The Island: Tiggy

We all remember our first Norn. There's something incredibly special about them. And when they pass from this world it can be quite heartbreaking. Many of us have even cried at the loss of our dear friends.

My first Norn's name was Tiggy. He was a creatures 1 Norn, with a horse Norn head and one of those adorable fluffy tails that looks like flames.

Tiggy met with an unfortunate, but interesting end. He never actually died. He was the victim of an export crash, and his file disappeared forever. My father, who is a computer techie tried for hours to get him back, digging into DOS to recover the files. We managed to get only fragmented files back that wouldn't work.

Since he never actually died, I like to think that Tiggy was scattered into cyberspace, lost in the sea of images, documents and worlds of the internet.

Little did I know...

Yesterday I was doing some work on 'The Island'. I've just about managed to get the new camera system implemented, so very soon you'll be able to navigate around the world using the mouse buttons.

Anyway, there I was when out of the corner of my eye I see this movement from behind the incubator. I thought that was rather odd since I hadn't programmed anything in to the incubator area. So I floated over there to see what was going on and low and behold there was this little Norn peering at me.

Yes, it was Tiggy.

After we both got over the emotional reunion he told me he'd been traversing the internet for years looking for me. He'd spent of lot of time on Creatures related web sites searching for clues. Occasionally he'd sneak his way into a download and end up in some strangers computer. Boy did some people get a surprise when they received a Norn with their cobs.

He really thought he'd found the answer when Docking Station was released. The warp system allowed him to travel between worlds at the blink of an eye. Sadly though at that stage the community was too big and he never found one of my worlds.

Over time the Creatures community began to die down. People no longer wanted to play with their Norns and instead went on to fight aliens in 3D environments. Boy was that a shock to the system, the first time Tiggy wandered into a game of Myst and discovered there were additional dimensions.

Poor Tiggy began to despair he would never find his way home. But the dying down of the Creatures community turned out to be a blessing in disguise. With less people playing the game there were less active websites to visit. Eventually Tiggy took up permanent residence at Creaturetopia. There he was able to keep up with the latest happenings in the community, as well as meeting some of the Norns, Ettins and Grendels that were passed through the site. Eventually he gave up hope of ever returning home, and instead made a life for himself amongst his new friends.

Then a couple of weeks ago he heard tale of a new development that was under way in the community. 'The Island' had received it's first release. Maybe at long last there would be a new Creatures game that would bring people back and give the creatures a new world to explore!

He dashed over to my website and waited patiently for me to do some more file management stuff and hitched a ride on one of the downloads.

And that's how, after 11 years we've finally been reunited. His long journeys through cyberspace have changed him a lot from his original C1 incarnation, but he's still the most dear Norn to me.

The Island: Coconut coding

Oh boy, when I screw up code, I do a good job.

Been doing quite a bit of work on the Creatures 4 (AKA The Island) project and thought I'd share some of my...uh...more enjoyable moments.

I've been spending some time today trying to allow the player to pick up objects with the right mouse button, rather than the left (which is terribly difficult believe me. Really shouldn't be, but it is) and somehow managed to write code that not only allowed me to pick up said object but...well, see for yourself:



Bit of a coconutty squiggly mess. But don't worry, you can drop them:



Yes, you now have psychic powers enabling you to pick up ALL moveable objects at once. Should totally make that a cheat...

The Island: I've got a lovely bunch of...

Coconuts! There they are all standing in a...

Yeah anyway.

So I wanted to do a couple of write ups describing the life on The Island, how it works in this release and how I'd anticipate it working in a final product.

Just to give the heads up, if you're interesting in completing these small puzzles yourself you may want to avoid these entries. Spoilers ahead.

So, coconuts:



<<<<< These things


In the initial release of The Island they work like a dispenser. The Hand can click on them and out pops a coconut.

For players undertaking the game the first time I wanted to make sure the goal of collecting food could be fairly easily accomplished and that objects didn't accidentally get lost. So right now food appears and stays and there is no limit to it.

