Beyond the Game
The story behind Blocks Beyond the Stars
Blocks Beyond the Stars was not created by a large game studio. It is a family project that we are building together.
The game began with the ideas of Justus, who was ten years old at the time. He imagined a universe where players could explore distant planets in their own spaceship, collect resources, research new technologies, and expand their ship piece by piece. Step by step, these ideas grew into a real, playable open-source space game.
Here, we share who is behind the project, how the game is being created, and what we are learning along the way.
How it all began
In the beginning, there were no finished concepts, no large development plan, and no professional studio. There were simply lots of ideas: extraordinary planets, unusual creatures, spaceships, tools, machines, and an ever-growing collection of gameplay mechanics.
What started as a few early experiments gradually became a much larger project. Features were developed, tested, discarded, and improved. Justus tested new versions, discovered bugs, and immediately came up with new ideas. Marcel took care of the technical implementation and turned the individual ideas into a solid game architecture.
Step by step, Blocks Beyond the Stars grew into a game featuring procedurally generated worlds, crafting, research, spaceship construction, and multiplayer.
The project is still in development. That is exactly why experimentation, feedback, and continuous change are a natural part of the process for us.
Who We Are
Justus – Ideas, Game World, and Testing
Justus comes up with planets, creatures, items, and gameplay mechanics. He tests new versions, discovers bugs, and helps decide which features are fun and which still need improvement.
Marcel – Technology and Development
Marcel is responsible for the technical architecture and implementation. This includes the Unity client, the server, multiplayer, development tools, testing, releases, and many other technical aspects of the project.
Verena – Testing and Balancing
Verena supports the project through testing and feedback. She helps identify bugs and makes sure that gameplay mechanics remain understandable and well balanced.
Together, we are JuMaVe Games. The name is made up of our first names: Justus, Marcel, and Verena.
Development with AI Support
We also use AI tools to support the development process. They help us with experimentation, selected graphics, music, sound effects, and various development tasks.
However, AI does not decide what Blocks Beyond the Stars should become. The ideas, creative direction, choice of content, and final decisions all come from us.
It is important to us to be transparent about how the project is created, including both the possibilities and the limitations of these tools.
An Open Game Project
Blocks Beyond the Stars is an open-source project. The source code is publicly available, players can host their own servers, and contributions from the community are welcome.
We do not only want to develop a game. We also want to show how a collaborative project can grow when ideas, learning, technology, and creativity come together.