Grazing Star

Inspiration

I once read a story about a poor country where people were tormented by poverty. In a region near the sea, across the water lay a prosperous, developed city. To survive, large numbers of people attempted to cross illegally at night. This infuriated the authorities in the area, who ordered the military to shoot the crossers. The soldiers, however, couldn’t bring themselves to kill children, so many children survived — but in the process, their parents and families vanished into that sea. From the perspective of one of those children, now grown up and telling the story, I learned that before dying, his parents told him not to seek revenge, not to hate his own country, and to live well. Many of the parents who perished passed on similar messages. As these children grew up, some of them let go of their hatred, returned to their homeland with money they had earned, and began rebuilding their country. Their actions filled me with deep admiration, yet I could feel that beneath it all, they still carried immense pain. I sensed they hoped their lost family members would one day be acknowledged rather than forgotten or ignored. This game is born from that story.

What it does

You can pluck stars from the sky and throw them into the water to help people crossing the river, guiding them safely to the other side.

How we built it

This is a demo level specifically created for a game jam/competition.

Challenges we ran into

We managed to complete the art assets for the demo, but many core features remain unimplemented. The game uses an AI plugin for Unreal Engine 5 to improve NPC pathfinding and ensure smooth performance with a large number of NPCs even on low-end hardware like the Quest. We spent a huge amount of time on this plugin. In fact, we only started building the actual gameplay features on December 8th. We simply need more time. We plan to keep updating continuously before Christmas to finish the game.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We decided to participate in the competition on December 8th, which left us with very little time. The question was whether to give up or try everything we could. I don't know if we can complete everything before the deadline, but if we successfully register for this project, it means we've succeeded.

What we learned

We should have used simpler, more convenient technologies to prototype the game instead of diving into complex ones.Finally, the difference between humans and animals is that humans possess hope. As long as you don't give up hope, you can complete the registration before the final deadline.

What's next for Grazing Star

I'm a big fan of the Harvest Moon series, and I want to create a game where stars can be treated like chickens, ducks, and cows, and the starry sky serves as a pasture. Players can raise various celestial bodies, nurturing them like livestock. Different celestial bodies will have different effects and can be used with different NPCs in the game. Later, we will select stories that deserve attention and incorporate them into the game as part of the gameplay experience. Players can then give hope and love to these stories through the stars they cultivate.

Replenish

Dear judges, we apologize, but three minutes before the registration deadline, we were still unable to successfully upload the game APK to Meta. Therefore, we provided an incorrect content address. We hoped to register first and then find a solution within the following 12 hours. However, we discovered that we can only modify the project content now, and cannot change the download APK address. We have accepted the reality of losing the competition. Three hours before the content submission deadline, we found a solution and uploaded the APK, but currently it only contains the art scene prototype. You can experience it through the "Try it out" link below. Many ideas remain unimplemented, and many exploration elements have not been added. We will implement these ideas in our original game, "LoveSweet."

Built With

• ue5