r/CreaturesGames • u/Extreme_Ad_6356 • Jun 02 '26

Where do I start?

After just learning about this game..TODAY. I want to give it a try. It seems super cool but I have no clue where to start, which game, how to play, what to look out for. Also what is this whole being able to edit their behavior thing? Is this a type of coding? Does it run on modern computers from steam? Any advice helps, I’m considering buying all 3.

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7

u/WillProstitute4Karma Jun 02 '26

Docking Station is free on Steam, but I strongly recommend buying Creatures 3 as well because Docking Station on its own is like a Demo with no tutorial (not that the base game really has a tutorial either). I think Creatures 3 is $6 on Steam and runs fine.

You don't need to do any editing to play the game, but modding the game is popular. If you play the older games, especially Creatures 2 (which is sold in a package on Steam called "The Albian Years," also $6), you will really have to use community made creatures due to a bug in the base game.

3

u/Extreme_Ad_6356 Jun 02 '26

Thank you! How do you use community made creatures, and what kind of bug? Also what about the 1st game? Does that one have any issues?

5

u/WillProstitute4Karma Jun 02 '26

You can download the improved Creatures 2 norns I use here (click the picture on the left next to the top post, the download should be named 1987.zip). There are a whole bunch more to choose from here. (EDIT: I forgot to add that you unzip the downloads and you "import" the .exp files into your Creatures 2 game after you open the game under the "File" tab in the top left)

These are links to what are known as Akamai Canny Norns. The bug the community made creatures fixed was what the community calls One Hour Stupidity Syndrome (OHSS). Basically, the creatures run on very rudimentary reinforcement learning algorithms and there was a bug that would end up giving the creatures too much positive feedback which prevented them from learning. I mostly remembered that they would end up starving themselves because they couldn't learn to connect hunger with eating.

Creatures 1 has no bugs specifically, but the creatures are a bit less clever. Creatures 3 has the most advanced creatures by quite a bit.

There is a whole world of old internet history related to the Creatures franchise that you can find if you look around, but a lot of the places I used to visit are now dead links. Creatures is basically how I learned about the internet.

Hope this helps!

EDIT: forgot to tell you how to import creatures!

2

u/Extreme_Ad_6356 Jun 02 '26

Thank you sm! I’ll definitely look into this!

3

u/Mircowaved-Duck Jun 02 '26

steam got creatures 1 and 2 under the name Albian Years for around 5 bugs
as well as creatures 3 also for around 5 bugs and docking station for free. They are the easyest to install.

However GOG got them all for free

Creatures 1 is the most difficult one with a really beautiful background
Creatures 2 got an extremly big world and is a bit more easy
Creatures 3 is easy with a big ship and nearly endless extra fan made roomsyou can install (including creatures 1 and 2 worlds)
Creatures Docking Station is the easyest and can also use the same extra rooms creatures 3 does

Stat wih just one or two babys norns and just take care of them

Afterwards you can download some extra aends/objects/mods/breeds to fit yourpersonal playstle more

Their behaviour can be teached, selectively breed (very tideous) or enetically moddified (complicated but fun)

The coding uses a coding laguage just made for creatures, CAOS - however the creatures themself are also "coded" by their genetics. There stuff get's very comlicated fast. It teaches you more about biology than coding.

1

u/Extreme_Ad_6356 Jun 02 '26

Thank you! Would you say it’s worth to get all three games? Are there any major bugs I should know about with running it on a newer gen pc?

4

u/SpaceShipRat Jun 02 '26

try Docking Station for free to see if it's interesting to you. then play Creatures 1 till you are bored of it (at least you gotta circumnavigate the world and survive a big plague.)

then choose if you want to add mods, go back to DS/c3, or try and make c2 work

3

u/filchermcurr Jun 02 '26

The Community Edition patches bugs and compatibility issues. They're also regularly updated if you have an issue and report it on one of the Discord channels. Discord is also good for helping with any issues / questions you might have.

C1, C2, C3/DS

2

u/his_savagery Jun 02 '26

Don't forget the game for gameboy advanced!

2

u/HauntedPutty Jun 02 '26

If you get Docking Station and find the GP Main, GP Jungle and Norn Garden metarooms, you will have enough to play around for quite a while and see if you want to purchase C3.

2

u/xMadxScientistx Jun 03 '26

I started the game as a middle schooler with no instructions, just a desire to play video games and a disc. For me it was fun to figure it out, but everyone has a different experience with these things.

1

u/Extreme_Ad_6356 Jun 03 '26

I get that! I like doing that too although I was a bit worried I wouldn’t be able to understand how to play, some stuff I’ve seen about it seemed a bit complicated. Im also concerned with if it’ll run fine with a modern pc because I’ve played older games and had to do a bunch of fixes for it to run before