This entry is edited--6 March 2002. The edited entry can be found here (but you may want to stay at this entry).

Creatures is an innovative computer game from CyberLife Technologies. "Innovative?" you say, "I've heard of Creatures--you think that's innovative? All you do is raise ugly¹ little animals into adulthood so they can mate and produce more little animals!--and you don't even see them at it! What's so innovative about that?"

C1: The Beginning

Bibble Mythology

In the beginning there was the Hand, and the Hand was with god, and the Hand was god. --Book of Bibble 1:1²

A long time ago, the Shee³ created a new race of beings as pets. The Shee were tall, slender and basically humanoid in appearance, and widely known as magicians (because of their advanced sciences, secrets known only to the Shee themselves). Their oral tradition was amazing and their story-telling abilities could not be equalled.

The Shee were geneticists as well, and created many new species. One of these was warm-hearted, and the Shee called them Norns. The Norns knew very little and could understand very little compared to the Shee, but they had the capacity for language. They learned well and soon were living out their lives in contentedness.

Then the Shee left their new creations and went away from them in spaceships, for a new 3D world. The Shee have not come back, and it is doubted that they ever will⁴.

But before the Shee left, they put six unhatched Norn eggs into the Hatchery, as they knew the Norns could not survive long on their own. And the Shee went, and the Norns did die, but those still in their eggs remained silently, awaiting the day when they would be hatched.

The Game and its Users

The original Creatures was released in the UK in 1996 for both Macintosh and IBM-compatible platforms. Soon after, it migrated to the United States and then to other European countries. It and its descendent Creatures 2 sold over a million copies by January 2000.

Creatures attracts many types of people. According to a survey run on the Official Creature Labs website prior to the release of Creatures 2 in 1998, the genders are evenly split down the middle, with 52% of the 800 respondents male, and 48% female. "In gaming, this is a quite a phenomenon and we're pleased to have created such a popular and gender-neutral game," said CyberLife on their results page. Most Creatures users are in their teens, although all age groups responded, and a combined total of 81% live in the US, UK, and Canada, with the rest spread throughout Europe, New Zealand, and Australia.

The player's job in Creatures is the keep Albia (the disk-shaped world of Creatures) running. He has to make sure his Norns eat (sometimes they forget when everything else around them is more interesting) and healthy, as well as keeping them safe from Grendels⁵. His representation in the world is a hand, which the Norns look to as a parent.

Many people can all take care of a single world; this is one of the nice things about Creatures. The Norns in Creatures can serve as family pets, with the entire family caring for the small animals⁶. Creatures on the computer have an advantage over dogs, cats, and even the goldfish of real life, because Norns do not need to be walked or cleaned up after: they have a world to meander through, and their world is an ecosystem that takes care of itself.

The point of Creatures is raise your Norns for generations and to hopefully get some interesting genetic mutations in the process. That's it. There is no winning or losing.

Many people set goals for themselves, such as raising always-fertile Norns⁷. Some people try to breed uniquely coloured Norns, or Norns that live a long time. These are all decent goals, but by no means the only ones.

Artificial Life in C1

Everyone has heard of Artificial Intelligence. Creatures is not that. Creatures is Artificial Life. Artificial Intelligence can be represented by a chess-playing computer. ALife is much more than that-- it has biology, genetics, and evolution, as well as "smartness".

When the concept was first realised, the programmers had no idea how to approach making life from nothing, but finally took what nature had given them: unique genetics that control the making of chemicals and chemical reactions, as well as heredity (they called their new genetic material "d-DNA"⁸). There is very little that cannot be done through time and evolution as a result of this innovative idea.

Heredity and Genetics in Humans

"Heredity" basically means inheritance-- what a parent passes on to their child. The actual material that is passed on is DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid. DNA codes for everything that makes us what we are through protein synthesis. A simplified explanation of protein synthesis: DNA is translated into amino acids, which join together to become proteins. Proteins create the form of an organism and are required to sustain life.

Bits of DNA form genes, which code for certain parts of the organism (i.e. hair or eye color). When more cells are produced, these genes combine into long chains called chromosomes. (Chromosomes and their genes can be likened to a bead necklace, with the entire necklace as the chromosome and the individual beads as the genes.)

Each chromosome in a human cell (excluding the X and Y chromosomes, which determine sex), has a corresponding "homologous chromosome" from the other parent. These "homologues" code for the same gene idea, but their actual expression is a bit different. (For example, the gene for brown eyes and the gene for blue eyes are both represented by the gene for eye color, but they are different instances of that gene. The other genes on homologous chromosomes are likewise different, but similar.)

In the production of sex cells, these homologous chromosomes bind tightly together and crossing-over can occur. Crossing-over results in a piece of one homologous chromosome breaking away from itself and attaching to its homologue. (A chromosome with a sequence "ABCDE" and its homologue with a sequence "RSTUV" after crossing-over can become "ARSTE" and "UVBCD", for example.) The chromosomes (now with new combinations of genetic information) separate and move into the resulting sex cells. These sex cells have different genetics than their parents, and this is how our race can change over time and evolve.

Heredity and Genetics in Norns

Norns (and the other creatures in Creatures) are completely modeled on life. This means that the concepts that go into our life also go into theirs, albeit on a more simplified level (the power of computers cannot yet match the power of biology!). They have their own DNA, which codes for their organs and helps with basic life processes, as it does in humans.

In Creatures, DNA is broken up into "mega-genes"⁹ such as "Chemical Receptors", "Attitude", and "Pigmentation". In first-generation Norns, 104 genes make up Attitude. Most early-generation Norns have about 265 genes, but there is no telling how many might result in future generations!

