A user from this site visited Creaturetopia and requested that a thread like this be made, so I've taken the initiative to start it.

Getting Started- How To Play Creatures

Because this series is open-ended by its very nature, I'm not going to tell you *how* to play the game. That's largely up to you. I will say there is a wide variety of ways to "play" the game: some people hatch a handful of eggs and raise a few creatures at a time, others fill their world(s) with as many creatures as the game can handle. Some people baby their creatures, others leave them to their own devices and simply observe their behavior and development over generations (this kind of play is usually referred to as a wolfling run or a feral run). Some people are more interested in development than raising creatures, and they use their art and/or programming skills to make new breeds (sometimes by creating a new genome, sometimes by designing an entirely new creature with its own sprites), new objects (called COBs or agents, depending on the game), or even new worlds or metarooms.

You'll notice that almost all of the links above point to the same place: the Creatures Wiki. This is one of many useful Creatures sites that you should keep bookmarked, but I'll address that later.

Addons, Patches, and Upgrades

Like most games, the Creatures series games has its fair share of glitches and bugs. Some are relatively harmless and humerous, but others can make the game incredibly tedious to play at times. The current owners of the franchise, Gameware Development, have downloads of most of the game patches available on their web site that I strongly suggest you at least browse. The following is a list of links of useful downloads for your games:

Creatures 1
Official Addon and Patch List

Creatures 2
Official Addon and Patch List
Cann Norn Genome- Updates the game's base genomes; HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Creatures 3
Official Addon and Patch List]

Docking Station
Official Addon List and Free Download- Note that the Norn breeds here will ALSO work with C3!

Creatures Village
-None-

*Please note that due to the games' directories being altered that some of these updates may not be able to be installed at this time. Other players are currently trying to figure out how to fix this*

3rd Party Content/Game Mods

One of the greatest things about the Creatures series is how easy it is for the fanbase to create content for the games. It would take pages for me to list it all, so I'll simply throw up the Creatures Wiki links (which are not fully comprehensive at this time) and allow you to browse for yourself:

Creatures 1
Breeds
COBs
Worlds

Creatures 2
Breeds
COBs
Worlds

Creatures 3/Docking Station
Agents (C3)
Agents (DS)
Breeds- Note that ALL C3 breeds are compatible with DS, and vice-versa
Metarooms - Not all rooms are compatible with both games; please check the wiki pages and/or readme files for the metaroom you're interested in to make sure it will run in your game.

Tutorials

Tutorials are usually written for users who wish to make their own custom content for the game (or install said custom content).

Agents/COBs
The Basics of CAOS- CAOS is the scripting language of the games.
Agent File Overview
Installing Agents (Video)
Installing COBs
CAOS Chaos- A set of fanmade tutorials concerning CAOS in C3/DS
COB Creation Overview- Another set of fanmade tutorials, this time for C2 COBs
The Creatures Development Network- The official resource for tutorials and content-creating programs

Breeds and Genetics
Norn Art Tutorials- A fanmade guide to making breed sprite art in PSP, Photoshop, or similar program
C1 Genetics and Biochemistry
C2 Genetics and Biochemistry
C3/DS Genetics and Biochemistry

Cheats, Easter Eggs, and Shortcuts
A List of C3/DS CAOS Commands
A Cheat and Easter Egg List

Useful Web Sites
Creatures Labs- Official Site; essentially closed now
Creatures Development Network- Official development site; essentially closed
Adventures in Nornsitting- A C2 site with many interesting norn breeds; inactive
Amanora's Creatures- a fansite full of creatures and new breeds to download for all games; inactive
Amber Creatures- A site with tutorials, new breeds, and patches for the games; active
Breeders Beware- a fanrun site with some lovely C3/DS content; active
Creaturetopia- Fan-run forum; active
Creatures Caves- Fan-run site with forum; active
Helen's Bibble Directory- A fan-run site with lots of 3rd party content and some tutorials; inactive
JayD's Creatures 2 Workshop- TONS of fanmade content for C2; inactive
Mummy's Creatures- a fanmade site with an incredible amount of content (mostly breeds and individual creatures) for all of the games; active
Naturing::Nurturing- A blog run by a current player of the series, Amaikokonut, that explores new developments for the game. An incredibly interesting read, IMHO, if nothing else.
Norngirl's Paradise Plaza- Lots of content for all of the games; active
The Creatures Wiki- Possibly the most comprehensive resource on all things Creatures-related available

I'm sure I'm missing something crucial, so if those of you who already are familiar with the game feel I've skipped something, please post it!

Thank you for taking the time to make this :) I haven't played the Creatures series in ages, so it's nice to have this resource to download all these goodies for the games.

This is exactly true

This is very helpful :)

Could someone provide agents that will help with C3's ecology?

http://creatures.virtualheaven.nl/ <--- this has some fixes to the ecology in C3, and other fixes to Docking Station as well.

Hope that helps ;]

That website doesn't seem to be working :(

Very nice.

I'll be taking a look at the Creatures games and this thread looks very useful indeed.

Thanks :) It's working fine for me. Maybe it was just a temporary problem.

Here's the link. Give it a try.

Hmm must have been temporary after all. Works fine now, thanks a bunch :)

No problem ;)

Took me a while, but I finally got the genetics kit to be able to import eggs with the GoG versions of C3/DS.

The genetics kit is looking for the DS/C3 install in:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\CyberLife Technology\Docking Station

The GoG version puts the self same information in:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Gameware Development\Docking Station

The solution to get the genetics kit to work is a registry edit, as I couldn't find a config file for the program it's self. You edit the registry at your own risk, it's not a toy!

The easiest way to fix this is to open 'regedit', export "Docking Station" from the "Gameware Development" directory, and save it some where. Then open up the file you saved with a text editor and replace "Gameware Development" with "CyberLife Technology". Then import the file.

For Creatures 2 users, this is important to know about:

http://creatures.wikia.com/wiki/OHSS

The Solution to it is to download either the Canny Norns or Nova Subterra.

To install the third party or official addons you'll need a simple Patch which fixes the registry issues:

Download the Creatured Remastered Patch:
www.webpetz.com/creatures/remasters.php

Don
AmberCreatures
http://www.webpetz.com/creatures/