Swimming Agent V3 Uploaded

Just a short post to say that I've now uploaded the Swimming Agent V3 to the Realm. It should be available in the Downloads section, or you could save yourself some clicking and just get it here.

V3 was my sole release for the CCSF 2016. Compared to V2, it makes swimming look more natural, as well as fixes the bug where creatures would "jump up" a level when starting to swim. I think it's an improvement over V2, at least.

As a general status update, I'm slightly more interested in doing something Creatures-related than my last post. I wouldn't expect anything big, or anything at all for that matter, though. Chances are this blog's just going to remain quiet. If I do post something, it's probably going to be something like a metaroom review.

A Long Overdue Update

The first post of 2016, and it's halfway into April. I really need to get my priorities in order.

First things first: Let's get my stuff from the CCSF 2015 up here.

Inspired by CCaves member Lavendel, the Lavender Grendels are a peaceful, flower-loving breed. They come with their own flower agent to make them feel right at home.

Download the Lavender Grendels!

The All-Creature Autonamer and Wolfling Nametagger go hand-in-hand. The former agent is based on the default DS autonamer and uses the same catalogue file, but as the name says it works for all creatures instead of just norns. It also removes the generation-based naming scheme to give you a much greater variety of names right from gen 1, and works with C3 standalone (but I don't know how much that means to anyone).

The Wolfling Nametagger, when paired with Amaikokonut's Creature Nametags, lets you see the generation of a creature at a glance without the need for the Creature History. It's useful for keeping track of a progress of a long wolfling run. 

Download the All-Creature Autonamer!

Download the Wolfling Nametagger!

Now onto some less-rosy news. As most of you are aware, Creatures @ CU7 has gone down. This leaves me in a very awkward situation, since much of my past work was hosted on that website. To make things even more awkward...I don't even remember what all was hosted there!

Eventually I'll try to rustle everything up and put it up here, but until then if you want a CU7 download just contact me somehow (information should be part of the right sidebar) and I'll see if I still have your desired items around. If someone could give me a list of everything I was missing then that would be even better. 

My own interest in playing Creatures is currently at an all-time low; I have been working on one project or the other, but I just haven't been motivated to really finish any of them so there's no telling when they'll be finished and released. Part of the reason for this is just because I've been finding other things more interesting or pressing (like dabbling with hosting RPs on other sites or trying to come up with a way to earn money). 

There's another reason for it, however, and that reason is that the community is not very well off right now. The wounds left over from that schism last year still haven't healed, and we're losing a bunch of formerly stable websites. Furthermore, there's a decisive lack of developers in the community. Considering the Creatures Community is primarily based on mods, that's a very bad thing. 

On the bright side, Grandroids is making good progress (or so I've heard; I haven't been following it very closely). There's also Creatures Family, but I wouldn't get my hopes up for that one. 

So what do we do? I think the best idea, not only for myself but for the other developers in the Community, is to increase the knowledgebase. As I said before, the Creatures Community is primarily mod-based. The old mods are fine and dandy, but we need people constantly making new ones. 

Those old tutorials aren't going to be around forever, and when they're gone it's going to be much more difficult for newcomers to learn their way around developing for Creatures. So what we need are some more tutorials, not only covering the old ground but also touching upon things the old tutorials never covered. 

To that end, I'm planning on creating a Tutorials page here eventually, covering everything I know about genetics and CAOs. It'll cover the basics, but also go into more advanced topics (for example, receptor-reaction pairs). It's probably going to be a while considering how lazy I naturally am, but if I can ease the frustration of potential newcomers and keep the CC alive that much longer than I think I'll do my best. 

That's all for now. Until the next one, folks.

It's Evolution.... Just Evolution....

The Realm now has 100 posts. Only took me over two years to do it. No matter how long it took, I do think it's something worth celebrating. And I have just the things. 

Remember that wolfling run I mentioned last post? Well, I had a bit of an ulterior motive for running it beyond just my amusement....

