Creature Labs Release Online Creatures Game
Cambridge, England - Creature Labs have today announced the global 27th March 2001 online release of Creatures Docking Station.
Creatures Docking Station is a completely free online title that can be downloaded from the studio's website at http://www.creatures.net/dockingstation. The title went through a lengthy open beta-testing period and is now soft-launched in the UK on 27th March 2001. Be one of the first in the world to play the game. Try it out now!
The title enables users to find each other and exchange creatures in real time over the Internet from within the game. Once users have found others with whom to link up, they can connect via "warp portals" within the game. The creatures themselves can choose to travel or "warp" through wormholes between the players' worlds, visiting any user who is connected to their portal. A central server routes connections and gathers information about each individual creature that passes through the system and saves that data to a database.
Creature Labs also plans on bundling Docking Station with Creatures 3, and this will feature a brand new breed of Creature that's exclusive to the retail boxed title in the upcoming Creatures Internet Edition.
"Docking Station has gone through extensive public beta testing and we've seen some incredible results," says Mark Ashton, the title's producer. "It's been fascinating to see what large numbers of the little guys get up to online. Users are able to communicate in ways they never could before. Players have set themselves up old age homes for Norns or Genetic engineering specialists."
Because the title will be easily downloadable by anyone, Docking Station has the potential of pulling in a much wider audience to the Creatures series. Creatures has attracted more than a million users to its unique combination of science and nurturing and more than 4 years after the launch of the first in the series, sales of all three titles in the series are still strong.
A dedicated website will also allow users to see statistics on all the Creatures that pass through the server, such as longest-lived, most mutated, oldest, etc, as well as view information about its genetic background, family history and detailed information about its voyages around the Internet.
The Norns in Creatures Docking Station display real feelings such as hunger, pain, happiness and boredom and posses a form of virtual DNA, so they can inherit characteristics from their digital ancestors and pass them on to their offspring. The Creatures also posses a neural network for control and learning as well as elementary language skills with which they can communicate with the user and with each other. Users can also peek "under the hood" using Genetics and Biochemistry kits from Creature Labs.
With the Creature Labs websites consistently attracting one million page impressions a month combined with the huge number of independent fan sites on the web, Docking Station is sure to be a big hit with both new and existing players.
The title enables users to find each other and exchange creatures in real time over the Internet from within the game. Once users have found others with whom to link up, they can connect via "warp portals" within the game. The creatures themselves can choose to travel or "warp" through wormholes between the players' worlds, visiting any user who is connected to their portal. A central server routes connections and gathers information about each individual creature that passes through the system and saves that data to a database.
Creature Labs also plans on bundling Docking Station with Creatures 3, and this will feature a brand new breed of Creature that's exclusive to the retail boxed title in the upcoming Creatures Internet Edition.
"Docking Station has gone through extensive public beta testing and we've seen some incredible results," says Mark Ashton, the title's producer. "It's been fascinating to see what large numbers of the little guys get up to online. Users are able to communicate in ways they never could before. Players have set themselves up old age homes for Norns or Genetic engineering specialists."
Because the title will be easily downloadable by anyone, Docking Station has the potential of pulling in a much wider audience to the Creatures series. Creatures has attracted more than a million users to its unique combination of science and nurturing and more than 4 years after the launch of the first in the series, sales of all three titles in the series are still strong.
A dedicated website will also allow users to see statistics on all the Creatures that pass through the server, such as longest-lived, most mutated, oldest, etc, as well as view information about its genetic background, family history and detailed information about its voyages around the Internet.
The Norns in Creatures Docking Station display real feelings such as hunger, pain, happiness and boredom and posses a form of virtual DNA, so they can inherit characteristics from their digital ancestors and pass them on to their offspring. The Creatures also posses a neural network for control and learning as well as elementary language skills with which they can communicate with the user and with each other. Users can also peek "under the hood" using Genetics and Biochemistry kits from Creature Labs.
With the Creature Labs websites consistently attracting one million page impressions a month combined with the huge number of independent fan sites on the web, Docking Station is sure to be a big hit with both new and existing players.