579
Backers
$56,818
pledged of $27,000 goal
0
seconds to go
Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on April 9, 2011.
Pledge $15 or more Pledge $15 or more
DONOR: A signed "thank you" postcard of Lucy the robot (signed by me, obviously - Lucy has no hands!)
Pledge $25 or more Pledge $25 or more
VOYEUR: A photo of Lucy or Grace, plus access to an exclusive online 'look over my shoulder' at the state of the game as it develops, my personal programming diary, explanations of the theoretical stuff, and my raw laboratory notes.
Pledge $50 or more Pledge $50 or more
TESTER: As for voyeurs, plus become an official beta tester with an influence on the game's development, and get a free copy of the game when it's final.
Pledge $75 or more Pledge $75 or more
GURU: The same as testers, but become an advanced 'community guru' beta tester, with back-door access to my personal development tools (gene editors, advanced medical monitors, etc.), plus detailed technical info and email support with the biology and game API, as well as access to a special discussion forum.
Pledge $100 or more Pledge $100 or more
SPONSOR: Be an advanced beta tester, plus get some game merchandise (e.g. a mug or mouse mat), and get a personal thank you in the in-game credits.
Pledge $500 or more Pledge $500 or more
SUPERHERO: As for sponsors, plus a signed and framed piece of original storyboard artwork or a page from my lab notebook, with my original experimental brain or biochemistry diagrams and notes on it. Think how much one of Leonardo's notebook pages is worth now ;-)
Pledge $1,000 or more Pledge $1,000 or more
FRIEND: All of that stuff and I'll buy you lunch (continental US only). I may even kiss your feet!
Project By
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I'm an independent scientist, writer, and long-time games programmer. I'm self-taught, which I think gives me an unusual perspective on things, but although I'm only a college dropout I've been lucky enough to be decorated by my country and legitimized as a scientist through an honorary doctorate and various research fellowships. A British newspaper once listed me as one of the 'Brains Behind the 21st Century.' I'm still trying my best to live up to that.
@Upuaut: Ok, I see you've logged into the site already, so I guess you must have found your log-in details after all! That's good. I guess they got spam filtered or something. I'm sorry it took a year for this to get sorted out.
No! Of course it's not dead! I'm working 14 hours a day on the project and I have 600 people discussing it every day on the project website!
Something has gone wrong somewhere. I'm pretty sure I emailed everyone who didn't show up at least once to tell them their log-in details or ask for their information. I'll track you down and try to figure out what's happened.
Is this really dead? No comments in more than half a year? Too sad I spend money here.....
Thanks Rob. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's a reskinning. The new developers make iPhone games, so I doubt they're planning quarter of a million lines of new C++ code. Gameware sold on the rights to this Belgian developer. You're right that it has nothing to do with this project (which will, of course, blow everything else out of the water! ;-)
Just saw this on Blue's News:
http://www.bluesnews.com/a/2360/2011-the-year-of-creatures-return
I assume this has nothing to do with what you're working on, and is probably a warmed-over reskinned version of the original code, or something...?
Not yet, Keith. Windows and Mac, plus Linux when possible. I'd like to do something with iPhone/iPad/Touch, but that's a separate project for the future. I have more than enough to do already! :-)
will it be compatible on an ipod touch? and if, will there be a demo?
Thanks :-) The game doesn't use the browser plug-in - it's stand-alone, so maybe that works. I haven't tried it yet but someone told me they'd heard it was possible. Basically I'm holding out for a native Linux port of Unity - they already support Windows, Mac, iPhone, Android, X-Box and PS3, so Linux can't be far behind. I chose Unity for good reasons and Windows/Mac makes up the bulk of my market, but I'll support Linux just as soon as I'm able.
Don't bother, Unity3D doesn't seem to work in Wine(at least not for me and not with Firefox), anyway, good luck with this project.
@asmageddon: It does as long as Unity3D eventually gets ported to Linux. Apparently they're working on it now. It really shouldn't be hard because the engine is already based on Mono and OpenGL. In the meantime I'll test it under Wine, but I think there's likely to be a Linux Unity3D by the time the game is ready and porting my side of the code (C#+Mono) should be trivial.
Does "PC" include Linux?
If not then at least please try to make it run in Wine(or Wine+Mono if you're gonna use .NET).
@Nina Tomala take a look at the bright side - when you get the game, after it will be done, everything will be new and you will have really much interesting stuff to explore!
.
And as far as i read the comments in the forum, nobody will accept ask for lower quality in any kind because of the money or time ;)
Hi Steve,
I started playing Cratures again a few days ago and while researching information on norn genetics, I found your new project. Unfortunately for me, the deadline for support was some weeks ago, so I won't be able to gain Beta-access. Still, I'm amazed at the amount of money you managed to raise. Congratulations! I'll definitely follow the project's progress from now on. I just wanted to tell you that from this moment on, you have a further fan. :)
I wish you the best of luck with your project!
