Kreatures

This game allows you to place a creature into a virtual environment with other creatures and observe its activity.

Background

I created this application in 2017 as I was getting into python for the first time. It was one of the first programs that I was proud of.

Main Idea

You're able to create a creature and release it into an environment where it can interact with other creatures.

Ideas

• World already has creatures
• Every time creature comes into contact with another it has a chance to eat, become friends or have a baby
• The more you do one thing the less you do the others
• It has 4 different areas so that they're not all interacting with the same things
• Every day there's a chance they'll move areas

Goals

• Show creatures alive at all times
• Make inputted names possible baby names using a txt file

Usage reporting

Usage reporting is on by default: Kreatures sends one startup event per launch to trace at https://trace.danielstephenson.dev, carrying only the program name, the version from version.txt and a random installation ID (the tag install, so installations can be counted rather than launches). Nothing about you or your machine is sent — no username, hostname, IP address, creature name or anything typed into the game. The report is made off the main thread and can never stop or slow the game.

The first launch prints a one-line notice and writes src/config/settings.json (git-ignored).

The installation ID is a random UUID kept in a file named trace-install-id in the user data directory: ~/.local/share/kreatures/ on Linux (or $XDG_DATA_HOME/kreatures/), ~/Library/Application Support/kreatures/ on macOS and %APPDATA%\kreatures\ on Windows. It identifies no person, account or address; delete the file to get a new one. Setting the environment variable TRACE_INSTALL_ID sends that value instead and leaves the file alone. The file is only created while reporting is on, so every opt-out below also stops it. The browser version makes no ID file.

To turn reporting off, any one of these will do:

• src/config/settings.json → "usage_reporting": {"enabled": false} — Kreatures' own switch
• TRACE_USAGE_REPORTING=off (also false, 0, no) in the environment — turns off every program that reports to trace
• DO_NOT_TRACK=1 (also true, yes) in the environment — the console DNT convention, honoured the same way

{
  "usage_reporting": {
    "enabled": false
  }
}

The same block also holds endpoint and key, which are only there to be pointed at another trace server. The reporting client is src/trace_client.py, vendored unmodified from trace-client-python (0.4.1).

Details: https://danielstephenson.dev/usage-reporting

Interakt & Apex

The ideas in this project are generalized and expanded upon in the Interakt and Apex projects.

Play in your browser

The same game, unmodified, runs in a browser tab under tak's console runtime (Python via Pyodide): https://kreatures.play.danielstephenson.dev, listed with the rest at danielstephenson.dev/play. To build and serve it locally (needs tak installed):

python3 web/build_zip.py
python3 -c "from tak.web.serve import main; main(root='.', title='Kreatures')"

Pushes to master deploy it to arcade (.github/workflows/browser.yml).