Okay. So. I'm here, I've messed around to make sure I remember exactly what I'm doing, and now want to start a new world from scratch. I go in, i use the backup utility, i hit "New World", yes, and run the game again. The world is the same as I left it. I try deleting world.sfc like I sometimes had to in my old copy - that doesn't work either? Now what do I do?

Evidently I missed the answer to this posted on another thread. GOG decided to toss everything around and make it mildly bafffling. If anyone else is looking for the answer, here's the bit of info I found a few topics ago, from Laura:
"As for reseting your world, although the Emergency Kit does not seem to do that, if you go to My Computer ( Make sure that your game is no longer running first! ) and access the main Creatures 1 directory (Program Files/GOG.com/Creatures Albian Years/Creatures 1) you should a find a file called World.sfc . Delete that file, and then find another file in there called Eden.sfc . Make a copy of that file and rename it to World.sfc.
When you start up Creatures 1 again your world should be as good as new!"

I'm not sure that GoG is responsible, though I wish they could have done something about it. Creatures: The Albian Years is a retail bundle, presumably assembled by Gameware, who currently owns Creatures. It's been available at places like Amazon for longer than it's been on GoG.
We need to set up an FAQ thread or something in this forum for the various Creatures issues that continue to pop up. I wonder if the mods would sticky it?

At the risk of necro'ing a thread, the original solution of renaming Eden.sfc is *NOT* working for me. My world is pretty messed up...

Perhaps these steps will help you out:

1.) Navigate to C:\Program Files\GOG.com\Creatures Albian Years\Creatures 1.
2.) Locate the file named Eden.sfc and make a copy of it.
3.) Navigate to Documents\Creatures\Creatures 1.
4.) Paste the copy of Eden.sfc in this location.
5.) Either delete or rename the world.sfc file that is located in Documents (not Program Files).
6.) Rename the copy of Eden.sfc to world.sfc.

I hope this helps! Remember that the GOG.com version of Creatures The Albian Years stores some data in Program Files, and others in Documents/My Documents. Please let us know if you need any more help: A messed up world is never much fun!

Good luck!

This is the solution that was not working for me. Is there another solution or work around?

The other instances of a world.sfc that looks recent are located in Documents\Creatures\Creatures 1\Backup and Documents\Creatures\Creatures 1\TempBu. I've never touched these files before, but perhaps removing them and putting the new world.sfc in these locations will work? I'll be creating a new C1 world sometime this week, and I can see if this makes a difference.

There originally was an Emergency Kit included with Creatures 1 which allowed you to create a new world at the click of a button. This process is just the manual way of doing this, although I do miss that kit. It made things so easy!

I just tested out the solution listed to create a new Creatures 1 world, and it worked for me. I'm not sure why else this would not work. What version of Windows are you using? The Eden.sfc method should work: I know I've used this in the past, and have had no problems. One way to make sure it's working is to follow the method, load your world, quit, and then check to see if the new world.sfc was updated to the current date and time. I believe Eden.sfc was created in 1997, so the change should be pretty obvious! I'm not sure what else to tell you, though, although this is baffling!

OMG i love that other people are playing creatures too....heres me thinking i was the only one. I also need to make a new world in creatures one because i have now read the manual and had a play around in my current world and feel confident to be able tp care for a new world! I will try what was suggested and update.. Thanks

i just tried to create a new world but cant even find where or how to get into the program C:\Program Files\GOG.com\Creatures Albian Years\Creatures 1 could someone thake me through it step by step....and probably even dumb it down even more please. sorry...

Great to see another Creatures player, Raezhunt! You will need to navigate to the directory of your computer's files: Often found under My Computer, or even Documents. I believe you can also go into Windows Explorer: I'm pretty sure that's what it's called!

Then, it's just a matter of finding each file. The C: drive is often called "Local Disk (C:)" and can be expanded. You would then look for Program Files, then GOG.com, and so on.

I'm a bit on the terrible side when it comes to explaining these things, only because I often navigate through it all the time and have become used to it. Let me know if that helps any, or if you have any other specific questions.

Hopefully you'll have a new world up and running in no time!