Post-CCSF: The Pappus Cafe

Hello again everyone! I hope you've been okay with the silence of the past couple days since we started the post-CCSF, but I have found a blog which started during the CCSF!

Named The Pappus Cafe,  it was established on the 20th November, which was right when the CCSF 2017 started and is run by Octoberflash.

"A field of flowers at sunset, the great unknown lying ahead... On a cold winter evening, you wander through the fields, the grass and flow...

Past the Popping Pappus fields, in a wooden cabin with a door that's just slightly askew, lies the warm and peaceful Pappus Café.

Run by a friendly Wood Norn named Pixis, the café offers a place to rest, get a refreshing drink and eat a hot meal. Why not get a cup of coffee (or tea, if you prefer) and enjoy your stay?"

So far it seems to show the beginnings of a series called Applewood Fields, check it out!

Day 8

Well, it's been a nice 8 days and we've finally come to Monday 27th, the final day of this CCSF. I have to say I am very proud of how this festival has progressed. In the build up to the festival I've had to build a plan to improvise with what little submissions I was being sent, because it seems to be a new trend for the CCSF to be delayed year after year. However, just a couple days before the CCSF was going to start I received an absolute torrent of quality submissions from various members of the active community. I think we've not just averted the trend, we've spat in its metaphorical face.

I would like to give a special thanks to everyone who has contributed to the festival this year, as well as a special thanks to the various users who I've discussed with regarding the coordination of the festival and what strategies would be the most effective for it. I think that with the amount of community spirit we've shown this year proves that if nothing drastic happens, we'll be good to go for another decade.

The post-CCSF is starting tomorrow and will end on Monday 4th December. Throughout the post-CCSF, if you have started your own creatures-related website, blog, forum, discord server, etc please contact me via Discord (I'm available in the CCSF discord) or drop me an e-mail at CCSF2017Submissions{at}protonmail{dot}{com}with a link to your new site/blog/forum/etc. There will not be any daily-posts for the post-CCSF, but I will instead make posts shouting out your new blog/site/forum/etc whenever I have a free moment. If you started your site/discord/blog/forum/etc during the CCSF 2017 and not the post-CCSF, it will still be accepted.

So, let's see what we have for the final day of this CCSF!

From the team behind the Banshee Ark project, we have the Desert hideout and the Capillata Extension!

"A release candidate of the desert hideout for the CCSF.

Please enjoy!"

"This is the Expanded Capillata release for the CCSF2017.

This adds more space to your Capillata which can be either freshwater, saltwater or atmosphere.

This version is incompatible with the Blobby Core.

You do not need to inject this if you already have the Grendel Meso injected."

You can check out the web page for the project here.

From Mea, we have a whole bunch of sprites, the Draki and Scitters sprites!

"Just a bunch of dragon like critter sprites that might be useful as toys or vendors.  Made a long time ago, but never used for what they were made for.  Hopefully they will be useful to someone."

From Kittytikara, we have Castle Walls!

"These Castle Walls come in three colors and are meant to match the Freedom Room's bricks. There's also two versions of them: a standalone version and one that works with the Garden Box. The only difference in them is how you change the sprites and lock them into place. With the Garden Box version, you just treat them like any other decoration. With the standalone version, you click on it to switch between sprites and shift-click on it to lock it into it's current sprite. This also locks it into place. Credit to ftourini on deviantart.com for the original castle walls"

Well, guess I'll be seeing you all in the post-CCSF! Again if you've made a blog/forum/discord server/site over the course of the CCSF or are about to make one during post-CCSF, feel free to contact me about it!

All submissions can be downloaded on their respective pages. Click on either the picture or the name of the submission to visit its page.

Day 7

Today is the penultimate day of the CCSF 2017. Boy has it been a long week! I don't particularly have a platform plug prepared for today so we'll just recap on the options that have been presented on the other days of this CCSF:

Chatrooms - Discord
Blogs - Blogger or Wordpress
Forums - Proboards or Zetaboards
Project Repositories - Github

After the end of the CCSF I will be planning on hosting an event called Post-CCSF 2017, which will start as soon as the CCSF is finished and run for another week after. In the Post-CCSF 2017, this site will be used and there will be no daily posts, but if you have started a creatures-related blog, chatroom, forum or website over the course of this CCSF 2017 or if you are starting one during Post-CCSF, please contact me about it and I'll give you a shout-out post during Post-CCSF. The purpose of Post-CCSF 2017 is to shine a light on new blogs and sites in the community and to encourage users to start their own.

