Creatures (artificial life series) facts for kids
Creatures is a series of artificial life (alife) computer programs. It was created in the mid-1990s by English computer scientist Steve Grand. It was developed by Millennium Interactive. The game is about raising alien creatures known as Norns. This involves teaching them to survive, helping them explore their world, defending them against other animals, and breeding them. The player can also teach the creatures to speak a language, and can then tell their creature to do something by typing in instructions.
Between 1996 and 2001, six Creatures games were released.
The program was notable for being one of the first commercial products to create artificial-life animals using genetics, biochemistry and neural network brains. This meant that the Norns and their DNA could "evolve" in many different ways. By breeding certain Norns with others, some traits could be passed on to younger generations. The genetics in Creatures are slightly different from human genetics; they are haploid.
- Creatures (released in 1996)
- Creatures 2 (released in 1998)
- Creatures 3 (released in 1999)
- Creatures Adventures (released in 2000)
- Creatures Playground (released in 2000)
- Docking Station (released in 2001)
- Creatures Online is in development, and was originally announced as Creatures 4. It is due out the end of 2014.
Images for kids
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The statue of a Shee in Creatures 2. This is one of very few official in-game appearances of the Shee. (There are more hidden deeper in the game.)
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Creatures 2 added 16-bit graphics and a larger world
