Exogarden - Blog Posts
EXOGARDEN LOG #3
Hi! Now is a bad time to be picking up extra hobbies, but my brain doesn't seem to care. Still, I found some time for this one, too. My Minecraft mock-ups are fully realised now, but I'm not sure about uploading them. They probably won't make a lot of sense without knowing what each block represents, and they do kind of spoil the whole game. Nice scenery though. Heck, maybe I'll just post one of them...
But for now, some more plants!
🌼Webbed Flytrap🌼
Fallaranea muscipula
Home planet: Zion
A maroon and yellow flower with a spider-like construct framing its petals, with a gooey nectar web stretched between. If it detects a small creature, the legs close in on its prey, trapping it for gradual digestion. The legs of the flower use a hydraulic system to keep the pressure high enough to trap the creature.
Although this would've fit quite neatly into the jungles of Elysium, that place was getting populated enough as it was, and a carnivorous spiderweb made for a much more Zion-esque idea than the Fractal Fern. I had to have at least one carnivorous plant, and having one based on a carnivorous animal AND a common piece of set dressing seemed only natural. It makes for quite a believable image!
🌼Hopper Grower🌼
Petrophilium bisemutium
Home planet: Ketumati
A simple leafy plant with a pink inflorescence, smooth leaves, and a metallic sheen. The flowerhead is peculiar: the sepal is flexible and colourful, but there are no actual petals. At the base of its stem is a large bismuth crystal which grows around it. The plant doesn't grow in existing crystals, but rather excretes excess bismuth absorbed from the rocks it grows on.
Yes, bismuth crystals really do look like that: they're my favourite for a reason! I knew I had to include it in a world themed around chemistry and general ethereal vibes. Oh, it's a fun one. It dances into the realm of fantasy a little more than the others, but that's part of the art. The faux flowerhead here makes it seem a little more inorganic than most, but it's not at all alien. It turns out flower morphology can be VERY deceptive. Some petals aren't really petals, some flowers aren't even really flowers, it's a mess! Tulips are an odd example: half the petals are actual petals, but the outer petals are just barely distinguishable sepals. Also daisies are a hundred flowers in one? I need a break from flowers...
🌳Furball Tree🌳
Laevidendron eriophyllum
Home planet: Eden
A usually short and sparse tree with little whorls of leaves that have a very soft texture. These leaves grow in separated round clusters on the surprisingly smooth branches. The tree also sprouts fluffy lilac blossoms but only on the side facing downwind
What, you didn't think flowers were the only thing I had to offer, did you?! I'm trying to group my drawings by the category of plant, so expect to see some more trees and grasses as time goes on. This is the first tree you see in the game, hence it earning the privilege of "Tree" in its name. I've never repeated a word in the common names, just to show the sheer diversity of plants there are, and to make it easier to specify them! It does require rather awkward constructions like "Hopper Grower", but hey, I like the half-rhyme and double-entendre.
Anyway, the Furball Tree. I wanted something friendly and whimsical, but a little more realistic than Dr Seuss! I hope you can see what I'm going for: it's like natural topiary. It looks quite sparse in my drawings, but it is supposed to be able to fit in a garden, after all. They probably get no taller than 5 metres. The blossom is just for extra prettiness, a perfect match with the Foreign Flyer, and it makes for quite a handy impromptu compass, incidentally.
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Oh, I promised you a Minecraft world, didn't I? Well, I can't think of an easier way to do it, so... here.
https://www.planetminecraft.com/project/eden-evergreen-green-exogarden/
You might recognise the Furball Tree and Foreign Flyer, but the rest of the plants I've yet to reveal, of course. Still, it's quite a nice example of things to come. I hope with every passing post, you can see there's more depth to this than I can possibly hope to convey with a few drawings in my spare time... oh well.
EXOGARDEN LOG #2
Hi again! I've been busy, mostly with uni, partly with designing levels in Minecraft (maybe that's a future post...), and partly with these next drawings :)
🌼 Nature's Palette 🌼
Supercompositae versicolora
Home planet: Mag Mell
A sprawling flowering plant that prefers humid climates. The inflorescence on its head is actually made of dozens of tiny individual flowers, which can take many different colours in a single head. Each petal also stains very easily, often leaving a psychedelic-appearing runoff.
It's a pretty fun one and a pretty one! After all, Mag Mell has a bit of a theme to it. Well, all the planets do, really. Let's take a look at another inhabitant.
