Nothing Exciting, Part 11

Another day in the world that has been going several hours with everyone falling over of starvation left and right and no one leaving the incubator room. Though thanks to Venithil's advice to inject them with reserve chemicals instead of just liquid food, they are falling down a lot less often at least. I really should just modify the liquid food injection to include max amounts of those. I've pretty much given up on these creatures learning to actually feed themselves anyway.

This was a surprise-- its been so long since an egg has actually grown large enough to hatch without a creature picking it up. What could be inside?

...Oh. Another male pure goldie. This is what, number three? Those goldies really got busy.

The newborn happily wanders around exploring his new world and pushing everything in sight, and no one thinks anything of it until--

Wait, really? Really? 

This world goes this long without anyone ever touching the lift, and then it takes a brave newborn, fresh and curious, to carry half the world population down into the unknown.

Good job, baby goldie.

These three girls I guess opted to stay and watch the eggs. I forget which of these are actually goldpixie's mom. I like to just imagine they both are. 

Meanwhile, everyone else ventures downwards to explore, look, and ask questions. Well, except the emerald 'eoeo' who doesn't seem too thrilled about the change of scenery.

It occurs to me that this might actually be the first toy these norns have ever seen? And the first vendor, too. Goldiedad seems rather excited to explore this new world his curious son has opened up to them.

Meanwhile... uh, I think I'm just going to call these three the Maids of Eggs.

I can't believe they finally left the incubator room. I was really just starting to think it would never happen. Maybe something exciting will happen eventually after all!

(Don't bet on it.)

Happy 20th, Creatures!

I feel like I just had to make a post today, the 20th anniversary of the game series that brought us all together. My memories of this series encompass well over half of my life.

I remember getting ads in the mail for Creatures 1 before it was even released (I guess I was on the mailing list after filling out the registration postcard for my Catz game) and being confused but intrigued.

I remember going into JRChat to ask questions about the game before saving up a month of my chore wages to purchase it, and I recall being absolutely horrified that I couldn't keep my vanilla C2 norns alive long enough to breed until I discovered and abused the Advanced Science Kit, learning a ton about biological systems in the process.

I remember 'writing' my first C2 cob, which was little more than a sprite edit and a new classifier number for a tutorial cob. I remember getting some very patient and generous help from fuzzie writing my first timer script and learning about agent structure in general. I remember having to write a "Life Goals" list in high school, listing "master CAOS" as one of them right up there with "write and publish a book" and "become a vet." At least I accomplished one of those.

I remember when the DS warp was active and I would get random messages and chat requests from people who didn't even know the community existed, asking for help with their game. I remember Warp Week and my attempts to document it resulting in my first Creatures video.

I remember when CAOS finally started to click in with me and I realized nothing but a lot of time was holding me back from making this game into just about anything I wanted. Well, that, the limits of the engine, and my non-existent ability to sprite, but there was still a lot of excitement surrounding what was possible.

I remember having a minor meltdown of nervousness when I decided to finally release the Garden Box, and having the support and encouragement of so many wonderful community members behind me to keep my head up-- thanks again to malkin, Jessica, Ghosthande, Moe, Liam, ArchDragon, Geek2Nurse, and RProgrammer-- the latter of which I have to give an extra thank you for taking the time to modify Jagent to be more Garden Box friendly.

And an extra thanks to all of you who still stick around and leave comments occasionally as I fall in and out of the loop with this community, jumping from project to project and never really being all that reliable. You are who drive this community forward. Thank you.

I'm not the only one celebrating today! Here are some other neat things going on:

• Jessica of Discover Albia got in touch with Steve Grand, the mastermind behind our beloved Creatures, and he was generous enough to write a little piece for our celebration and tell us a little bit about his past, present, and future workings in the fields of Artificial Life. It's really exciting to hear from the one who started it all on this important day. If you have the time, leave a comment to show your appreciation!
• The Centre for Computing History has put up a page with new, detailed photos of the original Creatures 1 background model! This one is particularly fascinating to me as a fan of the intersection between traditional and digital media. 
• GOG is celebrating with a sale on the Creatures games, knocking them down to only $1.99 each! Most of us probably already own these updated versions of the games by now, but this is a great opportunity to introduce a friend to the series and bring more life into the community!

I hope you are all celebrating Creatures in your own way today! As for myself, I'm going to try to queue a few more posts for my C2 world for the next few days. I've been falling behind, but I'm making an effort not to drop off completely!

Nothing Exciting, Part 10

The faintings get more and more frequent, and they do more organ damage every time, resulting in more faintings. I've noticed now that some of the faintings are not just hunger related, but I haven't had time to check out what is actually causing them because I have to rush to save another fainted norn. This is getting to be a lost cause, but I have to admit I'm just really attached to some of these norns, especially the moms for some reason.

I noticed mama goldie making this pose a lot, but not actually laying an egg. She must be having some trouble.

..but when I checked the kit I noticed I actually have three norns with stuck pregnancies, and I'm not sure how long they've been that way. I'm not sure if that was what caused the uptick in faintings, or if all the fainting and resulting organ damage had just rendered them all incapable of laying eggs on their own.

I rummaged through my injector kit and found this. It worked a charm. I'm not sure if it was included with the install or if I downloaded it at some point; I can't seem to find the source, but I'm glad I have it. 

I guess I've got quite a few eggs lying around now. I don't really feel like hatching them just yet when I'm trying to keep everyone else alive, but I guess we'll see how the next few days go. I get the feeling it won't be long before liquid food and defibrilliant aren't enough to keep these fragile things going anymore. 

Nothing Exciting, Part 9

Okay, but seriously, why do norns do this?

Are they maybe trying to slap the unconscious awake? Is that a scripted thing? Does it ever actually work? Where did that egg come from?

At least he finally got to pass peacefully behind the tunnel wall, where no one bothered him.

RIP first gen goldie, aka (if I'm recalling correctly), "eat."

Look at this conspiring trio. You'd think they planned this.

Nothing Exciting, Part 8

guys

can you just

....yes, stop. Stop passing out and just learn to eat, please.

Why? Because this world is miserable enough and I'm not sure why I'm still watching/playing. Except maybe so I can more deeply appreciate the newer genomes when I try them out.

No, you stop.

At least when this generation finally on to silicon heaven, I'll have plenty of eggs. Not sure where this one is from.

Augh, not again.