Thanks for playing!
The inspiration mostly came from the thought 'a 4X game where you are the map generator'. When trying to find the fun I took some inspiration from the board game 'Carcassonne' who's world building element is pleasant to score. For example you get points for road length or city size in it. I've seen 'Dorfromantik' referenced, I did look up some game play and it has some similar ideas, I'll have to try it out later!