For a final game coconuts dropped on the ground would break down over time, probably turning into detritus before disappearing completely.

Considering their size, the trees would be a permanent part of the world and wouldn't be moveable. Given time they would drop coconuts by themselves, allowing Norns access to the fruit. The Hand could also force coconuts to drop by clicking on the tree. Unlike now though, there would be a limit to the number that could drop before the tree would need to grow more. I'd say 3 or 4 coconuts per tree would be the limit.


Big ones, small ones, some as big as your...

Creatures Project: Creatures 4 Prototype released

The first release of the project I've been working on is now available! Woop!

http://www.arch-dragon.com/creatures4.html

A while ago I read through the "What would you like to see in Creatures 4" thread over at Creaturetopia and got rather inspired. So I thought, why bother waiting around for Gameware to make us another Creatures product. This community, despite it's size is very passionate and skilled. Why don't we do something?

Now obviously there are copyright issues and blah blah blah...This project could never be marketed. But maybe we can put something together and generate enough interest to get Gameware to take another look at the series.

So here is the first prototype for a potential Creatures 4 game. Now before anyone goes getting their hopes up, this release doesn't have any creatures. That's some serious programming, not to mention scientific knowledge that currently I just don't have.

This release is just a collection game, where you collect food in preparation for the hatching of your Norns. It tries to deal with some of the issues raised in the Creaturetopia thread about a 3D creatures game.

That said, my next project is going to be an attempt to make a Norn. It won't be anywhere in the league of the creatures from the original games, but I figure a tamagotchi style game would be enough to wet appetites.

Feel free to post any comments you might have here, but for lengthy discussions I'd ask that you leave posts on the new Creaturetopia thread I've created specifically for this. Just keeps things tidy and makes sure everyone gets to be part of the conversation.

Update: Creatures Project

Very very close to finished now. Couple of graphical things to tidy up and some story to write. Only a few more days people. Only a few more days...

Welcome to the island...



Wait. Is that a...cheese machine? :O

Update: Creatures Project

Still working hard on that creatures related project I advertised earlier. It would be the reason I haven't made any updates on SAM6. Here's a little more...



It would appear the Capillata pod has crashed. But where? And why? Not much longer now.


...Oh I'm getting so excited :D

Observation: Teamwork?

Good grief, I think my Norns have developed a sense of teamwork.



It may be a little hard to tell what's going on in this picture, what with the endless expressions of love. The elder Toxic Norn there is continually pushing the dispenser. The massive gathering of Norns are all hanging around for the free food coming their way.

Could this be an example of Norns finally learning to work together!? Or could it just be a sign my world is about to crash from excess puddings?

Observation: Dispensers

You gotta love it when you have that one Norn who decides pushing a dispenser is a good idea. Why can't they learn to do it with the dispensers that produce food! Gah, too many crobsters!

Creatures related project

As I said a couple of posts ago I've been working on another creatures related project. Still a long way off completion but I thought I'd release an image to get those taste buds tingling. Enjoy! :D

Oh, and if it doesn't mean anything to you...first of all shame on you! You call yourself a creatures fan. Secondly, check out the wallpapers in the creatures gallery.

http://www.gamewaredevelopment.co.uk/gallery/Wallpaper/capillata_front_1280x960

Observation: Migration and Population

Just another brief update.

The Norns have finally spread through most of the world, with little tribes forming in the Jungle, Norn Terrarium and Norn Garden. The Meso is still mostly unsettled.

The migration is great, but the down side is the population took a bit of a hit in the process. I'm down from 36 to 24 Norns again. I think the moving about has allowed some diseases to spread as a lot of my Norns have been coughing. A natural occurrence when travelling to a new land I guess.

The Norns seem to be settling down a little and starting to breed again, so hopefully the pitty patter of tiny paws will soon fill the Ark again.

I've also thrown in a new Hardman, Treehugger, Apple and Bondi to try and strengthen the lines again. The genetics seem to have been diluted quite a bit by the Chichi tribe and they've lost a lot of what makes them unique.

