I think procedural generation needs an AI editor: a second layer that assesses the generated forms and selects only the most interesting and pleasing ones. This

I think procedural generation needs an AI editor: a second layer that assesses the generated forms and selects only the most interesting and pleasing ones. This could be informed by real-world animal body ratios, and subsequently trained by humans ('silly', 'cool', 'scary' etc) until it mostly stops making awkward shit. And a dictionary of 'what creature types has this player already seen' might go some way to alleviating boredom over the span of dozens of hours (planet types need this too - many people were annoyed at never finding an archetypal paradise planet, myself included). A third layer would allow players to rate cool creatures so that they show up in others' games. No Man's Sky already has the "scan creatures and upload discoveries" mechanic; with a rating system the good ones would have an increased chance of showing up in someone else's game. Procedural generation obviously has legs, but developers need to move beyond the 'infinite monkeys at infinite typewriters' stage, and artificially ensure player enjoyment is less at the mercy of randomness.