An Interesting Fact + Another Status Update

As I've stated multiple times, I've made a lot of stuff over my time as a Creatures developer. In particular, I've drawn attention to the fact that I've made over 100 genetic breeds (counting the breed I'm making for the CCSF, which is indeed a grendel, 70 of those are C3/DS grendel breeds). Out of curiosity, I decided to calculate just what percent of C3/DS grendel genetic breeds were mine.

Counting in my stuff from the Norn Adoption Center and the breedlist at CU7, there are 112 total grendel genetic breeds. I didn't count "spritemixes" (such as Angelneko's Little Sea Monsters), and I didn't count full breeds (such as the Dusky Grendels), but I did count updated versions of previous breeds (e.g. the Waterfall Grendels V1, V2, and V3 were all counted as separate breeds).

Calculating it all up using the percent formula (70/112 * 100), I figured out that roughly a whopping 62.5% (rounded up) of C3/DS grendel genetic breeds were my work. Granted, I imagine this number is a little lower since there's bound to be a few undocumented breeds I didn't catch, but still. I've made over half the genetic grendel breeds available to the community. Talk about leaving one's mark.

Now, the percent of all genetic breeds that are mine is probably a lot lower than the factoid I just posted, but that's a calculation for another time.

Okay, enough boasting about my achievements - time for a mini-status update. The mini-hiatus mentioned in my previous post is over now, and I've gotten to work on my CCSF releases. I've completed the Aquanornia update (it just needs to be sent to Jessica now) and the Gumin Grass for the Garden Box (which I would consider to be the best plant I've coded yet), as well as fixed a few things that bothered me about the GB Sponges. I still need to complete the genetic breed (if you want to help me by dropping a suggestion or two in this CCaves topic, it would be much appreciated), and I've only started converting a few AC agents. Next in line after the genetic breed is the Past Seas update, and after that I'll finish up the GB conversions.

On top of that list, Mea and I started another metaroom collab. I wouldn't count on this one being out for the CCSF, since it only got underway a few days ago, but I'll post a preview of it here once I get it in-game, as well as revealing what exactly it is (provided Mea doesn't post it on her blog once she's done with it).

So far, so good. Apologies about the picture-less posts; I swear my next post will have some sort of image in it.

Status Update

In case you haven't figured it out yet, I've gone back to being on hiatus again, for the usual reasons (lack of interest, reality's getting in the way, etc.) As such, I feel I should probably say something about the state of my projects.

First off: The Sea Garden. I'm sorry to say that, due to a combination of various factors, that it's not going to be done in time for the CCSF. Shades of Past Seas and the 2010 CCSF, I guess. Instead, I'm planning on getting it out for Christmas at the latest.

The pack of genetic breeds that was supposed to go along with it is getting canned. In their place is a single genetic breed that follows the same theme. The replacement breed is in fact almost done; I just need to add one more feature to them and color them in.

In place of the Sea Garden, I've two metaroom updates planned.

One of them is for Past Seas. I've found the lift doesn't tell creatures using it to wait. While this isn't a really big problem since the lift only has two stops, I figured I might as well fix it to stop creatures from pushing/pulling the lift multiple times upon reaching their destination. In addition, I also want to fix the Eelgrass (again) to remove instances of the teleporting plant bug. Finally, I'm also planning on buffing the lifeforms so that they reproduce faster when their populations are low.

The other one is for Jennie's Aquanornia. While we do have Devil's Reef and Past Seas for non-swimming creatures, the former is a bit too thematic and the latter's rather small. Aquanornia, on the other hand, is both sizable and pretty generic for an aquatic area. As such, I've taken it upon myself to fix a few problems with it; such as the lack of CA/CA links and especially the fact that it didn't work with DS standalone (you'll still need C3 installed to use it, though). I also removed most of the C3 life that was originally in it, so now it's essentially an aquatic Biodome. I'm more or less finished with this one - I just need to compile the agent file and it's ready to go.

The final project is a few aquatic Garden Box agents, especially the Gumin Grass conversion that I originally lacked ideas for. In addition, I'm planning on converting some C2 stuff, some lifeforms from Aquatilis Caverna, and all the Past Seas lifeforms.

Apologies to anyone who expected the Sea Garden, but hopefully everything else that I'm releasing should help mitigate that issue somewhat.

Tevaela: Ms. Annoyance

While I'm still on this playing kick, I think an update about Tevaela is in order. I've decided that updates about this world aren't going to be frequent - instead, I'll sometimes post something about it if I've nothing else to say or report.

Since Queenie decided to integrate herself into the main population, Artura went and took her place out in the swamp, since she had developed a sudden hankering for mushrooms.

Watching Warpish the early riser interact with the other norns has proven to be incredibly amusing:

Warpish: Come on Himiko, let's make love!
Himiko: Get away from me!
Bonita: Lol.