Observation: Migration and Population

Just a very brief update here as I want to start doing some writing on my ideas for Norn improvement.

My population has increased to 36 Norns. As I predicted I've missed quite a few births and all but given up recording deaths. But I've gone through and done a major update to the family tree, which I'll post later, and caught a whole heap of new names.

Although the population has increased migration isn't happening all that fast. At least 90% of my Norns are still hanging out either in the Norn Garden or the Meso. But there's a lot more in the Meso as opposed to the Garden, so hopefully that's a good sign.

The problem at the moment is that although I've got a handful of Norns in the Norn Terrarium and Desert now, they're all the same sex and obviously can't breed. I guess that's a bit of mother nature luck playing her hand.

I also managed to fix that small lift problem I had simply by using the 'ject "lifts.cos" 7' command. I had a hunch that would fix things, but I wanted to test it in another world first. I'd also noticed the lift next to the Capillata teleporter didn't seem to respond when pushed by Norns. Heaps of them kept gathering at the base of the lift and dying there. This now seems to be fixed so hopefully migration will pick up again.

I've also fixed the nut pods in the Norn Terrarium (had stopped growing again) the same way.

I'm contemplating leaving my computer running tonight to get in a few good hours of wolfing run. At the very least I'll be leaving it running while I watch an episode of 'Torchwood'. Ooooh yeah!

SAM6: Future Plans

I feel as though I've just about hit on a reasonable formula for keeping a stable population, as well as encouraging the Norns to move about the world. There is probably still some juggling around to find a good number of children each Norn is able to have and I still intend to make the Grendels a more prominent feature in the world, but I'm starting to feel as though I'm close.

I intend now to put the population to the ultimate test and see how well they can survive without me. My hope is that the population will remain relatively stable; somewhere around 40 Norns.

At present the population is recovering nicely, however the down side is that most of my Norns are mingling in the Norn Garden. I'm going to wait until they get overcrowded in there and start moving around the world again before introducing the Grendels to the main ship, effectively cutting off the C1 area.

I'm perfectly happy to have the Grendels go through and wipe out a room full of Norns as long as the overall population survives. The only way to guarantee this is to have tribes set up in each room. I find it pretty unlikely a group of Grendels will be able to wipe out all the Norns if they're separated by such a large space.

So what does this mean?

I think most importantly I'm not going to be able to keep up with the family tree idea. I already have trouble keeping up with all the new births and doubling the speed of the game will pretty much make it impossible. Instead what I'll try and do is keep a rough tab on each generation. I will use the colour coding system to distinguish between generations, which will still provide a visual aid for people wanting to keep up to date on that aspect of things. It will lack the ability to tell which children belong to which parents, but with lines going all over the tree it was nearly impossible to keep track of anyway. And now that the tribes have mixed to such a large degree it becomes less interesting.

It is also probable that I will occasionally miss a newborn here and there. I will do my best to list them all, but some are bound to slip by, especially if they die young.

Once I am satisfied with the distribution of the population I will put the Grendels in the jungle and let them disperse from there. Hopefully by then the Norn population will be large enough to survive Grendel attacks and a natural balance can be reached.

If I can reach that natural balance I will likely open the DS warp portals and see what random dangers the wider community can inject into my world.

Finally, I intend to do a write up some time in the near future of my findings in the world and about the Norns. Hopefully this summery will prompt others in the community to fix some of the bugs/disadvantages of breeds and the world and promote some future development for C3/DS. With some luck it may give people some things to think about should there ever be a Creatures 4.

Random Observation: Even while I've been writing up this post I've noticed my Norns have started spreading around the ship through the use of the portal system I set up. At present they're mostly taking up residence in the desert, but a couple have spread to the jungle. Funny enough only one has made the jump to the Norn Terrarium.

I think if I leave them for a short while they will migrate to the rest of the world, filling each room and effectively thinning out their numbers. Once that happens I will introduce the Grendels again as another population controlling agent.

Here is one last look at the family tree in it's current format: