So in case you've been living under a rock, you probable know that Steve Grand, the original mind behind Creatures, is working on a new artificial life project and has a kickstarter fund going to help cover his cost of living while he works full time on it.
This is essentially our Creatures 4, guys. It may not have norns, but I'm telling you, if you were drawn into Creatures for the science and lifelikeness of it, this is more than worth getting really, really excited about!
Even though the project has passed its requirement to be funded, you can still pledge until April 8th, and the rewards are more than generous. For $50, you get a copy of the final version of the game, and you get to beta test it. Seriously, fifty bucks isn't much more than what a lot of games retail these days, and those games don't generally contain groundbreaking developments in AI. Just think of it as a really, really early pre-order. Or, for $75, you not only get to test the game, but you get access to development tools such as gene editors and the like to get a jumpstart on developing (my personal interest of course). Just the thought of being a part of that whole process thrills me to no end.
There are other pretty nice rewards if you can afford to pledge more, so check it out and support the next generation of sillicon-based life!
On another note, yes, I've pretty much dropped off the face of the earth and I don't know that I'll really ever have the time to climb back up, but I did get a new computer and used the old one to fire up Live Nornish Action again, so pop by and say hi if the stream is up! I have a few ideas I'm working on to make it a bit more interactive-- an agent that lets you adopt creatures straight from the LNA world for instance, but I'll see what time I can find. You guys probably know by now that my ideas tend to far outweigh my actual productivity, heh.