Short videos open up the UE creation and learning path, Zhiqiong is seeking seed round financing.

Short videos break down the barriers to Unreal Engine (UE) creation and learning, and Zhiqiong has completed MVP verification
There has long been a structural contradiction in content learning in the game development field: millions of UE4/UE5 developers, 3D artists and independent creators across China are scattered on general platforms such as Bilibili, Douyin, and technical forums, where teaching videos and creation experience are mixed in pan-entertainment content, leading to low retrieval efficiency, insufficient systematicness, and no way to jump directly from video tutorials to actual game scene experience.

In response to this pain point, independent developer Li Peng launched "Zhiqiong" — a vertical short-video community for Unreal Engine creators. This product integrates video learning and game practice into one through immersive information flow, categorized content organization and one-click game Demo launch function, and has currently completed the development of MVP versions for Android, iOS and OpenHarmony as well as the verification of core functions.


Vertical content organization shortens the path from "learning" to "practice"

Zhiqiong structurally categorizes technical teaching videos into ten major directions including UE development, 3D art, level design, game planning, digital human, AR, VR and 3D modeling, allowing users to quickly browse content through the short-video stream that can be swiped up and down. Different from the information overload of general video platforms, this product separates the recommendation channel from the official selected channel: the former realizes personalized content distribution based on user behaviors, while the latter selects high-quality teaching resources through platform operation, helping creators quickly locate the required skills in massive content.

A major feature of the product design is the direct connection between video learning and game experience. Some videos are equipped with corresponding runnable UE5 scenarios. After learning the tutorials, users can directly launch the 3D game Demo through the "Enter the World" button on the page, load map resources (in .pak format) locally and interact in real time. This function is realized by calling the host engine through the native MethodChannel of the Flutter framework. After exiting the game, the video browsing state is automatically restored, avoiding frequent switching between different applications.

In terms of community interaction, Zhiqiong provides four basic social modules: like, follow, share and comment. The follow system enables learners to continuously track the update dynamics of excellent creators, and the liked content is automatically included in the personal favorite list. In addition, the product is integrated with the WeChat Open Platform SDK, supporting sharing videos to WeChat friends or Moments in the form of graphic links.


Taking advertising as the initial revenue model to target the million-level developer market

At present, Zhiqiong has not launched creator monetization or paid course functions, and its business model is mainly based on advertising. The product is integrated with the Pangle advertising SDK, which displays splash ads when the application starts and triggers interstitial ads in specific scenarios. The ad loading adopts an asynchronous mechanism, and automatic retry is supported after initialization failure, which will not block the main process experience.

In terms of technical architecture, Zhiqiong is developed based on the Flutter cross-platform framework, using GetX for state management and dependency injection. The back end uses the Airtable cloud database to read and write data through REST API. In terms of video playback, the product integrates the video_player plugin and builds its own LRU cache manager. When playing for the first time, files are downloaded to local storage in the background, and the cache is directly read for the second playback to reduce traffic consumption. User preferences and login status are persistently stored through local SharedPreferences.

The target user groups cover domestic game developers, 3D art designers, level designers, independent game producers and students in the field of digital content creation. According to data from the Game Publishers Committee of China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association, the number of employees in China's game industry has exceeded one million, among which the proportion of developers and art personnel involved in the UE technology stack continues to grow, and the vertical learning community for this group is still a market gap.


Independent development has completed three-terminal MVP and verified product feasibility

Zhiqiong was built from scratch by independent developer Li Peng, who spent two years completing the development of MVP versions for Android, iOS and OpenHarmony as well as the verification of core functions. In terms of technical selection, the project uses the cross-platform capability of Flutter to realize code reuse on the three terminals, significantly reducing the cost of independent development and maintenance. The adaptation of the OpenHarmony version is based on Huawei's HarmonyOS Flutter branch, and module-level compilation and component debugging have been completed.

The product currently has complete functions including user registration and login, short video browsing, community interaction, chapter courses, content publishing, game launch and ad display. The back end adopts a serverless architecture, realizes low-cost content management through the Airtable cloud database, and the data model covers core business objects such as users, videos, follow relationships, like records, and course chapters.

The project is currently in the early verification stage and has not been publicly launched for operation. The developer has submitted listing applications on channels such as the OpenHarmony AppGallery and Huawei AppGallery, and is continuously optimizing privacy compliance, permission descriptions and application performance based on review feedback. The key directions in the next step include the initial exploration of content ecology construction and user growth strategies.