The game tries to simulate life, and includes a complex two-dimensional ecology of plants, animals and insects, which provide the environment for the three main species to live and develop in.

[citation needed] Like the other games in the series, Creatures 2 is mostly open-ended, with no predetermined goals, allowing the player to raise Norns at their own pace.

The hatchery, one of the game's in-built applets, allows the player to add Norn eggs to the world, which can be hatched via the incubator.

Albia, the world in which Creatures 2 is set, is a vast disc-world filled with a wide variety of flora, ranging from the Cacti that inhabit the desert to the exclusive mushroom-like Gelsemium plant that can only be found in a single cavern.

Albia is also home to a substantial amount of animal life, such as bees which pollinate flowers and create honey, and Zander fish, which provide a food source for creatures near the oceans.

The task of creating the new Norn genome was given to Sandra Linkletter (Slink), who was also a member of the Creatures community.

Slink later claimed that her design had been compromised by the geneticist brought on to finish her work, Eric Goodwin, and later accused Cyberlife of deriving their update from hers.

[9] Nick Walkland described the gameplay as a "labour of love", noting that the challenge was to sustain your Norns' lives.