Crossing-over and reproduction in Norns has the same effect as in humans (genetic diversity), but it can be explained a bit differently, as Norns only have one chromosome, and it is not physical.

When Norns breed, a copy is made starting at one end of a parent's chromosome. At random points along the way of making that copy, it pauses, makes note of where it is, and then switches to the other (homologous) chromosome. It continues copying from that marker on second homologue, switching back and forth randomly until it reaches the end of one of the chromosomes.

When the marker on one chromosome has moved, the deletion or duplication of certain genes can occur. For example, let's say that copying on the father's homologue stops at 3-8. Now copying will transfer to the mother's chromosome, and begin at 3-8. If position 3-8 has been moved further down the chromosome, it is possible that some genes will not be copied at all. If position 3-8 has been moved further up the chromosome, it is possible that some genes will be copied twice. Both are mutations that the offspring will inherit.

Mutations are what make evolution possible. With genetically different offspring, there is a chance of Natural Selection. Creatures that breed often and quickly will produce more offspring and therefore their breeding genes are more likely to be perpetuated into the next generation. Creatures who have genetic disorders that cause them to die early, be extra-susceptible to disease, or make them infertile will not breed as much, and thus do not impart their genes to future generations. These changes in the gene pool leads to evolution, with the best-fit organisms surviving and passing on their traits: this is what Norn-breeders live for¹⁰.

Norn/Environment Interactions

The Norns live in a world where everything has been provided for them. There is a garden full of growing food which (in its original state) needs no tending¹¹, there is a learning machine for teaching language--heck, they even have hootch! Anything that a Norn can use will "inject" chemicals into the creature, altering his biochemistry. For instance, carrots are a main food staple. When a Norn eats a carrot, the dormant chemicals¹² in the carrot are transferred to the Norn--in this case, -100 Hunger, -70 Need For Pleasure, +100 Starch. Playing with a toy is fun, so a Norn's Boredom and his Need For Pleasure are decreased when he plays with his toys.

The Hand is like the god of the world. The Hand can tell everyone what to do, and expects to be obeyed. When the Hand isn't obeyed after a few repetitions, it might become angry and might punish the disobeyer with a smack on the rump or a sharp "no", both of which produce the same effect: an increase in the punishment toxin. Norns decide whether to listen or not, and actually learn from being punished and rewarded--for instance, if a Norn is smacked whenever he eats, he will eventually stop eating (and thus die)¹³.

Language in Albia

There are 33 concept words in the original Albian vocabulary. Most nouns name more than one thing--that is, they apply to a category ("food" instead of "cheese", "carrot", "lemon", etc.) Verbs also apply to categories, but their categories aren't as obvious and do not necessarily mean the same thing in Albia as they would on Earth. For instance, the word "push" can be used in many ways; its basic meaning is "use". A few examples of this verb at work:

Before being taught the language of the Hand, Norns speak Bibble (basically gibberish). If they are not brought away from their friends and family to learn the Hand's language, they will pick it up from the educated Norns around them with enough repetition. Learning this way can cause problems, however; the young Norns may understand a word to mean something different than it was intended and not learn the correct term.

The words are not pre-programmed, and therefore the Hand can decide which language he would like to use for communication with his pets. If he teaches Hebrew to his Norns, then the Norns will speak in Hebrew among themselves and with the Hand.

C2, C3, and CV: Continuation of a Legacy

When Creatures was released in 1996, it met with an amazing response. So, of course CyberLife Technologies and then Creature Labs continued in this genre, releasing Creatures 2 in 1998. Creatures 2 had more environmental features than C1, and Creatures Labs also introduced a new species in this game, the Ettins. Creatures Villages is set of games involving the well-loved Norns that was intended for children. The first part of this offshoot series was Creatures Adventures, released in 1999. The Creatures Villages series involve no typing, and the understanding level necessary to get the most enjoyment from the game is lower (most children don't care about genetics or breeding.)

Now with the development of the Internet, Creature Labs has begun a new concept: a global interconnection of Norn-owners. By registering on their website and downloading the new world, the Norns you raise can travel around our world through spaceships in the Docking Station¹⁵. Creatures 3 is an extension to this spaceship that allows more space for your Norns, but it can also be run on its own.

The Fan's Developments--C1

Creatures was designed with the fans in mind, so there is a lot you can do to customise your game. Creatures Labs offers free downloads on their website of an Object Injector Kit and many Creatures Objects (COBs)¹⁶ to inject into your game (use the "download" link in the frame at the left). When the public got ahold of CAOS, the programming language of the Creatures Series, many fans began writing their own COBs and posting them for download on the web, alongside copies of their favourite Norns¹⁷.

With the genome-editing kits available from CyberLife, people began to create their own unique Norn species, such as Lis Morris, who created the Hippy Norns for C1. Hippy Norns process tickling as the life-necessary chemicals glucose and glycogen¹⁸. Norns can learn to tickle each other as well, so the burden on the Hand could very well be lessened. Other people have created Norns with an extra gene that stops them from dying of old age (this can be problematic, however, because the younger Norns will keep breeding--the world has a biological limit for the number of creatures it can support because the garden can only produce so much food, and epidemics of sickness occur more often in larger populations.)

Some people even create new worlds! Terra Nornia (for C1) has locking doors and seasons, as well as different foods and toys. It also uses more of the original empty vocabulary slots, so the range of Norn expression and understanding is greater.

All hail CyberLife!