It has been known as a "spiritual descendant of Populous."

the streaming video player will require on the pretence of a god, ruling on top an island populated by various tribes. A streaming video player's control all over a island is manifested in the Hand, an alive in-screen hand which could pick higher humans or even objects, throw items, 'tap' buildings to wake up their occupier, & numbers of more items. A core of the gameplay is the streaming video player's Animal — a pet of sorts that may be trained to clean nearly anything, thanks to the punt's complex AI. This Animal is trained by existence set in a leash when a streaming video player demonstrates a action the Animal is to view using the Hand. By owning instance & repetitiin, it is a cappella to run items on its have. At a centre of the streaming video player's empire is a Temple, a building at which tribesfolk worship, the Animal sleeps, & actual cost, facilitate, & choices come available.

An additional key gameplay mechanic is the good/evil spectrum. Based on the actions the streaming video player might require, the H& and Temple will slowly vary appearance between a glowing pearly-white white, or even a spiked, dark red. This visually indicates a players position on a spectrum, & the tribesfolk might either become inside awe or even terror of the streaming video player. A Animal too changes appearance according to its alignment, ranging from either upright & weak colorful to slouched & dark colored. A Animal notwithstanding doesn't use at times to become when proficient or even even when evil when a streaming video player; an evil god can have a expert Animal or vice-versa, based on the personality of the Animal itself.

A game helped to pioneer a have of mouse gesture recognition, allowing a streaming video player to cast spells applying specific mouse movements.

An expansion pack, Creature Isle, was freed inside 2001, which shifted focus from either a battles against more gods to mini games by using a Animal.

The sequel, Black & White 2, was released on 7 October 2005.

Lionhead is besides planning to release Blacken & White: Creatures for the PSP and Nintendo DS, while plans for developing Black & White: Next Generation for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube have since been abandoned.