Creatures Community Chat

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Creatures 1: Telinome's Creatures Log

As I said in my last post I've stared up Creatures 1 again and have been having a good 'ol time. I promise to introduce you to some of the little fluffballs in the near future, but before I do so I need to do some pimping.

To help out with some of my documentation I've enlisted the talents of Telinome who has created a record keeping database using OpenOffice's 'Base' program.

I guess I should also take a moment to pimp OpenOffice. OpenOffice is an office suite and is essentially a free version of Microsoft Office. It is also open source. Included in the suite is, as mentioned a database program (base), a spreadsheet program (calc), text documents (writer), a slides presentation program (impress) and then also Math and Draw, which I have no idea what they do :P

OpenOffice can be downloaded here for those interested:

http://download.openoffice.org/


Now, onto the more interested stuff :D

I've been using Telinome's database to keep tabs on all my Norns. It's really easy to use, allows you to keep a record of all the Creatures in your world and can even be exported as PDFs for later use.

On top of that, Telinome has graciously allowed me to give away the database to anyone who wants to use it. It's still in the development stages (it's bug free though) and will hopefully have some additional features added in the future. You can download it here:

CreaturesLog.odb

I have already started filling this one out, so there are roughly 12 Norns already accounted for, but there's no reason you can't simply delete all of them and start your own database. And in the mean time you can get a sneak peak at the Norns I'll be introducing in the future.

As well as the Creatures Log I've downloaded the D-DNA Analyzer which allows you to compare genomes of different Norns and itentify where mutations have occured.
I'm also playing with the Genetics Kit* which also gives you a closer look at genomes and the ability to take any genome and create new eggs with them.

I'm not sure yet what I want to achieve while playing with C1, but I definitely want it to involve genetics and mutaitons. I'd also like to play a closer role in the Norn's development at a species than I did while playing C3. Essentially that mean selective breeding. Hopefully I can find some interesting mutations to share.

*At time of posting the Genetics Kit link doesn't appear to be working. If it still isn't working you can try to find more information at the Creatures Wiki.

Monday, March 28, 2011

It's alive!

Well guys, again my apologies for leaving you in the dark for such a long period. Work has been extremely busy and looks to be for at least the next month. Fortunately I've found a little time in between meetings to make those coding adjustments and finally have something worthwhile to show. So, without further ado, here is the first video of a Norn walking about 'The Island'.

Youtube: The Island: Norns in 3D

So as you can see, although buggy, we are now at a point where we have a cute little Norn wandering about the world.

Now unfortunately, that's where I'm going to leave the project for some time. I understand this will disappoint a few people, but I believe I have an extremely good reason for it.

Grandroids!

If you haven't already heard (shame on you) Steve Grand is back to his old tricks creating artificial life with his new project 'Grandroids'. Simply put, as interesting and fun as my work on this subject has been, I can't compete with the master.

I've added both the Grandroids kickstarter page, and Steve's personal blog to my 'check every day' list as I, like all the creatures community, am absolutely exstatic that this game is going to be made. I know I am vastly more interested to hear what Steve is up to rather than working on 'The Island' and I assume other's will feel the same way.

I now intend to wait patiently for Steve to make progress on Grandroids and plan on getting involved in the new Grandroids community and the creation of new assets when Steve releases the Beta and API.

That said, don't fear. I am not going anywhere just yet. I've started playing Creatures 1 again and have a whole group of Norns I'll be introducing to you in my next post. I'm not sure yet what kind of adventures or evil scientific experiments I'll get up to with them, but hopefully it will be interesting enough to keep people reading.

So until then...

Go make a pledge to Steve Grand's kickstarter project. There's some nice rewards to be earned and you'll be helping make history by funding one of the most important developments in AI/A-life...ever!

Grandroids Kickstarter project

Steve's Blog