Star Control - thousands of worlds procedurally generated and hundreds hand crafted

In the age of procedurally generated maps and universes, saying you have thousands of planets in your game no longer carries the same punch.  Stardock's upcoming space RPG, Star Control: Origins indeed boasts thousands of worlds but what Stardock is hoping players to notice is how different different worlds are.

The Realism battle

Early in the game's development it was decided that fun would always outrank realism when it came to planets. While the home solar system of the human race is fairly well known, who is to say that there aren't Topaz planets out there? (scientists, that's who!)

Dreaming of an alien dawn

The first question Stardock designers asked themselves was, what should the surface of a planet look like? How do you make traveling to thousands of worlds interesting and not repetitive? The answer was largely to throw out any thought of "realism" and come up with as many exotic world types as possible.

The next question they asked was what should they look like from above?

Beauty vs. Fun

Making a planet exotic looking is one thing. The question then becomes, how do you make sure it's fun to explore them?

For example, cliffs and mountains are all fun until the player gets stuck.

Procedurally generation:

A habitable planet:

a plain boring sphere.

From this sphere a planet class is given a list of variables to work with.  What types of materials will be on it? What types of geographical features might be on it? What types of minerals, life forms, etc. might be on it?

The engine then looks at how far away from the sun it is, how big the planet is, how big the star is, etc. and fills out the planet.

Final Procedurally generated planet:

But this isn't the end of the story.  As cool as this planet looks, and it is unique, it is, as a practical matter, basically the same as another planet of the same class with similar stats:

These two planets are different but it's a difference without meaning.  So if a planet has significance to the story, it will often get an additional pass by a designer:

and then buildings placed in just the right spot:

Now the writer can say "Seek the temple located in the glaciers of Palon III. There you will find the answers you seek."

This also makes the entire process much more accessible.  As wonderful as procedural generation is as a time-savings tool, it greatly reduces the number of people who can collaborate on the creative side.  By contrast, if the creation tools are made not just easy but fun to use, it opens things up for many talented people to bring their own imaginations into play.

Thus when the player lands on the planet and begins to seek out the ruins, they know that that planet is unique even though it is the result of procedural generation and human intervention.