10 ideas about alien plants (in games)

1. take a real world plant and add glowing parts to it
2. combine two different real world plants into one
3. a distinct, characteristic color palette in contrast to the earth
4. pulsing is good, makes things feel crazy and alive
5. inspiration can also come from the microcosm of the earth (mites, tiny fungi, etc.)
6. pollen can be used wonderfully to make a scene feel more alive
7. don't make it to different, or else people won't recognize, but make it different enough
8. some plants could have tentacles like the honeydew plant, to consume organic matter
9. it's important that everything in an ecosystem is linked logically and audio-visually together
10. inspiration can also come from creatures of deep sea (crazy structures, glow, live from chemicals)

10 ideas on creating alien worlds

1. reference/abstract earth creatures to make monsters more believable
2. every monster has an unique sound scheme, creating all together the ambient (communication, warning, hurt)
3. experiment with glowing surfaces, making the alien forest even more interesting at night
4. a soft pulse / movement in the wind helps to make things more believable
5. add some pollen to the air to let the world feel more detailed and alive
6. study real life "aliens" such as horseshoe crabs (blue blood) or snails
7. palettes could consist of a dominating terrain texture contrasted by a complementary glow color (around plants)
8. new technologies like the Occulus Rift make those worlds more tangible
9. lowpoly/ proceduralism/ shared textures can help to speed up the implementation circle of new species
10. alien worlds are rarely explored in games by now, the potential is huge (new recent genres include space garden sim)