYUN", and the warmth and romance of wandering in the clouds in "Sky: Children of the Light". The global players' perception of "beauty" is common, and domestic games have evolved from "showing cultural symbols" to "creating emotional experiences" - technology is the carrier for transmitting emotions, and emotion is the universal language across cultures.