I got distracted with weekend activities and missed the greater portion of the jam, so I made a shader in the final hours.

It's a cellular automata inspired by space colonization.

First, each pixel ages by fading a bit.

Second, each pixel looks at its Moore neighborhood and finds the brightest pixel. This is the growth start pixel.

Third, it looks at all the pixels in its greater neighborhood (distance of 8) and finds the brightest pixel. This is the target pixel.

Fourth, it calculates two directions, the growth start to current pixel, and growth start to target pixel. If the angle delta between directions is within a threshold, the current pixel grows a little bit.

Text and random sparkles are added to seed growth.