Breeders Beware

It came to my attention a while back that the developer's resources for the Creatures games are scattered pretty widely across the web, which can make it 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 made this page.

The resources section is meant to serve as an index of developer's tools, mostly for those who wish to create 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.

Please note: the resources section is currently being revamped. Some tutorials may disappear from the list while this is underway.

Click on one of the tabs above to see resources in that category.

Lists and Values

C3/DS List of Chemicals
A list of the chemicals that can be found in the game, along with the numerical values used to identify them in genetics and CAOS commands.

Cellular Automata ("Smells")
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 new metarooms.

Development Tools

CAOS Tool
The one tool no Windows Agenteer should ever go without. Forget Notepad or other text editing programs; the CAOS Tool has basic text editing functionality, but it also colors your code for easier readability, "proof reads" it for errors, and can even inject new code into your game on the fly. No need to drop .cos files in your Bootstrap folder just to test them, ever again!

Easy PRAY
Cannot be used to create egg agent files (use PRAYEgger for that), but it is still a great tool for miscellaneous smaller agents.

C3 Genetics Kit
The tool for creating and editing genomes for new and existing C3 and DS breeds.

Map Editor
Create your own metaroom, save it as a .cos file, and/or inject it straight into the game with this tool.

PRAY Builder
The "guts" and "brain" of agent compilation. Whether you start out with Easy PRAY or the PRAYEgger, or even write your own PRAY files by hand, you'll still need PRAY Builder to take that PRAY file and turn it into a finished agent.

SpriteBuilder
Import and export sprites into bitmap format, copy and paste sprites, or generate and import whole sprite sheets. Pair with your favorite image editing software and go to town!

Agent Tutorials

CAOS Chaos: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
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.

Metamorphosing Toy Tutorial
This tutorial was designed for beginners looking to take the next step in agent engineering, by introducing two very useful concepts: variables and conditions.

Creating a Metaroom, Part 5: Agents
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.

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.

Basic Plant Script
How to make a plant that grows, seeds and dies. 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 nicely: if there's something you don't quite understand about one, reading through the other may help.

Basic Lift Script
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.

Bounding Box Tutorial
A review of three common problems relating to agent sprites and bounding boxes, including bounding box errors and floating agents.

Metaroom Tutorials

Using the Map Editor
Explains how to use the Map Editor to create a brand-new metaroom, from importing your background image and defining the walls, floor and ceiling of your room to exporting it for use in the game.

Creating a Metaroom, Part 4: In-game
The Making your room into an agent section covers how to export the parameters for your room into a .cos file, and how to expand the map so your metaroom won't have to clash with other people's.

Creating a Metaroom, Part 6: Music & CA
This page includes an explanation of how to code a .mng (music file), as well as a good introduction to Cellular Automata (smells, light and heat), Rooms, Links, and Emitters.

Breed Tutorials

ATT Tutorial
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.

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.

Miscellaneous

Creature Clothes Tutorial
How to make wearable clothing that you can put on your creatures in Creatures 3 and Docking Station.

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.

Troubleshooting

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.

The Creatures series is © Gameware Development. Breeders Beware is a non-profit fansite run by Ghosthande and is not affiliated with Gameware, nor intended to infringe upon their copyright in any way.