Thanks Steve all sorted!
Thanks Joseph! But middle school??? Now I feel really old! Good luck with the goals.
Wow, this sounds spectacular Steve! I've been reading about you since I was in middle school and first started picking up ALife texts. I only stumbled across Kickstarter a couple days ago, shortly after you hit your goal it seems. If it weren't for that I would've loved to have pitched in. Looks like you've got a lot of enthusiastic support though, so I'll just be here cheering you from the sidelines! I've got a long ways to go myself, but I'm hoping one day my name might appear in a book beside frontrunners like you. Keep up the good work. :)
@Steve: Yes, I was able to access the site with my name. Thank you.
Hey Justin. Your account is up and working. usr=jking, see instructions on Update #18.
Hey Steve. I'm afraid I have not received anything yet (have done the form you sent out).
@Kelsey: Oh, wait. You just logged in, so I'll assume you've already changed it!
@Kelsey: It's not a problem that everyone has the same password at first - it's not like it's a bank or anything! ;-) But if you're going away that's fine. I'll send you a unique password in an email right now.
Woah, everyone has the same password at first? Hey Steve, could you change that password for me, and send in an email? That was a bit stupid of me.
Hi Steve,
I'm going to have to wait to log on until I get back from a trip so that's why I haven't shown up yet. Sent the survey, but didn't get the email. Let me know if the username Kelsey was too generic.
Hi Steve,
I am really looking forward to watching this project unfold!
I'm a big fan of creative approach you used in designing the neurons of creatures, can't wait to see the evolution of the concept, especially as it maps to cognitive reasoning. Creatures was a big part of my interest in AI.
I answered the survey on 04/09/2011, no spaces in the logon name, but unfortunately no logon details have yet arrived.
Please let me know if I need to do anything else.
Thank you!
Address
369 nw 22nd st
boca raton fl 33431
Username damerow
Yup, that seems to be working, thanks!
Hey Matthew - I've had cause to be glad of that time difference today! Kept Europe off my back while I dealt with the problems!
Your account should be working now. For some reason the importer module in Drupal replaced most (but not all) of the spaces with underscores. Try again with the username you gave me, and "temp" as the password. Should be fine now.
Due to the timezone difference between America and the UK I wasn't around when the surveys went up, but I filled out mine first thing the next morning. Is that out of the date range you mentioned in update 17 the reason my email hasn't arrived, or is something like my custom email address (personal domain rather than a public service, I know at least Twitter doesn't like it) causing trouble?
Or indeed there's a third Sean. You'd better give me a clue!
Oh, wait. There are two people listed as "Sean". Would you be Atriune? If so, I just logged in and it worked - it's case-sensitive, btw. And in which case I apologize to the other Sean for resetting his password!!!!
@Sean: Er, Sean from Encinitas, CA? If so, then I have your survey details (address, etc.) and according to my logs you've already signed in! Maybe I have the wrong Sean? If that's you, your username is sean and your last name all as one word in lower case, temporary password = temp (I just reset it). If that's a different Sean, maybe you can give me some clues! ;-)
Quick update: I've just discovered that the import module has replaced spaces with underscores, so if your username had a space that'll be causing you problems. I'll go through and change them all right away.
'lo Steve,
just wanted to say I've had neither the survey or log in mail yet.
@Matthew: Well, someone obviously got the reference so mission accomplished. :)
Hi @Renee. No problem. I'll send you a direct message in a second.
Did not get an account log in but I did fill out the survey. . .got this for my son, so I need to change emails but there was not a spot for that on the survey. Help. thanks.
Can't wait!!!!
Excellent, thanks for the answer :)
It says "be an advanced beta tester", which is the same as "advanced 'community guru' beta tester", but I agree I didn't make that terribly clear. Yes, sponsors get all the above.
It doesn't explicitly state that for sponsor.....
It explicitly states that they will in the rewards list.
Will the "SPONOR" level also get the "GURU" level rewards?
Ok no problem ! ^^ Thanks for the fast answer !
:-) No, don't worry - I get everyone's email address anyway, and the survey information gets stored in the same place in the database. It confused me too! I should be sending out invitations tomorrow, your time. I had a few problems to fix.
I have just noticed that the survey didn't ask the e-mail adress. Am I mistaken ? Does it matter ? (ah ah I'm affraid to have not done everything well ^^ )
Yep, that's the reason.
Wait, why does the total backers count on the page say 579 when adding up the individual reward counts says 532? (Unless some people donated but did not choose a reward)
Yeah, I just copied the backer counts from the page and stuck it into Excel.
Sean, you can't see that on the right ? All the data used in his graphs are there :)
@Matthew - pretty interesting. Just curious: where did you get the data from?
Thanks Matthew :)