🌼 Luminescent Echo 🌼
Crassipetalis sonoluminosus
Home planet: Mag Mell
A broad, thick, damp-smelling flower with a pale stem and six bulky cyan petals that grow in the shallows of swamps and marshes. Sounds of a particular frequency range and enough amplitude cause an electrochemical reaction that makes the head glow and emit particulates, which are picked up by the wind.
Yeah, no prizes for guessing the inspiration here! Still, imagine the hybrids...
Okay, one last one! Yeah, I can think much faster than I can draw...
🌼 Dust Bowl 🌼
Altipelvis cinereus
Home planet: Elysium
A large cup-shaped orange-speckled grey-white flower that grows on the upper branches of the local trees, but is an independent organism. It gathers lots of potassium from the golden embers that float downwind from the volcanic regions.
There's a lot more to this one than first meets the eye! It's inspired by the Amber Spyglass, of all things, and I rather liked the idea of a volcanic plant that didn't require actually going to a volcano. Besides, I needed a way to reward climbing trees: you'll see why...
The Elysian Broadleaf has changed designs a bit over time too. That's the name of its humble abode. Actually, "humble" is not the word I'd use to describe them, being the biggest plants in the game!
That's all for Exogarden for now. I do wonder whether I should start throwing my other unrelated stuff on here or if that would just clutter things up. Eh, future me's decision. I'm going to bed.
EXOGARDEN LOG #1
From the maker of innumerable unfinished projects and a guy somewhat obsessed with speculative evolution, comes a (hypothetical) simple gardening game with exoplanet exploration! Think a fusion of Slime Rancher, Outer Wilds, and, uh, Stardew Valley? You know, making your own little garden to take care of, wandering alien environments to document new species, and filling the Almanac with the plethora of species and hybrids to discover! No clear goal in mind, but why not discover everything, right? You’ll have to if you want to explore everything
Essentially it is Scientific curiosity: the game! Which suits me quite well :P
Of course it's the plants themselves which will be the star of the show, and I had a ton of fun coming up with all these ideas! That's kind of what I do: world-building and theory-crafting just because I can. In fact, I think I had a bit too much fun, there's like 70 of them now???
Anyway...
How about I show off one of my personal favourites, the first encounter of alien botany, and the emblem of the game?
🌼 Foreign Flyer 🌼
Xenoanthus velus
Home planet: Eden
A tall, airy, vibrant red or pink flower with eight sail-shaped petals and pennant-like anthers which can take root almost anywhere. When it's pollinated, it detaches the entire inflorescence which catches the wind, frequently travelling to distant lands.
Of course, if I only showed them off one by one, I think I'd never finish...
🌼 Violet Burst 🌼
Litoris montecchi
Home planet: Penglai
A bluish purple flower with eight long thin lightly-creased petals and a large ruffle of leaves. It is an excellent photosynthesizer, always taking the sunny spots at the beach, making it compete with the Scarlet Burn. It often gets poisoned by the chlorine in the seawater, however, so it doesn't live long.
🌼 Scarlet Burn 🌼
Litoris capuleti
Home planet: Penglai
A mostly dark red flower with four short wide slightly-curled petals and a flared stem. It has an incredible excess of roots, preventing it from being washed away by waves and getting water and ions from the saltiest of seawater. It often competes with the Violet Burst for space, but cannot photosynthesise nearly as well.
And now to show off one of my favourite things... Hybridisation!
🌼 Lovers Tango 🌼
Litoris × cordatus
Home planet: Penglai
A chimera flower with two spiralling stems and hearty mottled red and indigo petals. It has ample roots and wide leaves, gathering enough nutrients and light to be in full bloom all the time. The conditions for such a flower to compete with either of its parent species must strike a precarious balance, however, so its population always dwindles when either's niche dominates
I LOVE the concept of fusion in fiction and in art, it's so fun to see how distinct elements of design can be carried into an entirely new complete package. So, of course, the fact that we can do it IN REAL LIFE had to be included somehow! The other hybrids are... less orthodox than this one. But that's just because I'm not making more than one species in any other genera...
Okay, one more, this time a bit more... alien.
🌼Perennial Reactor🌼
Nanophyllus nuclei
Home planet: Ketumati
An unassuming tiny three-leaved plant which produces bright golden flowers with hundreds of petals, so small that they visibly blend into one. Unusually, it uses nuclear radiation in stimulating photosynthesis, to make up for its tiny surface area and limited chlorophyll, which can sustain it for thousands of years.
That'll do for post #1. I'm pretty new to this digital art thing, if you couldn't tell, but honestly, I kinda like the amateur-field-guide-in-progress vibe I'm producing. Fits the concept, you know?
I have no idea when I'll feel like posting more of this stuff so uhhhh bye!