Since having played 0.0.4, it has stood out to me that almost every monster is out to get you/me/us. They appear from the fog yonder, and make their way to us to take us out, just because we're there.
--
Those monsters themselves, I'll leave alone for the moment. My concern for this post is what *isn't* there: docile animals.
Bluntly put: for when biomes come around, if you're in the mood to design new fauna, and especially if you've got a working design but can't quite get it to work as a unique enemy, please consider instead making it a forager of some kind that can appear and do its own thing, leaving the player alone by default. If you'd ever consider designing a docile creature from the ground up, so much the better.
I for one would love to see variously-colored deer grazing (just keeping their heads down on terrain set to use grass textures), drinking if there's water, sleeping, and perhaps scampering away if you approach too fast. Imagine also giant mammoths in snowy areas.
It wouldn't need to just be herbivores either. Foraging carnivores, like walruses and small birds, and omnivores such as raccoons and rodents, would also be unique and welcome additions.
-
Obviously this wouldn't necessarily contribute to gameplay much; however, it would be a very immersive world-building detail, and one I for one would consider worth a slightly longer loading time or higher pixilation requirement.
