openc2e - About

Creatures 1

Creatures 1 (or just Creatures), the first game in the Creatures series and the brainchild of Steve Grand, was initially released in 1996. It featured some of the most sophisticated artificial life yet seen in a commercial game product, in the form of cute, fuzzy creatures known as Norns and their ugly, violent counterparts, known as Grendels. The game, set in a circular world called Albia, allows players to interact with the world and the creatures themselves, teaching them and helping them to survive and breed (or the opposite, if they so choose).

Creatures 1 is currently the primary focus of development due to a lack of support on most platforms other than Windows, and is very well supported. The only conspicuous missing feature at present is the creatures themselves, although work to finish them is ongoing. The game world itself and the objects it contains work very well.

Creatures 2

Creatures 2, the first sequel in the series (1998), added a larger world, improved graphics, and a new species, known as Ettins. It is set in a post-volcanic-disaster Albia, where the creatures have been abandoned on the planet by their original creators, the Shee.

Creatures 2 also suffers from a lack of support on many platforms, including stability and incompatibility issues with modern versions of Windows (for example, it will not run on Windows Vista). Its game world works extremely well in openc2e aside from some minor physics issues, although support for the creatures is at about the same level as that for Creatures 1. It is currently considered high priority after Creatures 1 in the development process.

Creatures 3

The 3rd sequel, Creatures 3 (1999), was a major shift in the Creatures franchise. Using a completely rewritten game engine, it separated the world into multiple "metarooms" which could be traversed via doors. It also removed the various tool "kits" that were a staple of the earlier games, replacing them with a built-in GUI. The artificial intelligence was further improved and various new features added such as connectible devices, a room consisting almost entirely of user-manipulatable aquariums, and a complex game ecology. The game is set on a gigantic spaceship called the "Ark" that the Shee created then presumably left behind to explore the planet below.

In Creatures 3, most of the game world operates as expected, though it currently suffers from numerous physics bugs and various idiosyncrasies. Creatures can hatch and have a fully working biochemistry and a highly functional brain, as well as a limited ability to move around and act upon their various wants and needs. However, they cannot yet talk or interact with other creatures properly. The ingame music is also not yet working due to incomplete support for the MNG format. Fixing Creatures 3 problems is currently low priority due to the original game being supported by more platforms.

Docking Station

The final Creatures sequel, Docking Station is an "addon" for Creatures 3 that allows the player to send their Norns to other players over the Internet (the "warp"). It contains a few new rooms and a new Norn breed, and is free to download and play (it acts as its own standalone game when Creatures 3 is not installed).

Support for the DS game world and its Creatures is essentially the same as that for C3, with the additional caveat that networking support (ie, the ability to use the warp) is currently missing. Like C3, fixing problems with DS is currently lower priority than that for C1 and C2.

Other Games

We also have very limited support for parts of the games Creatures Adventures, Creatures Playground, and Amazing Virtual Sea-Monkeys.

openc2e is known to work very well on Windows and Linux, and at least reasonably well on Mac OS X. The code is designed to be portable, so it should be possible to make it work on other platforms, too!

openc2e support for third-party content is generally equivalent to the level of support for the games they are designed for. It's also possible to create content intended solely for openc2e, of course.

openc2e is written in C++, using libraries including SDL, Boost and Qt. See the Developers section for additional technical info.