Before you do anything else, you'll need to download the correct equipment and join the CDN. Remember, if you can not afford a tool, their is always a free alternative and that prices are shown in US$.

Best Tool	Price	Minumum Tool	Price	What they are for
CAOS editor for C3 and DS	$15.99	Notepad	Free	This is the tool you will be using to write the actual programing code in. If you can only afford one tool, the CAOS editor is the one you should get because it is worth far more then the price in saved labor and reduced stress. You should find Notepad already installed somewhere on your computer. Also, you may wish to browse the CDN tool page for items to make debugging with notepad easier. However, I do not use these extra programs and can not help you learn them.
easyPRAY	Free	Notepad	Free	Your PRAY writer will let you place all the parts of your completed project together. Their is no reason why you shouldn't get easyPRAY. This lovely 3rd Party utility is the best thing out their for this normally nasty job. But if you can not download it, again, Notepad will get the job done and the CDN offers some tools to work with it.
PRAY builder tool	Free	C3/DS	NA	This is what runs the PRAY you write and turns your project into an Agent. You must have this little program regardless of what PRAY writer you choose, unless you like lots of programming. If you are using easyPRAY make sure this file is in the easyPRAY folder. With Notepad, it must be in the same folder as the completed .ps file.
Sprite Builder	Free	GIMP plug-in	Free	This program will be your graphics maker. In this case, GIMP may be an easier choice for some people, but I have never used it, so I do not offer support for it.
Any Art Program	Varies	GIMP	Free	If you are using GIMP you won't need extra art programs, but if you have favorite drawing software you can use that in combination with the Sprite Builder as long as your program can create .BMP pictures. Their are many free art programs available on-line and if all else fails you can use Paint for everything, my support is for Paint, Adobe Photoshop, Simply 3D and to some extent, Paint Shop Pro.
Notepad	Free	Any basic .txt program	Varies	In order to make a "help" file for your agent, you will need Notepad. The "help" file is a piece of text that appears when an agent is right-clicked on with the questionmark hand in C3/DS.

A note to Linux users: I do not offer support specifically for Linux at this time, but your tools should be relatively similar to mine. Most of what is here will apply, but you will probably be using GIMP for your graphics.

Well, now that you have your tools downloaded/ing lets go over the basics. Yes, that is correct, it's vocab time. I know you don't like the sound of that, but you have to start somewhere..

Vocab "word"	Description
Pixel	When a printer refers to DPI (dots per inch) a pixel would be a dot. The difference is that a pixel is on your computer screen.
Bit mapped pixels	This refers to two things. In art terms, "bit mapped" is sometimes used in place of the word Pixelated, this means that a piece of art has harsh jagged edges. For example, if you increase the size of a picture, you may get "bit mapping". However, we will be using the computer meaning of this word. A Bit mapped picture means that the image's data is stored pixel by pixel. Every picture you see on this page is a bitmapped image.
Vector	This is the opposite of the Bit mapped picture. Vectors are stored as computer equations so when resized, they don't become Pixelated. They can also save disk space. Unfortunately, they take a lot of processor power to run complex equations and are difficult to create detail with. If you are using a 3D program you are using vectors, but when you export your picture it will be rastorised AKA converted into a Bit mapped format. The text on the screan, and the borders of this table are drawn with vectors.
.bmp (Bit map)	A BMP is the most basic of bit mapped pictures. This is the format you will save your art files in before you put them into the Sprite Builder.
.c16 (Sprite)	This is what you call a game graphic that uses bit mapped pixels to make it's pictures. Different games call their sprites different names, in C3/DS it happens to be called C16. .
Extension	The 3 letters that appear after the "." in a file's name is it's extension. The extension tells the computer what type of file it is reading. For example, .BMP is the extension used for Bit maps, and .C16 is the extension used for Creatures Sprites.
.ps (PRAY)	Pray files only have 2 letters in their extension, but don't ask me why. The files you name with this extension are regular text (.txt) files that have been tagged for the Pray Builder.
.cos (CAOS)	This is also a regular text file, but this file will hold the code that we use to tell our Agent what to do.
.catalogue (Catalogue)	This file is another .txt that has been renamed. Creatures will read all .catalogue files and place their text into the help windows of the game, you will name and decribe your agent in this file.
.agent (Agent)	Another extension that breaks the old rules, this is the file that will hold all of your other files when you are done. It is a bit like a ZIP file in that it condenses everything down into one item.

When you make a new item for Creatures Docking Station, you will be combining many files into one simple package for other people to use, but for you, making that .agent file will not be so simple. Before you begin, keep in mind that once you get past the first few learning steps, making agents gets a whole lot easier. You may also use what you learn in the upcoming lessons to create complex agents, new creatures breeds or even your own Metaroom. We will go over every part of creatures, step by step by step.

So what exactly is in a .agent file anyway? Think about it. Their are the sprites to give the agent a picture. .wav files to give it sound (look at that, a new extension, you'll see new vocab slowly creep in as we go). Then their is the .cos that tells things what to do. And then you have the pray file that puts everything together. Now that's not so bad is it? Look at the agent in your game, think about how the designers came up with the ideas and blended the files into one entity. Get yourself in the mood to be creative! And I'll see you next time to start the fun stuff.