This is amazing, thanks for sharing the method!

Neat tool! I included it in a compilation video series of all of the ProcJam creations, if you'd like to take a look! :)

Basically it defines a framed area of the map that should hold the majority of a ship's pixels. Then adds some sticky points within that frame to act as the initial valid positions for components to stick to. Then throw a few hundred randomized components (not fully random, generated from the ships 'palette' of components), usually small rectangles and angles at it. There's a very messy algorithm determining when they successfully get added. And a few post generation things where it fills in some gaps and trims things up.

I'm pretty happy with the result at this stage, but there were a lot of other things I wanted to do. My last day of the jam was spent building the minimalist ui and packaging it. Glad you like them.

Oh this is pretty. What processes did you use to generate these?