Meet the Darwin Grendels, named after the famed Charles Darwin and created from the results of the wolfling run. They are very robust and can live in all sorts of environments short of a toxic world or underwater. They also breed very quickly, making them ideal if you want to just watch a population in action. 

At long last I feel I've satisfied my desire to make my own GoM-like breed, and I have to say I'm pretty happy with the final result.

Download the Darwin Grendels!

That's not all I have, however. The Darwin Grendels had to have come from somewhere....

The Garden Grendels are the forerunners of the Darwin Grendels. Their genome (or genomes, rather) were taken straight from the Grendel Garden and composed into an egg agent, and they're offered alongside six grendels from the population at the end of the wolfling run. They aren't as refined as the Darwin Grendels are, but they should prove to be just as capable as their descendants. 

Download the Garden Grendels!

And that's still not everything. This last release is only tangentially related to the Darwin and Garden Grendels, although it was tested and eventually became part of the wolfling run. 

The result of my latest collaboration with Mea, this acorn patch plant will add a much-needed seed to the Garden Box. The acorns themselves are fairly unremarkable, though your creatures will likely find them delicious. 

Download the Garden Box Acorns!

Phew, that was a fair few releases. Actually, there would have been even more had I not burned myself out towards the end (though chances are the stuff I had planned will be created and released at a later date). 

At any rate, I hope you enjoy the new releases! Until the next one, folks.

We'll Drink a Drink a Drink....

So today I had a hunch to make something, and so I did. It's nothing really spectacular, but it seems like a good first release of the year.

This is a conversion of Steve Dismuke's Medicinal Compound for C3/DS. It is most efficacious in every case, whether it be helping a sick creature get better, or for healthy creatures looking for a quick way to get smashed. Might not want to let that latter category overindulge themselves.

All credit for the original Medicinal Compound goes to Steve Dismukes. It was one of my favorite C1 COBs, and I hope he doesn't mind the fact that I've converted it over to C3/DS.

Download the Medicinal Compound!

Tiny Little Water Bugs

After that little rant in my last post and some Googling, I figured that doing some CAOs might very well help me with the issues I've been having. To begin, I decided to code something quick and easy to help me ease back into it and Creatures in general. Converting an agent to the Garden Box would be a good place to start. And so....

I decided to turn the C3 aquamites into a GB agent. They're based on the originals and behave similarly for the most part, but they're much more interactive than the originals and are less prone to dying out (and the originals were pretty extinction-resistant as it was). 

Download the C3 Aquamites for the Garden Box!

I think I'm going to focus mainly on Garden Box agents for the next couple releases, and keep things reasonably simple as I work my way back to being able to focus on more complex agents and breeds. Until the next one, folks.

Happy New *Arg*!

The holiday period has finally reached its end (more or less). I hope you all enjoyed spending time with your families, opening presents, eating delicious food, and whatnot. I know I did, anyway. 

To wrap up the holidays and 2013, how about I release a couple things?

Inspired by (among other things) Clohse's Sea Monkey Marina and Angelneko's Little SeaMonsters, Reef Gliders are amphibious norns who gain the ability to swim at adolescence (as well as a slightly carnivorous diet). They're not overly complicated, but I'm pretty happy with them. 

Download the Reef Gliders!

Next up is a fairly big update:

What? The Deep Abyss again? Yes, but this time with more stuff - this release comes with the plants, finally giving your deep-water-dwelling creatures something to munch on. Make sure to read the readme before installing this version, however - there's important information for those updating from V1 in there.

Download the Deep Abyss!

That's all for big releases, but I also have two smaller updates for you. 

First off is a Chione update. I've updated the mapping a bit - the ice over the lake is now "air" instead of "drained soil" (meaning plants can no longer grow there), and the space right before the surface cave (where the door is) is now "drained soil" instead of "air." Nothing particularly noteworthy, but it does set the stage for future updates (when the ecology starts coming in at last). 

Download the Chione update!

