Astera - Gamifying the Extra-Galactic Universe for educational fun

星系确实是宇宙中最令人惊叹的地方。巨大的恒星系统(我们的太阳只是数万亿恒星中的一个)，这些真正巨大的物体本身就被正确地称为“岛状宇宙”。如果你做不可能的事情，把我们对宇宙的看法放大到最大的尺度，你会看到数十亿个星系像闪闪发光的宝石一样散落在一层深色天鹅绒上。你会看到星系结构(形态)的巨大多样性，既有巨大的、古老的椭圆星系，也有错综复杂、紧密缠绕的螺旋星系。到目前为止，这种对宇宙的“上帝之眼”只存在于天文学家的脑海中。我们称这个项目为‘astera’。ASTERA是在南安普顿大学内部开发的，它在难以想象的大范围内产生了令人眼花缭乱的美丽，但也产生了科学上准确的、互动的宇宙观。使用流行的游戏引擎虚幻引擎开发的astera，允许用户通过动态和身临其境的第一人称控制在宇宙中航行。在这个项目中，我们将把一个时代提升到一个新的水平，通过利用STFC资助的前沿研究，对星系演化的计算机模拟进行研究，将我们的项目发展成一款令人兴奋和引人入胜的视频游戏。玩家将不仅有能力观察，而且有能力影响星系本身的演化，以一种有趣和游戏的方式，这将使玩家总是想要回来获得更多。在这个项目中，我们将开发这个游戏的原型版本，我们将使用它来争取额外的投资或与现有的游戏工作室合作。该项目还将与一组初步测试人员共享，以确保客户驱动的反馈。最后，我们将进一步发展我们在行业内的联系，为ASTERA的全面商业发布铺平道路。

Galaxies are truly the most astounding places in the universe. Colossal systems of stars (of which our sun is just one among trillions), these truly colossal objects have been rightly dubbed `island universes' in their own right. If you were to do the impossible and 'zoom out' our view of the universe to perceive it on the largest scales, you would see billions of galaxies scattered like glittering jewels on a pall of dark velvet. You would see the vast diversity in galaxy structure ('morphologies') with colossal, ancient elliptical galaxies and intricate, tightly wound spiral galaxies. This 'God's eye view' of the universe has existed only in the minds of Astronomers, until now. We call this project 'Astera'. Developed in-house at the University of Southampton, Astera generates a dazzlingly beautiful, but also scientifically accurate, interactive view of the universe on unimaginably large scales. Developed using the popular game engine Unreal Engine, Astera allows the user to voyage through the cosmos with dynamic and immersive first-person control. In this project, we will take Astera to the next level, by leveraging cutting-edge, STFC-funded research into computer modelling of galaxy evolution, to develop our project into an exciting and engaging video game. The player will have the ability to not only observe, but also influence, the evolution of galaxies themselves, in a fun and gamified way that will make players always want to come back for more. In this project, we will develop a prototype version of this game, which we will use to pitch for additional investment or partnership with an existing game studio. This project will also be shared with a group of preliminary testers, to secure feedback that is customer driven. Finally, we will further develop our contacts within the industry, to pave the way for a full commercial release of Astera.