So Discover Albia just launched a lovely forum, and I thought I was done with forums generally but look at this:
It's mobile-friendly!
The desktop format is also hitting me in the face with nostalgia for Creaturetopia, and maybe that's to be expected seeing as they're both phpBB-based. But wow, I just got flooded with all these memories of Warp Week and back when I was just starting to learn to develop all the way through the beginnings of Garden Box plans, just all those amazing community experiences from around 2008-2012. I feel like that was really the peak of my interest in Creatures and it just holds so many warm fuzzy memories for me.
Okay, it's probably a little unfair to project all that onto this hatchling forum, but I guess what I'm trying to say is that I feel a little bit inspired to do what I can to rekindle at least some of that warmth. What form that will take, I have no idea. But I'm going to try to stay active on this little forum and see if I can chase this spark of inspiration somewhere meaningful.
So since my last post, my hard drive gave out (sadly this put a premature end to Clover and Dandelion's adventures), and I've moved apartments twice, meaning my computer has spent a lot of time in a box!
Furthermore, Yahoo Pipes, which I was using to aggregate the blog feeds, was discontinued, so for now I've reverted the blog list to the old-fashioned name/url listing. At least it's updated and (hopefully) current now.
Anyway, most of my belongings are still in boxes but I've been norn-itching a little and I kind of want to reinstall Creatures to show my roommates, so it's possible I might post more in the future!
I'm also pretty curious as to what's about to be released on Discover Albia tomorrow! Jessica sure knows how to build some suspense. I should probably learn to take a page from her book and keep my projects a secret until they are in some releasable form instead of posting a lot of good intentions that never come to pass.
I miss Creatures and I miss developing, but I really, really don't miss working in CAOS. Guess I'll just see what inspires me as time goes on!
To those of you reading this, thanks for sticking with me. It means a lot.
Sorry for the delay here guys; I've been sick for the past few days and have kind of fallen out of touch. I won't be recording any more videos until my voice comes back, but luckily I still have a few that I recorded before falling ill, so I won't leave you hanging for too long.
So let's continue with part two of Clover and Dandelion's adventures, in which I realize I can't actually tell the difference between a weed and an herb, and Clover... well, Clover just doesn't care.
Creatures 1 is probably the most foreign game in the series to me. C2 was my first Creatures game and I spent a crazy amount of time tearing it apart as a kid. C3/DS/CV all run on extremely similar engines; I understand the inner workings of those better than I understand the layout of my own town. But Creatures 1 has remained a mystery, and other than a little bit of dabbling here and there, I've never actually sat down and seriously played the game.
When it comes to matters of Creatures 1, however, we have a relative expert in our community: Jessica of Discover Albia. I've always been curious as to why Creatures 1 is her game of choice, especially with all the advancements we've made as a community to improve the newer games. After consulting with her, I've gotten the impression that there just seems to be something about C1 norns that makes them easier to get attached to, easier to, well, love.
As many of you know, creating emotionally attachable creatures is something I have been trying to accomplish for the majority of my life as a developer, so with this insight in mind, I think it's about time I take a very serious look at Creatures 1.
For now, I've decided to play the game completely and totally vanilla; installed straight from GoG with no COBs, cheats, or patches. This will probably change as time goes on and I realize certain fixes are needed, but I want to introduce myself to those slowly rather than all at once. For now, I want to experience Creatures as someone really trying it out for the first time and see what ancient knowledge this game might hold about what truly makes norns lovable.
I have decided to document this playthrough, however long or short it may be, through videos. Each will be under ten minutes and will encompass the highlights of 20-30 minutes of playtime. More or less, this is for my own records, but I hope some of you might enjoy watching them too.
In this first video, I hatch my first pair of norns, teach them their verbs, and send them off into the world to push whatever they may. Wish them luck as I try to figure out what the heck I am doing.
So this new blog started up recently, and it's pretty much my new favorite thing:
The Trial of Chip the Third seems to be taking a sort of interactive story-approach to Creatures blogging, in which the readers get a bit of a say in how the story goes. A few posts in, the tale already has my full attention.
There's only a day or so left to cast your vote as a member of the jury, and right now the odds are against poor Chip! If you're a fan of Creatures stories, I can't recommend this enough; go have a look!
