Space Unfolding Along the Storyline: Research on Key Technologies for Gamified Conservation of Traditional Village Cultural Heritage

Digital preservation of traditional villages predominantly focuses on structural data restoration, struggling to integrate historical context, ecological wisdom, and spatial integrity. This study explores sustainable applications of gamified digital media in safeguarding traditional village cultural heritage. Taking Sanshan Island on Lake Taihu in Suzhou as the case study, oblique photography collected foundational spatial data. Combined with Revit, this data constructed a high-precision 3D village model, which was then gamified through the Unity interactive platform. Findings indicate that gamification technology, centred on real-time 3D interaction, not only demonstrates superior performance in application interactivity, visual stability, and environmental integration but also transcends the limitations of static data recording. By constructing immersive narrative spaces, it deeply integrates fragmented historical information, ecological wisdom, and physical spaces, propelling heritage conservation from ‘data restoration’ to ‘living narratives’. This gamified conservation methodology, integrating interdisciplinary technologies, offers a groundbreaking perspective for the digital preservation of traditional village cultural heritage. It simultaneously highlights the unique potential of games as a novel digital medium in the contemporary translation of heritage value.