The final thing on the list is an update to my swimming agent. It should help your creatures swim better with less incidences of them being unable to reach objects. Just in time for the release of the Reef Gliders, huh? 

Download the Swimming Agent update!

Finally, here's an update about the blog. I know I haven't been updating it recently despite the fact that I am still playing Creatures right now (and making stuff for it, to boot). The fact of the matter is that I simply haven't had much to say lately. That being said, I might decide to document the grendel wolfling run I've been doing here (for something a little more informative than my bibbles over at CCaves) or maybe even a reboot of Tevaela, since I do still have quite a lot of time off before I have to go back to college. 

For now, just enjoy the releases! I'll see you all in 2014.

Another Year, Another Birthday

As the title says - today is my 21st birthday. That means I'm finally free of the last bit of legal prohibitions - I can now drink alcohol, etc. Does that mean I will drink alcohol, etc.? No (alcohol has more cons than pros as far as I'm concerned).

I wasn't going to miss the chance to release a breed this year, if the crapton of releases that came before this one are any indication. I could have made a jab at my newfound ability to drink by making a breed revolving around alcohol, but decided that a serious breed would be more worthwhile. Unfortunately, this is where I break the streak of aquatic releases. Instead, this breed is more suited for an ocean of a different sort - the sea of outer space, as a passenger aboard of the Capillata.

Corny metaphor aside, the W-Runner Grendels are simultaneously a breed designed for wolfling runs and a breed designed for Docking Station. They have the advantage of being able to follow smells and navigate doors and lifts from birth, unlike normal creatures who have to wait until childhood. In addition, they do not get homesick and love using portals. They're more even-tempered than normal grendels to prevent their anger from getting in the way of their survival, but if you think they're completely friendly you're sadly mistaken.

Download the W-Runner Grendels!

And speaking of portals, you may be wondering how there's an open warp portal behind the grendel up there when the DS server has been offline for who-knows-how-long. Here's your answer....

These altered warp portals let your creatures travel from place-to-place in your world, while simulating the appearance and feel of the warp jumps of lore. 

Do note that there's a bug with these: if you have a closed portal in the same world with open portals, your creatures will sometimes get warped to the closed portal. It doesn't happen often, though, so hopefully you can live with it until I can figure out just exactly what's causing it. 

Download the Offline Warp Portals!

To end this post on another corny philosophical note: the way these grendels jump through the warp they love so much symbolizes my anticipation and worries for the future. With any luck, I'll still be here next year, bringing you yet another breed to enjoy. Time will tell, though....

Yet Another Aquatic Release

Every single post this month thus far has been a release, and this post is no exception. Let's get to it, shall we?

The first release is a breed, albeit one that isn't quite as complex as some of my other ones.

The Swimming Aqua Grendels are...well, Aqua Grendels that can swim. That said, they do have some differences from the normal variety besides the obvious - chief among them are the swim bladder edits from the Astro Tetras.

Download the Swimming Aqua Grendels!

The next release is quite a bit more significant. 

I've been talking about the Sea Garden for quite a while, and decided it was about time to do more than that. Since the full pack is taking forever to finish, I decided to release it in parts. 

Part one consists of two plants: the Sea Pen and the Coralroot. The sea pen provides creatures with an underwater source of fruit, while the coralroot does the same for food. With these, the lack of aquatic fruit (and too a lesser extent food) has been addressed. The coralroot has the bonus of providing aquatic creatures with entertainment once it's been eaten. 

Download the Sea Garden Pack One!

So, is that all the releases for this month? Nope - my birthday's coming up within five days, and just like last year there's going to be a breed release for that too. In fact, since it's my 21st, the swarm of releases is a bit of a preliminary celebration. Stay tuned; there's more to come.

More Anemones!

I assume most of you remember me going on and on about the Oasis/Biodome Anemones and how unsuitable they were for creatures. Well, I finally decided to stop just saying I was going to make a revamp of them and actually made said revamp.

