A Return to Creatures and a Grendel Sort of Surprise
That absence was quite long enough! Between work and family, I had to take a very reluctant, but necessary, break from Creatures. I’m still amazed that it’s been nearly two months: The catching up part has made me wish I had been playing Creatures everyday! Fortunately, life is beginning to calm down enough to let me enjoy the games once again. Perhaps better still, the return of Discover Albia comes with a much anticipated release.
Believe it: The male C1 Grendels have been completed! All three life stages have been edited in terms of body data and sprites to correct a few major issues, while improving the appearance and gait of the Grendels. Pictured are an elder, adult, and baby Grendel from Creatures 1. Most sprites were reworked in some way: Take note of the baby, for he has a much smaller crest! This lets him grow into his body a little more realistically.
Admittedly, this updated Creatures 1 Grendel is far from perfect. Yet I rather think this fits in with the atmosphere of the game. Imperfections should be minor, though: No one should find mixed up sprites or gaping holes anywhere! Feel free to contact me regarding anything that needs a serious change. I’ve done a fair bit of testing, although I can’t say that I’ve been able to observe every single pose in every life stage. There really are a lot of positions that Grendels can pose or move about in!
Enjoy these Grendels! Once any possible kinks are ironed out, I will be using the body data and sprites to release an update for the Creatures 1 female Grendels. The tricky part will be creating an entirely new head design, but I hope the end result will make Grendels seem a little more enjoyable to play with! Expect to see more frequent updates in the coming week, particularly as I make my return to my worlds in Creatures 1 and Docking Station. Genetics lessons and other ideas are also planned! When do I not have way too many ideas? Ha!
Download the Creatures 1 Complete Updated Grendel
All .att files are body data files, and should be placed in the C1 Body Data folder. All .spr files are sprite files, and should be placed in the C1 Images folder. These are meant to update already installed .att/.spr files.
What a way to make a comeback.
The grendels are all nice and dandy, but I’m more pleased to see another blogger come back. The silence was starting to get annoying.
I was surprised to see the recent silence, Grendel Man. It meant less catching up to do, but hopefully the lull in activity is just a temporary measure. Maybe it means that everyone will be coming back around the same time! I’ve got a few other projects I promised to work on, but I’m itching to get back into the actual gameplay element. I love writing about my Norns and Grendels: It’s a nice mix of a dramatized documentary, although I tend to dramatize the eating of a carrot. Ha ha! I look forward to following along with your new world! It takes a bit of work to document everything, but I feel like it makes the creatures seem a little more alive. Talk to you soon!
ah i was wondering when you would be coming back and this is the best welcoming back present in the world
i agree on the silence front though but i think people are getting antsy about creatures 4 being held back til the 4 quarter
Yay, good to see you back again. Will test out the new Grendel sprites next time I boot up, which will hopefully be pretty soon. I love the sprites for the old age, especially what you’ve done with the ears.
Also, thanks for the email with the details on your two adopted Norns. My next post will be about Kalimeris, but you’ll be happy to know he’s doing really well.
Lilliumbird: I’m glad you like them! I think the delay on Creatures 4 has something to do with the silence, too. I know I was a bit disappointed, although I completely understand that more time is needed to deliver a quality product. I’d much rather wait than end up with a shoddy product… I think antsy is exactly the right word, though!
ArchDragon: Thanks! The elder sprites are actually entirely new: I recolored every single sprite from the adult males in order to make them. I know it’s nothing spectacular or ground breaking, but I was pretty proud of the end result! As a comparison, you can see examples of elder male Grendels Here and Here. I also changed the crest in adults and elders so it’s not as long: There was almost a 90 degree turn in it which looked unrealistic. That change should be subtle enough, though!
I’ll be looking forward to seeing how Kalimeris is doing in your next post!
Wow this is truly amazing work to see.
I am highly impressed with the fixed limbs and new sprite sets for all male Grendels different life stages. This is a great development for the creatures community as it has fixed a problem that has been in dire need of fixing for as long as the series has existed!
Now that the males have been completed I feel the question should be raised as do you plan in porting this new creation to C1toDs?
Thanks so much! One possible issue is the body data for the feet: In looking at the Grendels, they might be walking a little too far above the ground. Luckily, that’s an easy fix if it turns out to be a problem! Everyone is encouraged to report any issues!
My plan is to eventually make the updated Grendel available for both C2 and C3/DS. The next step is making sure there are no issues with the males, then I’ll be moving onto the females. After that, porting them over will be high on my list of priorities! I believe it was Grendel Man who pointed out how the foot problems make it difficult or impossible for female Grendels to navigate slopes in the later games. The C1 Grendels shall walk properly again, I promise!
