| Creatures | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Creature Labs |
| Publisher(s) | Mindscape |
| Designer(s) | Toby Simpson |
| Series |
|
| Platform(s) | Windows, Macintosh, PlayStation, Game Boy Advance |
| Release | November 1996 |
| Genre(s) | Artificial life |
While Creatures 3 may appeal to many science fiction buffs, it is not without its problems. I found myself frustrated trying to play the game on my own prior to reading the manual, so, even if you are familiar with Creatures and Creatures 2 don't expect to jump right in. Gameplay can even be difficult to understand if you try to read the manual as you go along. Creatures: The Albian Years is a compilation of Creatures 1 with both Life Kits, Creatures 2 with its Life Kit and 6 Official Object Packs. Unique gameplay centered around breeding and raising autonomous, computer-controlled Norns. A complex AI system that mimics real behaviors.
Creatures is an artificial life simulation packaged as a video game developed by British studio Creature Labs and published by Mindscape for Windows, and was ported to Macintosh, PlayStation, and Game Boy Advance. It is the first game in the Creatures series.
Gameplay[edit]
Cached
Creatures is a game which allows the player to hatch and then raise anthropomorphic beings known as Norns.[1]
Notably, the environment was actually a physically constructed model, carefully photographed. This was to keep graphics costs low.[2]
Creatures is an artificial life simulation where the user hatches small furry animals and teaches them how to behave, or leaves them to learn on their own. These 'Norns' can talk, feed themselves, and protect themselves against vicious creatures called Grendels. It was the first popular application of machine learning in an interactive simulation. Neural networks are used by the creatures to learn what to do. The game is regarded as a breakthrough in artificial life research, which aims to model the behavior of creatures interacting with their environment.[3]
According to Millennium, every copy of Creatures contains a unique starting set of eggs, whose genomes are not replicated on any other copy of the game.[4] An expansion pack, called 'Life Kit #1' was released for purchase later.[5]
Reception[edit]
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| Next Generation | (Windows)[1] |
| Game.EXE | 99% (Windows)[6] |
| Computer Gaming World | (Windows)[7] |
| PC Player | (Windows)[8] |
| Jeuxvideo.com | 14/20 (GBA)[9] |
Next Generation reviewed the PC version of the game, rating it five stars out of five, and stated that 'Some will doubtless find the appeal elusive, but Creatures still offers one of the most obsessive and entertaining experiences anyone can have in front of the computer.'[1]
Creatures sold 100,000 copies by November 1997. At the time, John Moore of Mindscape explained that the company 'expect[s] to sell more than 200,000 Creatures by the end of the year.'[10] Global sales of the game neared 400,000 units by February 1998.[11]
Legacy[edit]
The actual model built during development & photographed as the game's backdrop, is held at The Centre for Computing History, where it is on permanent display.[2]
References[edit]
- ^ abc'Finals - The power of life: Creatures'. Next Generation. No. 35. Imagine Media. November 1997. p. 206. ISSN1078-9693.
- ^ ab'Creatures Model'. computinghistory.org.uk. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
- ^Alex J. Champandard. 'Top 10 Most Influential AI Games'. AIGameDev. Archived from the original on July 6, 2009.
- ^'Artificial Life - Evolving - Millenium Interactive'. Next Generation. No. 23. Imagine Media. November 1996. pp. 56–58. ISSN1078-9693.
- ^Smith, Peter (1998-01-31). 'Creatures Life Kit #1 Review'. Computer Games Strategy Plus. Archived from the original on 2003-07-05. Retrieved 2012-12-08.
- ^Давыдов, Петр (March 1997). 'Пособие по Разведению Норнов' [Norn Breeding Guide]. Game.EXE (in Russian). No. 3. Компьютерра. pp. 30–33. ISSN1819-2734.
- ^Jepsen, Dawn (November 1997). 'It's Alive'. Computer Gaming World. No. 160. Ziff Davis. pp. 314–315. ISSN0744-6667.
- ^Folkers, Alex (February 1997). 'Test: Creatures - Virtuelle Viechereien' [Test: Creatures - Virtual Little Creatures]. PC Player (in German). DMV-Verlag. p. 136.
- ^Romendil (January 10, 2002). 'Test: Creatures'. Jeuxvideo.com (in French). Gameloft.
- ^Anderson, Jill (November 3, 1997). 'Mindscape Sells 100,000 Creatures'. GameSpot. ZDNet. Archived from the original on May 20, 2000. Retrieved August 3, 2018.
- ^Jebens, Harley (February 11, 1998). 'Creatures Multiply'. GameSpot. ZDNet. Archived from the original on April 18, 2000.