These new anemones can now be interacted with by creatures. While they're no longer "critters," I decided to turn the two varieties into a "plant" and a "weed." Peach Anemones (right) are pleasant for creatures to interact with, but they best watch themselves when thinking about touching Purple Anemones (left) - not only does it hurt for most of them, fully grown purple anemones are slightly toxic. In addition, the anemone spores can now become dormant when creatures start getting hungry, protecting the anemones from getting wiped out.

But that's not all. You're probably wondering where those wonderful tints went. For those of you who value beauty over a faster computer, I made a version that has those tints intact.

Download the Oasis Anemones! 

C2 Anemones for the Garden Box

So I've been in a bit of a development rut lately, which is a very bad thing considering my birthday's coming up and I need to make a breed for that, and I'm also trying to make four breeds for the CCSF. This all on top of having a ton of unfinished projects (such as the Coral Reef ChiChi Norns).

This release is an extremely simple one, but it's an attempt for me to get out of that rut. If nothing else, it'll help liven up your oceans.

The anemones from Creatures 2 are now available for use with the Garden Box. They're classified as "plant," and will amuse any creature who decides to play with them. Beyond that, they're pretty much living decor for any saltwater area.

Download the C2 Anemones for the Garden Box!

So Much for Schedules

That hiatus I mentioned a while back is still unfortunately ongoing (real life is getting demanding). I have absolutely no idea when I'll get back to my old projects - it's definitely not coming back this month, I can say that much. I imagine it'll be shortly after Creatures Caves finishes upgrading, though I make no promises.

In the meantime, I figured I'd release something for you to mess around with while waiting for the CCaves upgrade to finish and to make up for this blog's relative inactivity:

 After my Oasis review, I mentioned that I made a swimming agent that allowed creatures to retreat from each other. After some more tweaking, I decided that it was in a releasable state (there weren't any autokill errors, anyway). And so, here it is. There are still some bugs with it (notably, you might have creatures start swimming backwards), but for the most part it's a major upgrade from the original swimming agents that fixes almost all of their major bugs. I'm proud of it, and I hope you'll enjoy playing with it.

Download the Swimming Agent V2! 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Doomsday

Right, this place has gone unupdated for a little too long, I daresay. My absence wasn't so much due to a hiatus or anything - it was because I was planning on releasing Chione for my new 50th post. However, I promised to release it only after Survivor filled up, and that's taking a freakishly long time.... Hence, lack of updates.

Where did the Oasis review go? Well, I deleted it mostly for the sake of my own sanity. It was a rant moreso than anything worth leaving up; just my disappointment at finding out how useless the room was for keeping creatures in. It sure as heck wasn't worthy of being the milestone 50th post. I'll post a far more fair review of the room at a later date.

Second thing: It's been a long while since the CCSF 2012, and I've just been plain lazy with putting my stuff up on my own website. So I'm going to take care of that now.

My main contribution to this year's CCSF was this redone version of Jennie's Aquanornia. It's a lot emptier than the original, but that's because I took most of the C3 stuff out of it. It's now more or less an aquatic Biodome, and you can set it up how you please for your aquatic creatures' comforts. 

Download Aquanornia Revamped!

Second thing: the redone Aquatic Terrarium plants for the Garden Box. For the CCSF they were all in one .zip file, but here I'm packaging them separately. The sponges have had some bugfixes since the last release, but they're otherwise the same as last time. The Gumin Grass behaves somewhat differently from its original counterpart; it throws out fully formed seeds as opposed to growing them first, and will throw out fully developed sproutlings instead of seeds should the population get low. The seeds also go dormant if creatures outnumber the plants and seeds. These ones have been updated slightly since their release at the CCSF; they no longer throw out their seeds so quickly and the seeds themselves stick closer to the bottom.

Download the GB Sponges!

Download the GB Gumin Grass! 

And now, we move on to the completely new stuff. As you might now, today was the widely predicted date of the end of the world. Predictably, jack squat happened. So, in celebration of the world's continued existence and the upcoming holidays, here is a crapton of releases!