From Layla, we have the Nac-Mac Bibble!

"A norn breed for C3/DS based on Terry Pratchett's the Wee Free Men: The Nac Mac Bibble."

From the team behind the Grendel-Pack Project, here's the Grendel Meso!

"This is the Grendel Meso release candidate for the 2017's CCSF."

Enjoy!"

From Kittytikara, we have the Carnivorous Siamese Norns!

"These norn babies are around generation 48 and are from two wolfling runs of mine. Both runs share the same base genome though, so I've put them in the same pack. The only interesting quirks to their genome are that they are strictly carnivorous and live longer then regular norns."

All submissions can be downloaded on their respective pages. Click on either the picture or the name of the submission to visit its page.

Day 6

We're at the sixth day of the CCSF! Yesterday I described proboards and the need for more forums in our community, but there is an alternative to proboards. Zetaboards also provides a free forum service, however I am veering more towards Proboards due to its secure connections. Nevertheless, Zetaboards remains an option for users who wish to start their own forum without worrying about hosting costs. I have seen a few forums which have used it without too much trouble however.

Today we have a background from Pilla, the Orange Ark!

"This is a background which may be converted into a metaroom by everyone. The .xcf GIMP file is included if you would like to change anything. Feel free to edit this background however you want.

The elevators and the teleporters are images I borrowed from Caos of the Creatures Realm - https://caosofthecreaturesrealm.wordpress.com/ These are sprites made by Mea, and they can be used for anything Creatures related. If you need more sprites, feel free to browse around on that blog. Please enjoy!"

We also have an agent from Linda and Zzzzoot, the Bendy Plant!

"From the mysterious world of Leyhorn. The seasons there are extreme and these plants have had to adapt.

Manually injected seeds are inedible and invisible to creatures.

Images by Linda.Code by Zzzzoot."

Today we also have an agent which has been in the works for a while by Kittytikara, the Hoverdoc Lite!

"The Hoverdoc Lite, or Hoverlite for short, was created when I realized using multiple hoverdocs at once just... didn't work that well and took up to much space. So I created a simpler version of it! The Hoverdoc Lite works like the old Hoverdoc: pick it up, drop it on the creature you want to monitor, and it will follow that creature. The top part is the toxin display and it changed from green to red if the creature is sick. Unlike the Hoverdoc, the Hoverlite doesn't display bacteria or antigens. Instead you click on the Hoverdoc Lite and it will read out the current number of bacteria the creature has and any toxins or antigens. The middle part shows the creature's highest drive. If a creature isn't sick, you can click on the Hoverdoc Lite and the creature will say what the highest drive is. And the bottom part shows the creatures gender, blue for male and pink for female. It will also show how far along a female creature's pregnancy is, though it isn't the most accurate.

There's also two versions of the Hoverdoc Lite: one that follows the currently selected creature, the Hoverdoc Lite single, and another that follows a creature when you drop it near them, Hoverdoc Lite muli. Both versions can be used together. The only known downside is that they get in the way of each other.."

Finally for today we have even more sprites by Mea. Upright-Burro-Tail Marble Seeds!

"The seeds might make good toys for creatures to play "

Oh and one more thing! I've received word that Amaikokonut is doing daily posts on her blog Naturing :: Nurturing for this CCSF, so be sure to check it out if you haven't already!

All submissions can be downloaded on their respective pages. Click on either the picture or the name of the submission to visit its page.

Day 5

Currently, as of writing, the Creatures Community has a shocking lack of forums. Most forums in the history of the community are down today, with a few being official forums. However, would you believe me if I told you there was a platform for starting free forums? That's right, enter: Proboards. Now I haven't exactly used this platform but from what I can gather it doesn't limit bandwidth and it also doesn't put a cap on the amount of posts and threads you can have, which is why I believe it could be a very cool opportunity for community members to start their own Creatures forums on. If you use it, or have used it in the past, don't hesitate to let me know what you think about the platform, since I'm considering starting a Creatures Forum of my own there!

For today, here's an agent from yours truly; The Dakini Shaman Doll!

"The Dakini Shaman Doll is a toy which was inspired by an old (and pretty much unarchived) C2 COB made by Helen and NornGOD, which was a doll of the Blue Shaman from Populous: The Beginning. I myself am a big fan of Populous, so I decided to use sprites and sounds from the game to create an agent of the Dakini Shaman. However, this toy isn't exactly like the original C2 COB! Not only can it be played with, but it does not react nicely to being attacked! Like the original, it also includes animations."

