Yes, absolutely! I 'played' Viridi for quite a while many years ago. I always looked forward to engaging with it - even though it was just for a second before switching to a classic game. The creators were also pretty open in discussing their development and business financials which I appreciated - http://www.icewatergames.com/blog
If you end up building something, I'd love to hear about it :)
I don't have any suggestions, but I want to build my own version now. Emergent behaviour FTW.