Creatures Online

I don't know if there's any of you who don't know this already, but I thought I should share the link to a statement Fishing Cactus made a few days ago about the development status of Creatures Online:

http://blog.fishingcactus.com/index.php/2016/01/21/creatures-status-fishing-cactus-official-statement/

I think it's really sad to see this happen, especially as, from the sounds of it, they were really close to having something they could release. What's more, I don't feel that Bigben Interactive has been fair to Fishing Cactus in the way they have handled the game, and nor do I feel that Bigben has been fair to the Creatures community—their communication with us has been exceptionally poor.

But still, what's done is done, and even with the Fishing Cactus's statement there's a lot we don't know about why the decision to halt development on Creatures Online was made.

It would be a right old shame for three years of hard work from Fishing Cactus to end up totally wasted, though.

Fight!

Today I sat down to creatures and the tedious but necessary task of getting the Norns to eat. Even so, as much as the task is tedious and sometimes frustrating, it is always kind of relaxing too. 'It would be good to play a nice, relaxing game of Creatures,' I said to myself as I booted up the game. 'Jolly good.'

Naturally I wasn't too ready when this happened almost as soon as I started:

He wasn't even really old. It always hits me right in the heart when this happens, especially when you're not expecting it. I'm gonna miss this kid.

Glitch Norns

I figure it's probably about time to introduce you to another one of my experiments gone haywire: the Glitch Norns. The idea I had in mind when I made these was to create Norns with funny poses that would move strangely but could still do stuff fairly normally. I gave them the name 'Glitch Norns' because the end goal was essentially to make them look like they were all weird and glitchy. I made two versions of the Glitch Norns, the second one 'improved' from the first (it wasn't really: predictably I screwed it up). There are only two Glitch Norns: Pythagoras, the first one, and Tessa, the second.

Essentially, the method I used to make these Norns was quite simple: enter the genetics kit, change up pose strings and hey presto, you're done. Very scientific.

CCSF 2015

OK, I'm late to the party. Even so, I'm actually really excited by this year's CCSF, and I have been following along this whole time; I was just too lazy to post anything until now. There's been a lot of really good stuff so far and I can't wait to see what comes over the next couple of days.

The link to the CCSF is here, in case you missed it.

I think the thing which really makes the CCSF (you probably know already, but just in case you don't, CCSF stands for Creatures Community Spirit Festival) special is that it shows that, even though the series is like a decade old, we're still here, and we have it in us to pull off something like the CCSF every year. And more than that, I think it shows just how much we all love the series.

I could say something eloquent about community spirit and endurance and what have you, but, essentially, that's what it boils down to: we all love the series.

'Nuff said.

Operation Save Unova

It's been awhile since I visited my Norns that aren't genetically modified, so when I sat down to play creatures today I thought I might boot up their world. Honestly though, I think I forgot how hard it is to look after ancient (and I'm talking 30+ hours old) Norns. They just don't eat like they used to!

...especially when they're hanging out and refuse to be separated from each other. As you can see from this picture, Coco, Finch and Dubby have decided to party on the raft, which doesn't make it easy to feed them.

As it turned out, though, these three Norns weren't really going to cause me too much trouble in the end—they all had an OK life force, so it wasn't like they were going to drop dead if they didn't eat within the next ten minutes.

But Unova—oh, Unova. She was the one I needed to be concerned about. She simply didn't eat. Her life force had dropped to around 35% and she still wouldn't eat. And of course, she was only going to find a way to make matters even worse. While I took a short break to admire Aladdin as he played some music for me on the drums and harp, Cosmos found Unova and made her bloody pregnant.

I didn't fancy her chances at this point. Especially seeing as I would have to find a way to get Cosmos away from her for there even to be chance that she might eat something.

Carrot Love

At first, this might seem like Monty is just feeling a tad peckish. Don't be fooled. I'll admit that he was hungry at the time, but he wasn't actually eating this parsnip. Just staring at it lovingly...

Alas, it was not to be. He gave into the hunger pangs. Well, it was fun while it lasted, I guess, and it seems to have sparked a craze with all things carrot-like in Albia. Not only did Monty find a cave carrot to obsess over afterwards, he even went so far as to share his newfound love of carrots with Quella, who was happy to join in with him.

And Monty and Quella weren't the only ones to get caught up in this new trend. Over at the island, Erin couldn't keep her eyes off a parsnip. And the lift. And the parsnip. And the lift. She couldn't decide which was worth focusing on so she spent a good minute or two just swapping between them. I suppose it simply fascinated her.