The Critter, in Worlds You Can Play

Roblox & Minecraft ports of the autopoiesis organism

The same self‑relaxing simplicial organism from The Critter — it relaxation‑labels itself, grows where coherent, grooms the undecided, buds children, and tunes its own temperature to the critical edge — now escapes the browser into two game engines.

Honest heads‑up. I wrote and logic‑tested both (the growth/groom/relax/bud loop was verified to be alive & stable), but I could not run Roblox Studio or a Minecraft server here — so treat these as clean, well‑commented starter code you load and press Play, not shrink‑wrapped games. Tweak the constants at the top to taste.

▶ Roblox Studio

Luau · a live 3D organism above spawn · click a cell to poke it
  1. Open Roblox Studio → new Baseplate.
  2. In Explorer, right‑click ServerScriptService → Insert Object → Script.
  3. Delete the default line, paste the whole file, press Play.
  4. Walk up and click a cell — an avalanche of relabeling ripples out.
view / copy the Luau script →
Tune NMAX, SPACING, colours at the top. It caps itself and self‑tunes its temperature.

▶ Minecraft (Java)

Python + mcpi · a living mat of wool that spreads, prunes, and seeds child colonies
  1. Run a Spigot/Paper server with the RaspberryJuice plugin (opens the API on port 4711).
  2. pip install mcpi
  3. Stand in a flat open area and run python3 critter_mc.py
  4. No server handy? Watch it live in your terminal: python3 critter_mc.py --dry
view / copy the Python script →
The --dry run is exactly what I used to verify the organism is alive & stable before shipping.

▶ Python mockup (runs right now, zero setup)

the same organism, drawn live in colour in your terminal — this is what I use to see the critter before any engine
  1. Download the script, then just run python3 critter_ascii.py (needs nothing but Python 3).
  2. Watch it grow, groom, shimmer, and bud — Ctrl-C to stop.
  3. For a still frame / log: python3 critter_ascii.py --plain --snapshot 300
view / copy the Python mockup →
Verified alive & stable here before shipping — the one port I could fully run.
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