Set on an alien water world, a player-controlled submarine is tasked with looking after marine life and defending it from the Syndicate, who run planet Earth.

Creation was the working title of multiple Bullfrog games, including Magic Carpet, Power Monger, and Populous.

[2] Players also encounter Syndicate installations such as genetic laboratories and research bases, as well as their cybernetically-enhanced creatures called G-Sharks.

[1] The world's fungi causes Earth's marine life to enter a psychotic frenzy, as well as attracting Cetacea to consume their tendrils.

[1] The submarine is equipped with lasers and explosives, and players can be aided by dolphins, who have the ability to control unmanned machinery telepathically.

[7][8] Bullfrog co-founder and managing director Peter Molyneux explained that there was a tradition to name each special game Creation.

Molyneux suggested that he set the game underwater so that the speed did not matter, and also came up with the idea of having cities and intelligent fungi competing for the world's resources.

[10] Development was aided by a group of researchers from the University of Surrey, who studied animal life's reactions in relation to the environments they evolved in.

[6] In July, Bullfrog had claimed to have developed a "fast perspective scaling interpolation" to overcome zooming bitmaps' effects.

[12] In November, Alex Cullum had joined as the level designer, and the game was using a modified Magic Carpet 2 engine.

[6] At some point after Simmons took over, he, Corpes, and Bullfrog co-founder Les Edgar travelled to Loch Ness to go into a submarine for research.

"[7] He also stated that he believed the cancellation was because many people thought that Bullfrog should focus on games that they knew would be successful, and wanted them to concentrate on Populous 3 instead of "the unknown quantity of Creation.