About the Game

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Launch into space, grab stars falling out of the sky, and throw them back into the stratosphere!

Our submission to this summer’s MelonJam 2026 is STARCATCHER, an action movement game. Use an expressive movement system to go up to the stars, then watch the sparks fly as you bring back order to the earth.

We ended up ranked #4 in Graphics, #5 in Polish, and #7 in Innovation!

My Role

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• As a Graphics Programmer / Technical Artist, I used my unique background in Programming and Art to program shaders and tools to further the visuals of our game

• I did this by collaborating with the team specifically with artist Brandon (linked in Itch page) to define an art direction

• Then I went ahead and made the shaders and systems required. Starting the Water shader, to refamiliarize myself with Unity since I have programmed Gerstner Waves before. Then the Star/Sun Shader since it was the centerpiece. Next the sky system, as it was integrated with game mechanics. Lastly Terrain.

Star Shader

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• [TODO] Explain Shader Graph with screenshots

Sky System

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• Extending Unity’s built in skybox shader by setting those values
• Includes setting values that aren’t the skybox too, like fog colour and fading in the stars
• Helpful editor buttons to save current values as variables and slider for testing
• There’s also a skysphere with a gradient of the fog colour to make the horizon fade in better.

[TODO in editor tool screenshot]

Water Shader

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• Gerstner waves stylized by blending to white based on height
• HLSL

[TODO quick explanation. I’ve done Gerstner waves before though]

Terrain Shader

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• Based on surface normals
• Shader Graph

[TODO Again screenshot of SHader Graph with explanations. This is very simple lol]