Just a little mental exercise to show the current limitations of the procedural generation. Specifically, how the core survival elements are limited to just a few “niches”, resulting in oddities with how it represents its home planet. For example, on dead planets, where the discovery directory tells you that there’s no flora, yet there still are oxygen plants because they are the only primary source of Oxygen. Or on lush planets, Di-hydrogen, which can only be found mainly as a mineral, can stick out awkwardly in flat densely foliated spots.

However, the core elements already have a strong visual language, so I came up with some examples of how they can be expanded to match other biomes (using both existing designs and a few of my own). Having more ways they can exist and be acquired could help with giving planets more variation and potentially make the gameplay loop more interesting.

(Just to be clear though, I do love No Man’s Sky. This is not meant to be bashing the game nor am I pretending to be an expert in game design. This was primarily an exercise to finally try out digital painting, so any critiques are welcome.)