Artistic Statement / Use of Theme
Graft! is a cozy grafting simulation game built around the jam's theme of planting a seed. You play a botanist who grafts plants (physically joining two into a hybrid with the traits an environment needs) and sends them out to make each place you tend more sustainable. We built the game around grafting because it's a real horticultural technique one of our members studied with genuine teaching potential.
Our climate focus is permaculture and what it supports: biodiversity, pollinators, and green spaces. Our call to action is to both educate yourself about grafting, and come away seeing how real problems in the world can be met with sustainable choices rather than only high-tech fixes. If a player finishes curious enough to look up how grafting actually works, our game has been successful!
In terms of artistic direction, we aimed for cozy and gentle 2D hand-drawn plants living in a soft 3D world, light orchestral music, and warm, personable voices in the narrative writing. The UI was kept simple to keep the game focused on the open world greenhouse and the grafting process itself. For the 3D side of the work we tried to incorporate earthy tones and keep the environment very natural to keep a positive energy to the game space. For the 2D sprites of the flowers we chose to make different flower types in a 2D format to give a drawn look. The inspiration for this game was Botany Manor and Kabuto Park. Botany Manor inspired the mechanics and the 3D aesthetic of the game while Kabuto Park inspired the 2D aspects of the game.
All of these come together to create a game that is about grafting flowers to help preserve and support ecosystems that are fighting against industrialization of our modern world. This shows the player that even just planting a seed can help spread positive change to their environments and local ecosystems.

Development Summary
We didn’t have many major changes between the original idea and the final product. From the very start we made a production plan with clear expectations. We knew what things made the core experience of the game and what things were just content. So when the time came to make cuts for scope or any other issues, we started cutting from the far ends of the experience we had in mind.
Our major pitfalls were unexpected team absences that made us have to cut more content than expected. Some of the members of our team had to work in other areas of the game like UI implementation, animation and coding. We also had a system of postcards that you received alongside the customer letters. You had a postcard that showed you how the place looked when the customer letter arrived. When you received the thank you letter, it also came with another postcard showing how much the place got better with your help. Our artist made the first stage with both postcards but timing made us not implement the backend behind all of that.
The team went above and beyond expectations even though life happened and got in the way. And even though we had to cut content, spirits were held high and at the end of the day, all the tasks and things we want inside the game are there.

Topic Tags
green spaces, permaculture, grafting

Sprint Participation
yes, all of them

Game Engine, Platform, Format
unity engine, windows, executable

Generative AI Disclosure
We didn't

(optional) Promotional Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za5wDqiObl0&time_continue=0&source_ve_path=NzY3NTg&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fhaslurianexplorer.itch.io%2Fthe-bee-team-graft

(Optional) Feedback Form
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdOS_DP5SfDt7BA7MwcFWIRkhi4KA2jOTiXfcmEkI386vtv8w/viewform