What is canon in creatures?

 Over the years of active development the series has gained a lot of stories. Though this is in a way ironic because the series is one of the superior sandbox games, exactly this freedom causes the stories too. People become invested in their furry little creatures, scaley little mobsters and slinkey little thieves. Every interaction in the game inspires backstories and hidden meanings. So too they must have done with the developers. To Steve Grand himself the game was a thought project, something familiar to all of us and in itself the ultimate sandbox.

So, when the last ds story was released along with the banshee grendel, was that the end of the canon? The final lore? When the concept of the cookie ettins was brought out, stories were immediatly written to explain their place in the universe. Several stories were written about the banshee, too. Stories no official source would be able to release anymore.

Screenshots of fanmade cookie ettins

Third party developers explained every room, breed and even the smallest plant with a story. The norngarden series of rooms made for an expansion the size of ds itself, and is by now an almost universal standard addon with creatures players. So is the garbage dump and the aquatis caverna. These rooms have existed for ages, longer than the series has been in active development.

Screenshot of the norngarden

In the same way creatures has inspired pages and pages of fanfiction. Many players describe or imagine adventures of their favorite creatures, and many project their own characteristics onto shee characters.

The docking station stories were written by Frimlin, who used to be 'one of us' before he became employed at creature labs, and steve grant wrote the foundation before ending his involvement with creatures, making his stories that came after technically fan fiction.

The docking station story tells us that the warp throws its travellers between realities, rather than only space. The reality the lone shee ends up in is implied to not be the one he started in, though close enough. Each and every iteration of capillata on our pcs is another reality, and each and every story we write can be canon. The game's universe is plenty big enough for it.

How do you feel about this? Please let me know! Thank you for reading. If you feel certain fan stories are specifically fun, or have written one yourself: please do share them! I would quite like to start a creatures library and anything is welcome!