Warpish: Actually, I think I like Bonita better.
Bonita: Oh crap. Oh no no no!

Queenie: Thank you, Artura, for getting me away from this nonsense.
Warpish: How about now, Himiko?
Bonita: Hey, guys! Come and get me too!

Bonita: *Calls the elevator again*
Queenie: Just as I was about to get out....

*Insert "girls' night out" music here*
Himiko: Let me in too!
Bonita: On second thought, this wasn't such a good idea.
Artura: Phew. That was a close one.

(In case you were wondering where Matoko was in all of this: she headed over to the swamp. She's a youth now, but seems to have dropped the color changing - she's still the same color she was as an adolescent).

Bonita: Screw this, I'm outta here.
Queenie: Finally, peace and quiet. Oh look, fresh creeper growths!
Himiko: This isn't good enough; I want to go higher! *Winds up going back down*
Artura: Stupid clingy elevators....

 Bonita: Heeello, Queenie!...
Queenie: Oh, shut up.

*Some time later....*

Warpish: Oh, we're all youths! I know, we should have an orgy! :D
Everyone else: D:

Next time, I expect that someone's gonna get pregnant. Most likely Warpish.

Okay, I got kinda carried away with the characterization there, but those were pretty much my thoughts while I was watching this. My mind goes to some odd places at times.

I'm back, baby

...Well, kinda.

I've decided against retiring - as annoying as some people can be, I enjoy being a member of this community, and I enjoy contributing to it. Sure, sometimes I get a little bored, but as far as I'm concerned I'm going to be a part of this community until I die or until there isn't a community to be a part of. On top of that, Creatures is my favorite franchise; sometimes I get a little bored with it, but ultimately I've been playing the games for almost, if not over, ten years and I see no reason to stop now. Yes, there will be hiatuses, but you won't have to worry about my departure.

So what's the best way to celebrate this decision? Well, how about a genetic breed release? This one isn't quite as fancy as some of my more recent works - actually, it's quite a simple breed - but it was a nice way to ease back into development, and the previous version of it sorely needed an update anyway. So, without further ado, I present...

Not a whole lot to these guys: they're exactly what it says on the tin. They're banshee grendels that are (mostly) nice to your norns and aren't angry all the time. They feel at home in the norn home (though they still enjoy the grendel home, mind you), and have the same sort of camaraderie with norns as they do with other grendels. They're great if you like the banshee's appearance, but not their anger issues.

Download the Friendly Banshee Grendels!

It'll probably be a while before I get back to work on the Sea Garden and the breeds going with it (in fact, I might not get them done in time for the CCSF - I have a backup plan in that case, however). In the mean time, this release should hopefully tide you over for a while.

I've been thinking....

The hiatus is still ongoing - in fact, it might be a little longer than I thought it would. It might actually be permanent.

Yes, I'm actually considering retiring from development for Creatures. My interest in the series has been the lowest it's ever been in a while, for one - the last time I opened the game, in order to work on one of the genetic breeds for the CCSF, I did some really basic edits, hatched a test norn, went "bah!" and closed the game and kit.

Development in general has been getting rather tedious for me. I'm flat out of ideas, for one, and the ideas I do come up with on my own tend to be rehashes of previous things or stuff other people have done. Plus, given how much stuff I've made, I'm not getting much gratification out of development - it lost its charm for me a long time ago. This is the main reason why I'm nowhere near as prolific as I was back when I was starting out.

Secondly, real life has been demanding. My college classes, despite being few in number, have been really demanding (Creative Writing in particular). Plus, I've been struggling with a few health issues - I had to go to the ER last Friday because I thought I was having a heart attack (thankfully, I wasn't).

Finally, other pastimes have been far more interesting. I've been hanging around the TVTropes forums a lot and using the Character Development Threads there to hone my writing skills, a good thing since I'm planning on making writing a sort of career alongside programming. I also got into competitive Pokemon recently, and I'm having a blast with that (though I kinda suck at it). These things together make Creatures look incredibly boring.

Put it all together, and I'm finding it hard to do anything for Creatures even with the upcoming CCSF acting as a motivator. Even the Sea Garden is starting to look incredibly unlikely, even if I ditch the accompanying genetic breeds.


However, right now I'm only thinking about it - I haven't actually decided if I'm going to do so or not. For all I know, I could get my interest back within the next week or so. If I do decide to retire, I'm going to drop all my other projects and focus on finishing the Flesheater Grendels - since they are my magnum opus and I've been sitting on them forever, I might as well make them the last thing I ever release.

Either way, I am going to be contributing something to the CCSF - I'm helping Nev out with one of her projects, as some of you might have noticed on CCaves. Even if I don't get anything else out, there's that to look forwards to.

I'll let you guys know soon about what my final decision about the subject is.