I have been working on a minecraft mod pack that has a mechanic where the player can fly between different worlds via the elytra. eg. the overworld -> moon -> mars etc. I have a few different directions I can take Mars' design:

• Dead world with remnants of the extinct martian civilization. Environmental storytelling used to convey a mystery to be solved by the player

• HG Wells' war of the worlds inspired with the martian statues referencing their 3 colored pupiled eyes on a villager model and red weed plants growing underground that infect plants like trees and spread on corrupted dirt (basically dirt that has had blood within 4 blocks of it) and eventually turns white and dies if its in one of the overworld dimensions

• harmless/benevelant living martians based on the barsoon series

Or some combination of those

Thoughts?