The End of an Era

I've got good news and I've got bad news.

Let's get the good news out of the way first: with help from Crabcat at Creatures Caves, I've managed to remember and recover all of my downloads from Creatures @ CU7. Not only that, but I've also backed up all my Norn Adoption Center breeds as well; while that website is currently still up, I felt it was better to be safe than sorry. Now you should be able to find everything I ever made right here at the Realm, in the appropriate Downloads section.

Well, except my Norn Adoption Center adoptions. I suppose I could put those here too if enough people want them, but for now I don't think they're high priority for me.

And now, onto the bad news: I've decided to officially retire from Creatures development.

The thing is that my interest in actually playing the games has been completely abysmal for a while. My tastes in video games have changed a lot since I've started this blog; these days, I'd much rather be playing something with a good story and characters, or failing that at least fun combat and bosses. Creatures just doesn't cut it anymore.

Furthermore...I've said it a million times before, but I'm going to say it again. The community just isn't what it used to be. A lot of the old timers, including a lot of the community's best developers, haven't been around in ages and may never return. What's left just doesn't seem to display the same kind of spirit. It's not overly motivating, to say the least.

This isn't to say I'm abandoning the Creatures Community. Even if I don't intend on developing any more, I still like being a part of the Community and will do my part to support it. Heck, for all I know someday I'll find a way to reinvigorate my passion for this game and start churning out stuff once more. It's just looking really unlikely I'll ever make another addon for this game, or even update this blog much after the fact.

...Well, I do have one last surprise in the works. I don't know when I'll finish it, but hopefully it'll be up soon. Keep an eye out for it!

The Featured Freak is in Action

It happened much later than I would've liked, but I've finally gotten around to reviving the Freak of the Week in the form of the Featured Freak.

What is the Featured Freak? Once or twice a month, I'll post a new genetically edited creature for you to download. These creatures aren't quite as in-depth as my genetic breeds, but nevertheless are built around concepts that may or may not become full breeds in the future.

It's pretty much the same thing as my previous Freak of the Week (which was inspired by Alien's Weekly Freak), just updated considerably less frequently so it's not as taxing. As with Freak of the Week, I accept submissions of your own genetically interesting creatures.

The first Featured Freak is Enya, a grendel who uses the ChiChi Norn genome and has a pretty purple color.

Here's hoping the Featured Freak lasts longer than Freak of the Week did.

In other news, I've extended the deadline for the contest in my last post - the last day for submissions is now the end of CCSF 2014, whenever that winds up being. The reason for this is because I only got one submission before the original deadline, and while there's interest it seems the current time is a bit too busy. So hopefully this will give you some leeway if you want to submit something.

Introducing the Freak of the Week

For the new year, I decided to take a page from Alien and her Weekly Freaks and introduce a new feature to this blog: the Freak of the Week!

At the start of each week, I'll post a new genetically edited creature for you to download. These creatures aren't quite as in-depth as my genetic breeds, but nevertheless are built around concepts that may or may not become full breeds in the future.

If you want to share a genetic experiment of your own, then drop me an e-mail and you just might see your darling become the next Freak of the Week (but see the archives page for more details on this).

The first Freak of the Week is the ChiChi/Deep Norn cross Tianna, who requires specific living conditions for survival. Click her picture under the Freak of the Week to download her!

Edit: Apart from the Freak of the Week, I've also added my contact information right above the Fish Tank. Granted, my e-mail is included in the readmes of all my genetic breeds, but I figured I'd post it here as well so people wouldn't have to download something to get at it.

Yet another release (and an update)

First off, here's an update to the C2 Flying Creatures COB. I found that it had an error whenever a flying creature went underwater (it was supposed to kick them out if they fell in - instead it threw an error about an "infinite loop").

Secondly - I have a new release, and this time it hasn't come out of the blue:

The glowflower is a variation of the iceflower that increases the light level as opposed to decreasing the temperature. Its flowers are notable for their calming effect when eaten, and for their tendency to emit the home smell of the species they detect the most of. The plant only sprouts at night, in low light areas, or when there aren't many other plants around.
This was yet another plant I made for Mea as part of our "sprites for agents" deal. That's one more thing knocked off the projects list...

Download the Glowflower!

A bunch of recent happenings on the internet drew my interest away from Creatures for a little while, but rest assured that this case is not a full-blown hiatus. I'm still playing Creatures, and I've still got a few things in the works. Do know that half the things in the project list post aren't coming to fruition, however (about the only things I'm sure are going to get done at some point are the Mea collabs).

Oh hey, a release!

First off, an update about the blog: The name change has finally paid off. No more bad sites are contributing to the traffic here (although not all the current traffic sources are Creatures-related...the new non-Creatures source seems to be inoffensive, though). Also, I've changed the background again (the old one looked weird on my new computer, since its resolution is crazy high compared to my old one), and am now completely happy with the blog's design. I wouldn't expect any major design overhauls in the near future.

Now, for the main point of the post: I've actually finished a release! Unlike the grand majority of my past releases, though, this one is for Creatures 2:

This COB will allow creatures of all ages to fly, provided they have a sufficient concentration of chemical 218 (which is also used by the Angel Norn COB - don't use both in the same world, lest you have issues). On the surface, it's not much different from past flying COBs. However, this one brings along some extra scripts that give flying creatures control of their vertical velocity - no more grounded fliers!

This is the first C2 COB I've made and released - not exactly the most typical of first COBs, but I'm very proud of it. I plan on making a Swimming COB that makes use of the extra scripts to allow swimming creatures to control their vertical velocity as well - my first attempt didn't go over so well, though.

Download the Flying COB/Scripts!

As for other projects...well, I've been having trouble focusing. I've been having major trouble trying to stay focused on one project without getting bored/frustrated and moving on to another. The lack of focus is the main reason for lack of activity right now since the other reasons for the hiatus are now a non-issue. Hopefully, I can get to work on some of my older projects (*coughseagardencough*) sometime soon.