Basic gameplay consists of hatching some creatures, usually norns, and guiding them to reach maturity and to breed more creatures, with the goal of a more intelligent future population. Words can be taught to creatures by a learning computer (for verbs) or by repeating the name of the object while the creature is looking at it. After a creature understands language, the player can instruct their creature by typing in instructions, which the creature may choose to obey—the player gets the impression that the norns can understand the player, but do not want to follow the player's commands. Addressing individual creatures by their names, and issuing specific commands, such as "Alice push toy", is recommended, as is following up with rewards if they obey: the player is represented by a disembodied hand in the world, and the hand can attempt to teach creatures by tickling them as a reward or punishing creatures by slapping them.) Older norns can also teach concepts to younger norns. Norns may also express to the player how they are feeling. The language aspect was incorporated to promote a relationship between norns and players, allowing players to
anthropomorphise their creatures. Players usually actively administer their worlds, adding in objects to help their creatures thrive. A complete life cycle is modelled for the creatures—childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and
senescence, each with their own particular needs. Breeding is depicted in the game as "a delicate affair", and is shown in the game by "a long kissing sound followed by a pop". The gameplay is designed to foster an emotional bond between the player and their creatures. Death has real consequences—the individual norns do not return after they die. Some alternate play styles include "wolfling runs", where the player may not intervene in their creatures' lives, or even norn torture. Trying to selectively breed or engineer certain traits into the population is also popular, for example, coloured creatures, norns with a better
immune system, or a less-aggressive grendel.
Species ;Norns A Norn is an AIL (Artificial intelligent life) species, the development and survival of which constitute the main thematic elements of the program. Norns are playful, all-trusting, naive creatures that love to explore. This is often the reason for their downfall, suffering, and death. They are more susceptible to disease in comparison to Ettins and Grendels, and in old age they may fall prey to a wasting disease that prevents them from absorbing certain nutrients. Grand wished Norns to be endearing and for players to keep them as pets—that they should be independent and stubborn, like toddlers, that the design of the norn should be appealing to as many people as possible, and that the player should care about the norns. Reviewers have compared the Norns' visual design to the Mogwai of the
Gremlins film series. The Shee originally created the Norns as a mixture of
valet and pet. According to the Creatures Labs website, they spread across the galaxy through the Warp and evolved into various variations, including but not restricted to: Toxic Norn, Treehugger Norn and Magma Norns. The spread of Norns throughout the galaxy is related to the mysterious disappearance of the Shee from Albia (from the point of view of the Norns). It may also be a sign of how the Shee fared in their attempt to find a habitable planet. In the games, the Norns have their own simulated biochemistry, haploid genetics, and
neural network to serve as a brain. From
Creatures 2 onwards, Norns also possess organs determined by their genetics; sometimes to the extent that they will prefer to play with other norns than to eat. ;Shee ''. This is one of very few official in-game appearances of the Shee. (There are more hidden deeper in the game.) The Shee are a race of absent-minded scientists. They are the original inhabitants of Albia, and the creators of the Norns, Ettins, and Grendels. The Shee are all inventors, and make most of their inventions to save time on tasks that would have taken but a few minutes otherwise. Most of their discoveries are made by accident, and as such, they sequenced their own
DNA and eliminated all genetic defects, before discovering the wheel. Millennia ago, the Shee had left the disk-shaped world of Albia, as they desired to live on a "more spherical world". They created the Shee Ark, took along some Norns, Ettins, and various animals and plants, and set out for their new home. The Shee Ark, like all Shee spacecraft, was itself a living creature grown from scratch, and used "Bioenergy" (the energy of living things, used to balance the game) to perform its various functions. Early concepts of the Shee had them as merely a more advanced life form than the Norns, not their creators. ;Ettins Ettins are a species in
Creatures 2 and
Creatures 3. Ettins were created by the Shee to help them on their experiments, especially when using machinery. They made them like machines so much, they tend to steal bits for themselves, often taking them to wherever they consider their home.
C2 Ettins behave rather differently; they tend to lead a sad and lonely life underground with no one but Pitz and the occasional Grendel for company. The backstory in the guides and manual, as well as the opening sequence, reveals that they once lived in the desert at the top of Albia and, true to their nature, built the pyramid that sits there. The actual use (if any) of the pyramid is unknown. Ettins were introduced into the
Creatures series in
C2, having been revealed to the world after the volcanic eruption. An early concept of the Ettins described them as insignificant "small, lizard-like creatures", who were often kept as pets by Norns. The
Creatures community has appeared to adopt the Grendel as an underdog figure, creating a "Grendel Liberation Front"—despite being intended to add stress to Norns' lives, players began to tame their Grendels.
Creatures 2 introduced an Ecology Kit and Neuroscience Kit. In
Creatures 3 and
Docking Station, players still use a hand as their mouse to interact with creatures and the world, but the main game area does not have toolbars like in
Creatures and
Creatures 2, but instead has areas along the sides of the screens with buttons that the user can press to move to different locations, view the current creatures in the world, manage an inventory of items, and change game settings.
Charlie Brooker regarded the level of detail shown in the monitoring kits as "terrifying", and it has been argued that the detailed monitoring kits highlight the artificiality of the norns. Peter Smith disliked the limitation of C1 that the player is "limited to seeing areas that you've tagged as favorite places or that are currently inhabited by Norns," and found it difficult to correctly reward and punish the creatures.
Creatures 2 introduced an angel and devil glyph which appears next to the hand to show you whether you are about to reward or punish your creature. Eddie Walou praised the simplified user interface of
Creatures 4, saying that earlier games felt like you had to have your
BAC to understand. Kahn Lusth, writing for
Canard PC, enjoyed the new interface of
Creatures Online for communicating with creatures, where with a click of the mouse the player can choose suggestions to guide their creatures, describing it as more convenient than typing keywords. To improve the ergonomics on the
iOS system, a 'rubber-band' system has been created for
Creatures Online, where the player draws a line between the norn and an object. When the finger is lifted, the available instructions appear.
Environment While the initial pitch was for a desktop pet that could interact with other Windows programs, for example,
Windows Media Player, Sarah Kember describes Albia as a "technological Eden". The world is rendered in
2.5D, and the world can smoothly scroll to follow a creature. The world contains many different items, which creatures can interact with in a variety of ways. Objects are written using an
object-oriented programming technique—each item has their own scripts which determine how they interact with creatures and with other objects. Objects are detected by a creature by being in its line of sight, which excites a neuron dedicated to that class of objects. All objects within the world are categorised, once a creature knows the name of one object, they will associate it with all other objects in that same grouping. The object-oriented approach means that the games are highly
modifiable. In
Creatures 2, the environment became more complex, with a "Complete working eco-system, including weather, seasons and a functioning food-chain. The plants seed and spread around the environment if conditions allow. The result of this is a very "real" feeling world that adapts around the player." ==Reception==