Creatures Caves | Community

An interview with GirlySatan regarding her upcoming Creatures 1 world and the development of it.

Submitted by GirlySatan and Jessica for the Creatures Community Spirit Festival 2013

Q: What inspired you to make a new world for C1?

A: Like many other C1 players, I had so many addons for my worlds that it got tiring whenever I had to start a new one. There are room expansions, foods, vendors, toys, and the like. Once you go in and add them all, sometimes you run into problems where not everything would be added in if you didn’t save, or it would crash the world and you would have to start all over. I just wanted a world that was ready with all the food and toys and animals, and there are so many other things I would want to have that aren’t available for C1 worlds. Sometimes having some more complicated coding on an animal or toy makes it more fun or exciting for a player. And it’s been so long that anyone has made anything for C1, that I just wanted to give back something to everyone that wanted the same things I did. Over time I kept thinking of more and more ideas that it just started to cumulate into this new world, and I decided that it should be done.

Q: Why did you choose the original Creatures instead of the other Creatures games?

A: The last new world for C1 was made over ten years ago, and I figured it might be time for something new.

Q: What was your favorite part of making the world?

A: Seeing the objects in the world. Once I had all the sprites done, and I had finished the coding, and finally hit "Inject into Albia," the amount of satisfaction and joy I got out of that was unprecedented. I still giggle and clap about how cute the objects are when I finally see them in game.

Q: What was your least favorite part of making the world?

A: Having to redo sprites on an object after I started to code something for it. Spriting is hard enough, but once I finish some sprites and realize the colors aren’t right, or something else isn’t right, its so aggravating!

Q: For future world makers, what were some of the problems you ran into?

A: You will run into problems no matter what. Even when you plan everything meticulously, you still will forget something and have to fix it. Whether it's sprite poses, background fixes, recoding the sprite numbers, or something not working the way you want it, you will run into something. But it’s all worth it! I don’t care that it has taken so long, considering I am only one person working on it, it’s completely worth the time and effort.

Q: Will you be showing some previews for the community?

A: I stream the coding and testing I have been doing usually once a week, but there isn’t a set time for when I do it. I kind of just do it when I have time, but I announce when I do, so just keep an eye out!

Q: Why has it taken you so long?

A: I did most of the sprites by editing existing sprites and adding more color depth to them, which took a long time because I had so many (probably around 4000-5000 sprites all together). I actually had more, then I found out that aqua colors don’t transfer well into sprite format, so I had to throw out all of those. Besides aqua, some of my other colors had to be redone so they would show up properly when I switched them over from BMP to sprite format. After that, when I started coding I ran into all kinds of issues where I realized some sprites were missing what I needed (like laying down sprites for some vegetables, partially eaten plant sprites, etc), and when I needed to add them to the sprite files, it changed the number of sprites, which I had to fix in all the other objects I had just written. Oy. So that’s just some of the problems I ran into so far. I also had problems making sure the object numbers were correct, or ordered correctly. Plus I am only one person, so it probably is a lot slower than a collaborative project.

Q: What will be included with the completed world? Plants? Critters? Any surprises?

A: Besides some of the regular objects (herb, food, drink, vendor, etc.) I have added lots of herbs and weeds, roots, vegetables, fruits, fungus, weather, insects, lots of animals, and maybe some statues and other history bits.

Q: How will you be releasing this project? As a whole world, or as individual COBs?

A: The whole world by itself will be available for people who don’t want to look at the programming. I will also have the individual COBs for each item available.

Q: What has helped keep you motivated?

A: Actually, my depression has kept me working on it. I find it relieving and helpful to focus on it when I am depressed because it keeps me going on things that are more important for my attention. It's also a nice break for me during school because it’s not related whatsoever to anything I do for homework or studying. It helped a lot, too, to paste some of the sprites into the background just to see what it would look like in the world. I was even more motivated once I started streaming the work I was doing to community members, because they were so excited to see all the new fruits and vegetables I had made.

Q: Do you have a tentative release date?

A: Honestly I am not sure, but I am aiming for spring 2014 right now. I have gotten through coding several groups, but there’s still some ways to go. The hardest groups are probably going to be the last, such as the vendors and the animals. But who knows, I have done really well coding animals quickly!