 I know I said I wasn't going to release Chione V1.1 until Survivor started. That's taking forever, and my patience is wearing thin. So instead, I'm releasing it as an early Christmas gift for the CC. 

It's still empty of native flora and fauna, but now the room has teleporters and elevators, plus a weather system and some mapping fixes (no more stuck baby creatures!). I also moved it so that it no longer conflicts with the Biodome (though it might still overlap some other metarooms; I didn't bother to check to see if there was any in its new location). 

Download Chione V1.1!

Next up: a new genetic breed! These guys aren't the same breed I was going to release for the CCSF, but they're pretty similar in concept to that breed. You can consider them a belated addition to my CCSF releases. 

The Aqua Grendels are pretty much generic amphibious grendels - they're amphibious, have a diet skewed towards critters and bugs, and heavily resistant to coldness. They're more placid than normal grendels, but that doesn't mean they're entirely norn friendly - they're still likely to attack your norns, only they'll do it out of crowdedness instead of anger. 

Download the Aqua Grendels!

Baby Aqua Grendels go for bugs by instinct - they won't start going for critters until adolescence. However, there aren't that many (edible) aquatic bugs to go around. With permission from Moe, I decided to change that....

These here are Shrimpton - the cute little water bugs that normally swim around in the waters of the Oasis. Since the originals weren't really receptive to creatures, I gave them some new code. They still behave similarly to the originals, but they're now classified as "bug" instead of "critter", and your creatures can play with and eat them. Make sure you have some plants lying around, though - they need them to lay their eggs.

Thanks to Moe for letting me rip the Shrimpton from the Oasis, and thanks to Ghosthande for making the Vendor sprite (as part of the Biodome Pack - there's some interesting stuff in bd-launchers.c16...).

Download the Shrimpton!

This next release still ties into the Aqua Grendels, though it isn't as necessary for their comfort.

This update to the Aquatic Terrarium lowers the floor above the right entrance to the fish nursery, preventing baby creatures from getting stuck there and making the right tank navigable for non-swimming creatures. If you want a place for your non-swimmers to roam, but lack the space for a new metaroom, then this update might be for you.

Download the Aquatic Terrarium Update!

Finally, I release a pack containing a look into the past....

This here is a large pack of C2 and C3/DS genetic breeds that I completed and zipped up, but for whatever reason didn't see fit to release before now. Most of it's pretty old, but don't that let that discourage you. Take a look; maybe there's a breed that tickles your fancy in there.

Download the Unreleased Breeds Pack!

Yeah, a lot of stuff here. Hopefully, this will satisfy everyone's desires for a Christmas release (the Sea Garden, again, is nowhere close to being done and probably won't get released until sometime next year). Happy Holidays from Grendel Man, y'all!

Creatures 3 Sponges for the Garden Box

I apologize for all the rage in my previous post, but I really needed to get that out. Moving on.

For those of you not in the know, Amaikokonut recently released the Garden Box - a specialized agent injector that is meant to make filling up a world with plants and critters much easier. A lot of other people have already gone over how amazing this thing is, so I won't spend too much time on it. Go check out the Garden Box Central forums if you want to download it and its addons.

Unfortunately, the Garden Box didn't contain any aquatic plants at launch. As such, I took it upon myself to convert the C3 sponges to the Garden Box. I actually finished them a while ago, but was going to also convert the Gumin Grass. Unfortunately, I ran out of ideas for the latter, so instead of sitting on the sponges for several months or more, I decided to release them separately.

They're similar to the original sponges in most aspects, but they do have a few differences, not the least of which are the special seeds they throw out when the sponges are outnumbered by creatures. Not much to say about them, really. But it's something for the otherwise empty Aquatic Plant category in the Garden Box, right?

Download the C3 Sponges for the Garden Box!

