It came to my attention not long ago that the developer's resources for the Creatures games are scattered pretty widely across the 'net, which can make it very difficult to find good information. After seeing many new developers come onto the forums asking the same question--where can I find some good tutorials--I decided to do something about it.
This page is meant to serve as an index of developer's tools, primarily for the creation of new objects or metarooms. It lists all the juicy pages that I have found useful, organized by category, and rated for difficulty level and readability. This page is also where I will post any tutorials that I write myself; these will be marked by a star.
|
| | Resources | | Descriptions |
| CAOS Chaos
| The best three beginner's tutorials out there. This tutorial is for those of you who have never coded an object before. It also covers which programs you'll need to get started. Start with the tutorial at the bottom of the page and work your way up. |
| A Guide to Mac Agenteering
| If you use a Mac, there are a few things you'll want to know, a few things that are done differently, and a few differences in the tools you'll need. Although CAOS is the same on any OS, this will help you get started using the tools specific to Mac. |
| Classifier List
| This page lists the classifier numbers for the different object classes used within the game. Useful for determining what genus and species numbers you should use for a new object. |
| Agent attributes
| Gives an explanation of the values that can be used for ATTR (which determines the physics of the object), along with a description of related attributes which govern an agent's gravity, velocity, etc. |
| CAOS Categorial
| This resource is hidden on your very computer! To access it, go into your game and use Ctrl-Shift-C to open the command line. Type file oope 1 "CAOS categorical.html" 0 dbg: html 1 file oclo and "Caos categorical.html" will appear in your Docking Station/Journal folder. |
| C3/DS Chemical List
| This is a list of the chemicals that can be found in the game, and their numerical values. Applicable to CAOS development wherever you want to inject a Creature with something, or you could combine the information here with the CAOS Chaos tutorials and create a food that affects a Creature in an unusual way. |
Verb ID List / Drive ID List / Noun ID List 
| The game engine refers to the nouns, verbs and drives used by Creatures by numbers, not the actual words. This page lists which numbers correspond to which verbs and drives. If you want to adjust a Creature's drives or induce them to perform a certain action on a certain object, this page can help you figure out which number to use. |
| Cellular Automata
| This list covers all the defined CA's used by the game. Useful for making foods and plants emit the correct smell as well as Emitters for your metaroom. |
| Metamorphosing Toy Tutorial
| This tutorial was designed for beginners looking to take the next step in agent engineering, or intermediate coders just looking to learn some new tricks. It introduces two very useful concepts: variables and conditions. |
| Creating a Metaroom, Part 5
|
On this page you will find the Basic Land Critter Tutorial, which explains what timer scripts and subroutines are and how to use them effectively to make a critter that grows, walks about, and eventually dies. Intermediate. |
| Hungry Critter Tutorial
| A walkthrough of a basic hunting subroutine for a critter, illustrating how one goes about coding a critter that seeks out food. Intermediate. |
| Basic Plant Script
| Covers making a plant that grows, seeds and dies. Intermediate. A good tutorial if you're learning timer scripts and subroutines. This tutorial and the Creating a Metaroom, Part 5 listed above complement each other perfectly, in fact if there's something you don't quite understand about one, reading through the other may help you. |
| Basic Lift Script
| This article explains how to make an elevator that travels between two floors. Actually very little of the script provided needs to be modified for a new elevator. The trick is understanding which parts should be modified and which shouldn't. |
Close this section
|
|
| | Resources | | Descriptions |
| C3/DS Genetics Tutorial
| Titled for Creatures 3 but works just as well for DS. Offers an easy to understand introduction to how genetics work in C3/DS and how to edit them using the Genetics Kit. This tutorial is in downloadable PDF format. |
| Camera rigging in Blender
| If you are using Blender to make a 3D model of your Norn, this tutorial is essential. It explains how to set up cameras to render your model at the same angles used for the official breeds, which will prevent your breed from suffering lopsided body parts and inconsistent angles. |
| What is Green Spew?
| An explanation of the phenomenon nicknamed "green spew", and suggestions on how to cure it as well as prevent its appearance. |
| ATT Tutorial
| This tutorial explains how to understand ATTs, also known as body data files. These files are what tell the game how to connect the different parts of a Norn's body, so understanding how to change them is essential if your breed is differently shaped or proportioned from other Creatures. |
| Creating ATTs
| Another tutorial on editing ATTs, this time by Embri. Somewhat more complex but also more detailed than mine. |
| Egg Agent tutorial
| EasyPRAY cannot be used to create an egg agent, so you must code the PRAY file by hand. This tutorial explains how to write your own PRAY file which will tell PRAY builder how to compile an egg agent for you. |
Close this section
|
|
| | Resources | | Descriptions |
| Cheat Sheet
| All about cheats in C3/DS. How to use them, how not to use them, and how to go about "making" your own cheats. |
| Norn Poses
| A visual reference to all the poses found in the standard Norn genome. |
Close this section |
|
