Creatures
Life Simulation - Creatures Labs, 1996
Designed by Steve Grand, Creatures tasks players with raising and caring for aliens called Norns. Among other virtual pet games of the time, Creatures set itself apart by simulating it's pets genomes, brain activity, vitals, and biochemistry. Norn begin as eggs and have a lifespan ranging around five to fourty real world hours, during which they'll grow up, explore, learn how to speak, and eventually have little baby Norn of their own to look after.
It's a series I feel really strongly about. Norns, and later Ettin and Grendel in Creatures 2, 3, and Docking Station, are contained to a single 40-70KB file that's designed to be shared over the internet. The games have a robust modding community, and thanks to tools like the Genetics Kit, making and sharing custom breeds and unique genomes is super easy. Since genomes and personality are contained to one file, and because custom breeds can cross-breed with each other and with any vanilla species, every Creature you hatch or find online is going to be special in some way. (If you've got the mods downloaded already anyway- but people are usually pretty upfront about that.)
Like a lot of artificial life games, it takes a lot of patience and it's definately got a heavy learning curve, especially if you get easily attached to virtual pets. Unfortunately, since Creatures is an older game, that also means finding documentation is a pain in the ass. Given that the game emulates your Creature's biochemistry, it's probably best to play with the wiki open in the background, that way you don't accidentally fire your Norn off into space through the airlock.
But if 90's a-life jank doesn't turn you away and you're still interested, all of the games have been re-released on Steam and GoG! I'd personally recommend starting with Creatures 1- it's vibes are immaculate if you like early CGI and pre-rendered backgrounds- but my favorite is Creatures 3. I also included some links to some fansites below, if you're ever interested in giving alien-rearing a shot!
article added 04/05/2025
★★★☆☆