Sea Garden Preview

So I finally figured out a way around my GIMP problem - as it turns out, Edos (part of Jagent) is perfectly capable of working with .png files, and can turn a bunch of them into a .c16 file at once to boot. So I just use GIMP to resize seeds and whatnot, and use Edos for the actual sprite compiling. I still can't do anything with .blk files, but I usually don't use GIMP to edit those anyway.

Which means I've finally stopped slacking and started working on the Sea Garden:

SEEEEEEEEEEDS.

I'm actually more or less done with this particular plant now (all I need to do is code the vendor), and while they still emit a copious amount of seeds, they're not quite as prolific as this picture suggests. By the way, the grendels in the picture are a project in and of themselves; while they were made primarily to test the Sea Garden, I'll probably tweak their genome a bit more and release them alongside the completed Sea Garden.

When will the Sea Garden be done? I don't know, considering that Mea's still working on the sprites. I'm hoping it'll be out by the CCSF at the latest, but I make no promises.

Edit: Also, you may or may have not noticed the new Fish Tank gadget. You can click on the area to feed the fish, and if they aren't eating the fish will cuddle up to the mouse pointer expecting food. It's not particularly special, but it is a fun little time waster. Hopefully, it doesn't slow down the other, more important parts of the blog too much.

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).

Metallophagus Update + Potentional Blog Name Change

First off, I've uploaded the updated Metallophagus Pack. The carrot should now be considerably less prolific and creatures now have more ways to interact with the seeds. It's available from the same link as before and therefore can be found on the Downloads page or the initial Metallophagus release post. You can also get it here.

Right, now onto a slightly more pressing issue.

Some of you are probably wondering why this blog is named what it is. Well, the name itself is also the name of a particularly good song made by a Newgrounds user. This song, to be exact. Since I liked the song and the feel of it suited what my blog was about, I decided to name the blog after the song as a homage. "Hole" in this case is referring to "hidey-hole." I suppose the name could be interpreted to mean "My own little world," which is the feel I imagine the author of the aforementioned song was aiming for. I know that was what I was aiming for with the blog's title.

However, it's the name of the blog that leads into a big problem. "Hole" has a bunch of other meanings, one of which is very, VERY inappropriate as far as this blog and the Creatures Community in general. Unfortunately, I recently found that one of the major traffic sources to this blog seem to be reading "Hole" with this alternate meaning in mind - the second biggest, in fact (it's apparently responsible for 12-13 hits a day). So I decided to read the title using that meaning of "Hole"... and suddenly the name doesn't sound quite so family friendly.


So I'm seriously considering changing the blog's name to something else that doesn't carry such an...undesirable alternative meaning and therefore keeping the traffic that has no business being directed here off. Therein lies another problem: I'm somewhat attached to the name since it's intended meaning is really fitting.

What do you guys think? Do you think that enough people are going to take the title as innuendo to make changing the name worth it, or do you think it's a non-issue? I suppose I could just be worrying too much, but the fact that this inappropriate site is the second largest source of traffic here is really, really bothering me.

Miscellaneous Stuff

I noticed there was a bug with the Edible Gadgets agent included with the Metallophagus Grendels - there was a typo that could affect the edibility of some gadgets. I've fixed this - it should be available in the initial release post, but you can also get the new agent file here. Just use the Remover to get rid of the old version and then inject this version to update your world.

I've also made a version the agent that works with Geats - specifically Gaius - and is therefore tailored to the stims they use. It was made by request of Ghosthande. Download this agent here, but do note that I haven't tested it very thoroughly - just enough to know that Gaius can use it effectively. 

And that's that.

Hide your gadgets....

...Because they risk getting nommed otherwise.

These are the second version of my Metallophagus Grendels, ready to roam your ships and eat your gadgets and machinery - this time literally. With the included agent, they can actually eat any gadget that they can pick up - that includes things like the Anti-Bacterial Spray, so you might want to lock up your important gadgets before setting a group of these guys loose.

