Creatures Docking Station was the last major release in the Creatures franchise and initially came out in 2001.
The series was the brainchild of Steve Grand, a computer scientist on a quest to create artificial life. After several years of research, the first Creatures game was released.
Expansions and more games followed, building on the systems and concepts of the first game.
Yet despite the last major release celebrating its 20th anniversary earlier this year, the games have an enduring appeal and dedicated fans who still create mods.
Arguably, the depth in the simulated systems are unsurpassed in a game to this day.
The creatures in this game have a complex biochemistry, genetics with hundreds of genes, organs and neural network brains - which were once used in an attempt to teach them how to fly fighter jets.*
Beyond what typical pet simulations at the time offered, Creatures also had a world to discover which the player and the organisms within could interact with - other animals, plants, and food sources that were part of a larger ecology.
This world also contained dangers, from not-so-nice creatures to meet, as well as bacteria that can mutate and spread.
In the end, this game is a sandbox that masqueraded itself as a cute pet sim - as those were all the rage in the 90s when the series was big.
For those with an interest in watching emergent behavior, evolving genetics and biological systems in general, perhaps you will find playing this game interesting. The "Advanced Play" section in the manual you can find on the store page serves as a small introduction into what you can expect.
Returning players will find a number of changes in this release, as we have addressed a number of common complaints and bugs. Here is a list:
- Changes introduced in the "Exodus" versions were undone. This addresses a number of issues stemming from the split installation, such as incorrect tool tips as well as issues with mods and external tools.
- The default egg agents for Civet, Bruin and Bengal breeds in Creatures 3 has been removed. In their place only the patched "expressive" variant appears now which all other breeds are based on.
- Previously free breeds (Astro, Fallow, Harlequin, Magma, Siamese, Zebra) are already included, and in their extracted state. It is not necessary anymore to inject an egg to extract the sprites before importing creatures or using replacement genomes.
- The Chichi breed and associated files are included in our Creatures 3 build, so they are available by default in standalone Creatures 3 worlds.
- Docking Station will not require logging in, as the online features are not available any longer.
- The official Creatures 3 chemical list contained errors that have been fixed. The updated list is provided as a pdf file in your Creatures 3 install directory (check the documents sub-folder).
- Steam Cloud should back up your "My creatures" folders of both Creatures 3 and Docking Station.
- One music track was never heard due to a typo. This was fixed, which adds the track back to the game (including the world selector screen where it was always supposed to be playing).
- The Banshee Grendel updates (expanded & female Grendel voices, and Grendel compatibility scripts in standalone Docking Station) are now part of the Docking Station base build. This means the "Grendel update" does not have to be injected separately anymore.
- In Docking Station, a script that is supposed to take a photo of dying Creatures has been fixed.
- An error in Wolf Control when running on fast machines has been fixed (and it is invisible to cameras).
- Two potential memory leaks (Bramboo in DS and Grazer waste in C3) have been addressed.
- Volcano stones in C3 have been reclassified as "weather", as they have no actual toy-like functions.
- The umbilical is now considered a door instead of an elevator, as its function and the way creatures interact with it are more akin to a door than a typical Creatures elevator.
- In docked DS worlds, the grazers suddenly make a radar-like sound effect. It was suspected a DS agent may use this updated sound effect, but we did not find any and thus changed it back so the Grazers don't make radar sounds anymore.
- The elevators in DS should now be able to fit adult grendels and other large creatures.
- The import dialog sometimes did not display the correct head. This has been fixed.
- A language switcher was added so the language in DS can be changed freely between English, German and French.
- Dead links displayed in the injector were updated.
- Grettin Switch and Bio Pellets are included and ship in their extracted state (Rubber ball does too).
- Replaced a female ettin tail sprite that contained an error.
- Bacteria can't mutate into ATP decoupler anymore.
- Fruits out of reach aren't visible or emit smell anymore.
- Bramboo shouldn't go extinct anymore.
- Toxic Cookie Recipes are extracted by default and don't have to be separately injected anymore.
Stay tuned for more announcements, as we already have a list of more changes that we plan to provide as patches in the coming weeks and months.
* https://web.archive.org/web/19990117012705/http://www.newscientist.com/ns/980509/features.html