Well I’m back again,
Firstly thank you for replying to my comment.
I really appreciate you taking the time out of your day to do so.
In regards to problems with the Grendels feet I’m really pleased to read that the symptom of them walking above the ground can be easily fixed. As long as I’ve been playing Creatures it has always frustrated me that Grendles bodies were so broken, or missing various sprites for different life stages. As the series moved from C1 to C2 it seems Grendles became more and more broken and crippled looking. And I have to admit sometimes watching them turning and walking looked down right painful as there limbs tended to bend or move in ways which would normally be bone breaking. So I for one are extremely happy that you have fixed an issue that has been plaguing Grendels for far too long! I am glad you are considering creating and porting various different versions for C2 and C3/DS as its about time that Grendels got the love and care they truly deserved. I will be looking forward to seeing the outcome of this project. Good luck with fixing female Grendels broken feet and I really hope C1toDs will allow you to add the new fixes to it also.
Please let me know if the issue with the placement of the Grendel’s feet should be fixed! It’s really just a matter of changing a few coordinates in two body data files per life stage. It just drove me insane how the originals had their anchors set in different positions, depending on the pose.
A lot of the Grendel issues are attributed to mixed up sprites, where a couple of images were in the wrong position. You can actually find some quick updates for the female Grendels Here, although this original update has a few fixes for the males that should be ignored with this version. Aside from the head and recoloring each image, the females shouldn’t be too big of a project! The real work will probably be porting them over to C2 and C3/DS. Perhaps a CCSF 2012 release?
Well I’m back again for the third time.
and to answer your question, yes I would be extremely grateful if you fixed the placement of the Grendel’s feet as you might as well try to correct all faults since your already going to the trouble of correcting other problems with both the male and female Grendel’s movements and body data.I’m not sure what happened when Cyberlife were coding the Grendels anchors as it seems they really dropped the ball on that factor.
Thank you for explaining to me about what causes the Grendel issues as I never really fully understood what was the cause of there odd looking limb positions and backwards feet. I will be trying out the fixes you posted too with great pleasure! :)
As for the female Grendels I’m glad that they will be a more simple fix than the males were. And yes I can see that porting them to C2 and C3/DS will be a major task to complete as theres so much data and images that have to be altered and corrected for each different game. But all that being said I do feel you are correct it would be a thrilling and most welcome addition to CCSF 2012 as I for one would be highly happy to see it as part of that :)
I’ll be posting a quick update about the Grendels in the next day or two to gather anymore requests. I imagine a fix should be out over the weekend, provided the changes are minor. Hopefully all C1 Norns and Grendels will eventually walk in the same area of the ground! Some are quite a bit lower than others, and I don’t think it’s due to extra weight!
I almost think that a C3/DS version would be more popular than a C2 version, although it seems like it’s easier to port from C2 to C3/DS than directly from C1 to C3/DS. It will happen, even if I have to end up politely passing the project onto someone else if I start tearing my hair out! C1 Grendels deserve to at least move around correctly in the later games.
Thanks for your responses, Anonymous!
Have you made any adjustments to the Grendel’s feet yet? I’m testing them out right now and I have to say they look pretty firmly planted to me. There are some areas in the world where the ground isn’t flat that make them look a little floaty, but that seems to happen with the Norns too.
I’m rather amazed at the change actually. Some movements are subtle, but positions like facing the front are just completely different now. I love the changes and it appears Bilp, my resident Grendel does too. As soon as I added the files he came off his island and has been eating and playing much better. I don’t think I’ve seen a Grendel so happy!
I haven’t made any changes yet: If it seems like they’re working well, I’ll definitely take a closer look to see if an update is warranted! It very well may be the mapping of the world that’s the real issue. I might test out some other positioning, but the end result should be a small change in the 1-4 pixel range. Still, I’d love these to be as correct as possible!
I’m glad you’re enjoying them! The facing forward and backward positions should be totally different: I was very happy when I got that worked out! No more backwards arms! Were you able to notice the changes with preexisting Grendels? I found that I needed to create a new Grendel in order to see the changes. Hurray for Bilp! I can’t wait to move onto the females. I’m only holding off so I don’t have to end up changing more files than I need to. I’m so happy that this update is going over so well!
I thought you mentioned somewhere that you’d need to hatch a new Grendel to see the effects, but it seems to have just worked for me.