Alien Planet Tileset

[Noba]

Hi!
So I'm trying to make a tileset for an underground cave system on an alien planet, but I can't come up with anything. I have a vague idea how to do rocks but I'd love for it to be original.
Does anyone have any advice or tips?
Thanks!
(Not sure if it's my phone or the text is really big. If it is, sorry about that!)

[7Soul]

https://images.google.com/ is a good place to start

[Noba]

https://images.google.com/ is a good place to start

Well, I checked that, and it came up with vague stuff. So no.
And I'm looking to make something 100%. Referencing existing tilesets will eventually end up with me taking parts from them

[eishiya]

I think if 7Soul wanted you to look at existing tilesets, they would've linked you to a site specialising in those. Don't draw inspiration from other tilesets if you want to do something unique. Draw inspiration from reality! Mix and match aspects of different strange places on earth to create your alien world. Study what's common on our planet, and you'll know what to avoid or to build a "twist" on.

There are also plenty of photos from the surface of Mars, and artists' depictions of alien worlds based on scientific data which might be helpful if you're interested in creating a realistic alien planet.

[7Soul]

More ideas

https://www.artstation.com/search?q=alien%20landscape&sorting=recent
https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=26294.0
https://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=alien%20landscape

[questseeker]

If visual references don't "click", maybe you can design your alien caves top-down to gain a more analytical understanding of what you should draw and what you can use a reference of.

• What's the origin and type of the caves? They might be mixed (e.g. an underground high tech secret base hidden on the far side of a roughly dug mine accessed from the back of a large limestone dome with stalactites and stalagmites).
• What colours and textures of rock are present? Are there other materials and surfaces, like water pools and streams or minerals?
• What details mark the caves as alien rather than terrestrial?
• What features (e.g. stalactites and stalagmites, bat guano, moss, bones...) are common and characteristic enough to appear on tiles?

[Noba]

I think if 7Soul wanted you to look at existing tilesets, they would've linked you to a site specialising in those. Don't draw inspiration from other tilesets if you want to do something unique. Draw inspiration from reality! Mix and match aspects of different strange places on earth to create your alien world. Study what's common on our planet, and you'll know what to avoid or to build a "twist" on.

I'll try that then, thanks!
I may still take a quick look at some references though, possibly to just get a general idea. If you know what I mean.

More ideas

https://www.artstation.com/search?q=alien%20landscape&sorting=recent
https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=26294.0
https://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=alien%20landscape

Those look pretty cool. Thanks!
Gotta love search engines still including completely unrelated things. Maybe it's people using unrelated tags.

If visual references don't "click", maybe you can design your alien caves top-down to gain a more analytical understanding of what you should draw and what you can use a reference of.

• What's the origin and type of the caves? They might be mixed (e.g. an underground high tech secret base hidden on the far side of a roughly dug mine accessed from the back of a large limestone dome with stalactites and stalagmites).
• What colours and textures of rock are present? Are there other materials and surfaces, like water pools and streams or minerals?
• What details mark the caves as alien rather than terrestrial?
• What features (e.g. stalactites and stalagmites, bat guano, moss, bones...) are common and characteristic enough to appear on tiles?

Those questions will definitely help! Thanks!