two & a half gamers – 🇨🇳 AI trends n Mini-Games: MVP in 2 weeks. 80% of Chinese mini-game developers already use AI

Summary

We sit down with Chen Yang (Iwae) from Cocos again to unpack how AI is transforming the Chinese mini-game ecosystem across development, UA, and operations.

The conversation reveals how AI-generated 3D, playable automation, LoRA fine-tuning, and instant meme cloning are redefining speed, scale, and creativity in the world’s most dynamic mobile market.

💡 Key Takeaways

1. 80 % of Chinese mini-game developers already use AI.
AI is embedded across art, code, operations, and UA pipelines.
The most common use cases are:

3D model generation (LoRA + Mesh refinement)

Story generation via GPT + Gemini models

Real-time meme adoption (turning Douyin trends into levels overnight)

AI-driven balancing & difficulty adjustment per user

2. AI improves development speed by up to 80 %.
A single small team (1 artist + 1 programmer + 3 AI agents) can now build an MVP in 2 weeks.
Before 2023, the same project required 5–6 people and 1–2 months.

3. Custom LoRA models are the new secret weapon.
Studios train their own fine-tuned LoRA models for Chinese art styles, avoiding copyright issues and achieving faster iteration.
Quote: “You can fire three artists and buy a new 5090 GPU every month.”

4. AI video ads and playable creation are exploding.

30–50 AI-generated playables produced per day; only 10 % reach final UA stage.

Average cost per playable: $1000–$2000.
you can also get playables with playablemaker.com

Turnaround time: less than 30 minutes with AI templates (Mobvista, AppLovin, Bytedance tools).

25–30 % of UA revenue in September 2025 came from AI-generated playables.

5. AI video workflow = human + AI hybrid.
Studios shoot a few clips with real actors ($500/day), then auto-generate hundreds of new scenes using Runway, VEO3, or Kling 2.5.
The average cost is less than $40 000 per game.

6. “Chinese Speed” defined.
A meme seen on Douyin today becomes a mini-game level the next day.
AI drastically shortens ideation-to-launch timelines.

7. AI agents now analyze markets.
Iwae built Nobcat, an AI agent that scans WeChat, Douyin and Steam releases daily, recommends clones or “follow” titles, and generates product design docs automatically.