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.

Hiatus III

The community's been wonderfully active as of late and there's been a few good releases lately. A perfect time for a hiatus, huh?

This one isn't going to last quite as long as the previous one (I hope, anyway), but it's for similar reasons - I've found other things that hold my interest more than Creatures can currently (*coughTvtropescoughPokemoncough*), I'm not much in the mood to develop, etc. 

That's not all of it, though - it's school season once again, and tomorrow I head back to college to start my sophomore year. I don't have a whole lot of classes, plus I've got a dorm room to myself, so it shouldn't be too imposing on me, but I'm not going to be very active while I'm still getting into the swing of things.

For those of you wondering about my projects: The Sea Garden is going to be my main release for the CCSF this year (along with a set of genetic breeds to go with it). I'm also planning on another Past Seas update that adds another layer of complexity to the ecology as well as fixing a few more bugs, in addition to a Garden Box conversion of the plants and critters.

For the record, by "hiatus" I mean "not playing or developing for Creatures." I'm still hanging around the community, I'm still willing to answer questions people might have about development, etc. Just don't expect a major release from me any time soon.

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!

Rant: Much Ado about Crappy Norn Breeds that don't Deserve the Slot Space They were Given.

Most people who frequent CCaves are aware of the BorgNorn revival project being headed by Annex. I liked the Borg Norn Lite version when I used it - they're fun to mess around with. So the project has my interest.
Why am I mentioning this? Because of the breed slot suggestions that have been popping up in there. My suggestion was Geat Q since the Primrose Norns in that slot aren't particularly well done and have a better version made by Norngirl. The next suggestion that came up was Grendel E, made by Sam999, apparently so he can have the Borg Norns in his game.

WARNING: Incoming furious rant with lots of censored profanity. Viewer caution is advised.

First off: He could have them in his game regardless of what slot they were in, so that's not a good reason. Secondly, the apology at the end of his post came off as incredibly condescending, like his opinion was the word of God. Finally, why the heck was his first thought a grendel slot? One with a Grendel breed already in it, no less?

Knowing Sam, I'm pretty sure he was the same person who put down the Fayen Norn idea down at the Creatures Wiki; an idea that really, really ticked me off. Why? Someone suggested putting a GOD. ****ING. ****. NORN BREED. in the SAME. ****ING. SLOT. as the Banshee Grendels. Why? Because they aren't legally available anymore and "don't work on Macs."

Really?

What the **** was the person who wrote that entry thinking? "Oh, the only official Grendel breed ever made is no longer available, so that slot is technically open. I know! That's the perfect slot for a NORN breed! Certainly that won't annoy the **** out of all the Grendel fans, because Norns are so perfect that they deserve to fill every single slot in the game!"

Really. That was that person's first thought? Even though there's a ton of crap in the Norn and Geat slots that no one will miss if it gets overwritten, they wanted to put a ****ing norn breed in Grendel B, a slot that should belong to the Banshees alone, or failing that a quality Grendel breed that will fill the void they left behind when the Gameware shop went down. 

Okay, furious rant is over with.

This sort of mindset annoys the crap out of me. I know Norns are supposed to be the centerpiece of the series, so I'm not angry at the fact that there's a lot of norn breeds - that's to be expected. What I'm annoyed at are the people who put norns in grendel and ettin slots, especially if they ignore all the junk that's in the norn and geat slots, and especially if said norn breed is a lazy recolor (biggest example: The Crimson Norns - they're barely altered from the original sprites!).

Being the major Grendel fan I am (in fact, Norns were never my favorite species - I've always liked Grendels or Ettins better), I'm naturally of the belief that we need more quality Grendel and Ettin breeds, not more Norn breeds who take up those slots. Granted, I'm willing to excuse the offense if the Norn breed is really well done (the Aqua Norns, for example - sure they look goofy, but you can't say that they aren't a well-done breed). It's the recolors that tick me off.

It's not just the recolors, actually - I get very annoyed whenever someone suggests putting a norn breed in a slot that's already occupied by a grendel (or ettin, to a lesser extent). In that case, I really don't care how good the norn breed is, in that case. I will continue to loathe that breed until the creator decides to move it. Admittedly, I originally thought this way about grendel breeds who share the same breed slot, but I've moved past that period now.

 As such, I'm happy to see that most breed-makers these days put their norns in the norn and geat slots, overwriting the crappy and/or lazily done recolors that were originally in those slots. Hopefully, this trend continues into the future. Keep those norns out of the grendel and ettin breedslots, people. Support Creature Equality!