"Creatures" Creator is Making a New Game
And he needs our help!
(in the form of money)
If you don't remember, "Creatures" was a series of artificial life programs(sold as games) made in the mid-90s. It was populated by the "Norns"(good guys you were supposed to raise), "Grendels"(nasty fellas you were supposed to dislike for some reason), and(later) Ettins(....they did stuff, probably).
The game was frustrating. The creatures were stupid. They killed themselves constantly. If you tried to spread them to areas outside the healthy starting one.....good luck. They beat each other. They treated each other badly. They found the distillery in the basement and that caused a whole slew of new problems. Things happened that made little sense. The interface was complicated and unintuitive. The end result was just a bunch of inbreeding, infighting, culture-free stupidity with absolutely no end goal, narrative, challenging gameplay, or any of the things that are used to judge a game as "good" whatsoever.
And it was amazing.
The game was designed entirely without mass-market appeal at the forefront of the mind. Its broken, uneven design was the result of a raw idea, exposed and thrust onto the world. If you could mess with it, make it work, play with the things that did work, you had something special on your hands. Something obnoxious, annoying, and wholly pointless....but special. It wasn't designed as a "game", but it also wasn't designed as something else that could be made without computer technology(like, say, a movie). The whole idea was to have a fully realized life form, with a real biology, living in your computer. A realistic, interactive simulation of an evolutionary line with genetic randomness, inherited traits, learned behavior, and real disease that has to be dealt with in a realistic way. It was unique.
Raw ideas don't always have the best polish. They also don't always qualify as "good". But they can make something really amazing. With today's technology, I'd like to see what this man can accomplish, especially now that he's already done this a few times already. I'd love to see a biologist's take on a video game. Basically, I really want to see this project get off the ground.
Are you looking forward to this? Do you remember the Creatures games? Would you give a new one a try? Would you even invest in one up-front?
(in the form of money)
If you don't remember, "Creatures" was a series of artificial life programs(sold as games) made in the mid-90s. It was populated by the "Norns"(good guys you were supposed to raise), "Grendels"(nasty fellas you were supposed to dislike for some reason), and(later) Ettins(....they did stuff, probably).
The game was frustrating. The creatures were stupid. They killed themselves constantly. If you tried to spread them to areas outside the healthy starting one.....good luck. They beat each other. They treated each other badly. They found the distillery in the basement and that caused a whole slew of new problems. Things happened that made little sense. The interface was complicated and unintuitive. The end result was just a bunch of inbreeding, infighting, culture-free stupidity with absolutely no end goal, narrative, challenging gameplay, or any of the things that are used to judge a game as "good" whatsoever.
And it was amazing.
The game was designed entirely without mass-market appeal at the forefront of the mind. Its broken, uneven design was the result of a raw idea, exposed and thrust onto the world. If you could mess with it, make it work, play with the things that did work, you had something special on your hands. Something obnoxious, annoying, and wholly pointless....but special. It wasn't designed as a "game", but it also wasn't designed as something else that could be made without computer technology(like, say, a movie). The whole idea was to have a fully realized life form, with a real biology, living in your computer. A realistic, interactive simulation of an evolutionary line with genetic randomness, inherited traits, learned behavior, and real disease that has to be dealt with in a realistic way. It was unique.
Raw ideas don't always have the best polish. They also don't always qualify as "good". But they can make something really amazing. With today's technology, I'd like to see what this man can accomplish, especially now that he's already done this a few times already. I'd love to see a biologist's take on a video game. Basically, I really want to see this project get off the ground.
Are you looking forward to this? Do you remember the Creatures games? Would you give a new one a try? Would you even invest in one up-front?
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Comments
I love my amphibious two tailed mutants. They're adorable. Ahem.
I just couldn't get into it!
I still would like this game to happen though, it would be good to see if the developer can improve on the design.
Hopefully the game could also incorporate a real dynamic ecosystem. Combine that with creatures with different levels of sentience, and physical features, and you could have a real industry changing game.
Much like in real life, it would be awesome to see some awesome interactions between creatures.
I'd love to see examples of symbiotic and parasitic relationships, as well as see some sort of social and emotional interactions.
Could you imagine a creature deciding it wants to use tools, or keep pets.
(Maybe some gel like creature that could absorb the abilities of others would be so awesome to see!
Sean Howard, is that you?
One can only imagine what a new AI sim like Creatures could accomplish, as long as it is as raw and unpolished yet user friendly as the originals. It really is a wonder how Creatures nailed that impossible balance, isn't it? I don't think anything before or since has been quite like it.
Will Wright could take a page or two from Steve Grand.
I doubt this will turn into a good game and i hope he's familiar with 3d, physics and the platforms already as dealing with those alone can drive you crazy already. 12 months aren't a lot. I like his support categories. I'm curious to see what will come out.
It's interesting thinking of AI driven adventure games where designers/psychologists cultivate characters, making them familiar with the game scenario, goals&mechanics, the other characters and the player. This could be anything between AI burn out syndroms, one AI trying to kill another character, unexpected cool moments, ... up to a wild ride.
Thanks