In addition to actually eating gadgets, V2 also ages slower and is more heavily benefited from Heavy Metals (they can even use it as an emergency food store). While they're generally inoffensive, don't let your norns harass them. If attacked, they will retaliate quickly and painfully.

In addition to the agent that lets them eat gadgets, the Metallophagus Grendels V2 bring along a special food item with sprites helpfully donated by Mea.

The techno-organic carrot, a strange blend of plant and machine, grows in inorganic areas. It provides all the nutrition your Metallophagus Grendels need, so expect to see them wherever a patch of techno-organic carrots is found. Normal creatures can also eat the carrot, but I wouldn't let those eat the rusty or rotten carrots....

Download the Metallophagus Grendels V2!

To wrap things up, I'm also uploading V1 of the Metallophagus Grendels since originally they were uploaded on Mediafire. I released these over a year ago (I thought these were a recent breed - hey, time flies).

V1 is similar to V2, but obviously less refined. Unlike V2, V1 doesn't need a special agent to feed - they can just hit the gadget to obtain nutrition. They're also generally peaceful all around.

Download the Metallophagus Grendels V1!

(You can also download these at Seeyou7.net if you wish)

You might have noticed that the pictures look a bit different. With some help from Firebug, I replicated the image style from Naturing :: Nurturing and Jessi's Creatures Documentations. I think the photograph-like style fits, but of course your mileage may vary.

Grendels and Waterfalls and Mushrooms - Lots of Mushrooms.

It's time for another release, and this time it's a fairly large one.

I'll start things off with the pack for the Waterfall Grendels V3:

The third version of the Waterfall Grendels is a callback to V1 since I wasn't happy with V2. In addition to all the things about V1, V3 will usually know when it's time to get out of the water and has a more varied diet. In addition, this breed is the first of mine to have the updated digestive process of the Gizmo Norns - to breed, they need to eat.

They come with the Waterfall and Waterfall Mushrooms, both of them updated heavily. The waterfall now has fantastic new sprites courtesy of Mea, and can be picked up and moved to wherever you want it (in addition to actually looking like a waterfall), and the mushrooms come with a dispenser for their seeds in addition to a faster growing cycle.

Download the Waterfall Grendel Pack V3!

If you need more mushrooms, there's also the Watercup Mushrooms, whose colorful presence will certainly liven up a dull room as well as providing even more food for your creatures to munch on.

 

 Download the Watercup Mushrooms!

The final release of today is also the largest. Remember that collab that I kept mentioning I was working on with Mea? It was no small agent:

It was a metaroom. This is Silence Falls, the native home of the Waterfall Grendels. The massive waterfall in the center provides the area with its lifeblood. While it comes with both the Waterfall Mushrooms and the Watercup Mushrooms, it is quite open to customization in a similar vein to the Biodome and Veridia.
Mea offered to make a metaroom background for me in response to my posts about Gardenia Falls, and for that I thank her. We both put a lot of work into making this place (Mea even had to get help from her fiance to help render some of the plants), and the result is awesome.

Download Silence Falls! 

If you run into any bugs, drop them in the comments. I hope you'll enjoy all the new releases!

Time to start releasing things!

The hiatus is more or less over now. However, I will say that you won't be able to expect a daily post anymore - naturally being a man of few words means that oftentimes I won't have a topic to make a post about. So updates won't be as frequent.

Okay, that was the bad news. The good news is that the projects mentioned in the past few posts are now getting wrapped up. In fact, one of them has been completed for a while - I just never bothered releasing it.

This is the first of the GM/Mea collab projects, and also one of the ones that she came up with (this is something I did for her in exchange of the stuff she's doing for me). The iceflower is an odd plant that has a tendency to rapidly cool down any area in which it grows. Not surprising, since nearly every part of it emanates coldness. It's great for cold loving creatures or for creatures with a bad case of fever toxin. However, Magma Norns and other heat lovers are advised to stay far away from anywhere this plant has established itself.

The iceflower works with both C3 and DS. Get it here!