We also have another C1 COB this festival from Shoy; Dr Shoy's Cure-all pills!

"These pills give any Creature who pushes them a high dose of antibodies as well as a smaller dose of hotness decrease, tiredness decrease and pain decrease. It is design to ease the symptoms of sickness in addition to curing the sickness altogether by allowing the level of antibodies to increase to higher than the level of the antigen spikes."

Today we also have the Atlantis Norns Concept from Gemverse:

"These ancient exotic Norns hail from the depths of Albian seas! Their kind has not been seen for eons, and they have just now been brought back to life! They are amphibious (can breathe underwater as well as on the surface) and they eat fish in addition to the usual Norn food. They also prefer living in aquarium type rooms (like the C3 Aquarium) The males are social and the females are protective mothers, but are usually calm."

Finally for today we have even more sprites from Mea, the flowers for the Upright Burro Tail!

"The flowers are quite colorful, & the seeds might make good toys for creatures to play with."

All submissions can be downloaded on their respective pages. Click on either the picture or the name of the submission to visit its page.

Day 4

Today I'd like to mention another blogging service called Wordpress. Whilst Wordpress is harder to use compared to Blogger, its potential should not be underestimated. For the more technical members of the community, Wordpress offers a more versatile platform if you are savvy with web coding but has some size restrictions on free accounts. All in all though, it is a solid option and certainly has a lot of potential.

Today we have another agent from Arnout - the Ultra-Namer!

"This agent is capable of composing entirely random names for your Creatures. It toggles every minute and uses a special catalogue file to construct a Creature moniker from all vowels and consonants. This allows for a lot of different possible names to appear among your Creatures in worlds. There's just 2 rules that all names should be consistent in: All names are in between 3 and 10 characters long. Vowels and consonants will never appear more than twice in a row & all first letters of Creature-names are consistent with their generation. In theory, this agent should be capable of constructing any known word. This means that swear words can also appear among your Creature-names. It's a ridiculously small chance, but the agent was not intended for that. Have fun!"

We also have the Puff Plant from Uzag and Zzzzoot:

"Puff plants are desert-loving plants. They need a hot dry environment to survive.

They love places like the Ettin Desert, the Daedalus desert (v1.2, previous is too wet) and Betaship.

They each grow a white fluffy ball which creatures love playing with.

Careful though, at any moment the ball may POP into countless drifting seeds."

Finally for today we have the Upright Burro Tail (Base) sprites by Mea:

"A very colorful set of succulent plants that are edible.  The leaves of the plant are edible & probably contain plenty of water.  It is able to regrow after being partly eaten, but will die off & decay after a while.  The flowers are quite colorful, & the seeds might make good toys for creatures to play with."

All submissions can be downloaded on their respective pages. Click on either the picture or the name of the submission to visit its page.

Day 3

We've been seeing some very nice contributions this CCSF, but uh-oh, here comes another platform endorsement! Seeing as our theme is Community Collaboration I find it almost mandatory to introduce you all to Github, though I do admit that I myself have not used the platform very much. Github is useful for collaborative projects, as it allows users to manage a public repository for projects. Other users can contribute by making forks of the project, which can be "pull"ed into the official version, this is very useful for development teams!

Speaking of which, Pilla has released the github page for the Betaship Metaroom!

"Do whatever you want with this thing. Really. Feel free to make new images. Feel free to reuse the code. Feel free to reuse the images. Whatever. Anything. Everything.

This thing is licensed under the "Unlicense" license. So there's no license. Do what you want. Really."

For today we also have the Dustdevil Grendel Plushie by Linda and Pilla!

"This Dustdevil Grendel Plushie was created by Pilla (coding) and Linda (sprites)!

Feel free to distribute and change this agent as long as you give credit to the original creators."

We also have our first C1 COB for this CCSF. From Shoy, we have the Emergency Ration!

"The Emergency Ration is intended to be used in dire situations when your Norns desperately need to eat (eg. if they are sick) but you can't for the life you convince them to eat even a single piece of cheese or a carrot. This COB delivers Norns a dose of starch, glucose and glycogen simply if they are looking at the object. Note that it does not and should not serve as a substitute for food in normal situations because it could possibly reinforce poor eating habits."

Finally, we have even more sprites by Mea. This time these sprites are of the Desert Melon:

"This is just a simple plant that's meant to grow fruit that contains lots of water to help re-hydrate creatures. "

All submissions can be downloaded on their respective pages. Click on either the picture or the name of the submission to visit its page.