Merchant vs The Endless Forest
Merchant
Merchant is a fun little idle game that's designed to be played on the side, while you're doing something else on the computer. In the game, you'll need to hire heroes who you will then send out on adventures to gather crafting materials. The materials obtained can then be turned into numerous types of armor and weapons, which you can in turn equip on your heroes or sell them off for a tidy profit. There are two main ways for you to sell your goods - you can either put it up for sale in your shop or you can fulfill the orders of passing merchants and heroes.Although the game starts out as pretty fun, the progression in this game gradually becomes rather grindy after a while - imagine: sending the same hero on the same quest will require the same amount of clicks as sending the hero on a new quest or even sending a new hero. Some automation would be great here, especially considering that the game's an idle game.
So, despite the fun concept and gameplay, its progression can truly kill your interest in the game. That being said, if you just want a simple game to play as you watch Netflix or YouTube on your computer, Merchant might just be the kind of game for you!
The Endless Forest
The Endless Forest isn't exactly a game but more of a playable screensaver. When your computer goes to sleep, this program will run and your deer character will then appear in a seemingly endless forest. There's no objective or quests for you to complete here. Instead, you are given total freedom to explore the forest and if you're lucky, you may discover something special along the way.However, this is about to change because the developer behind this screensaver program decided to turn it into a full-blown MMO, allowing players from all over the world interact and play together as deers. There's no chat box in the game and instead, you'll need to learn to communicate as deers do, that is through sound and body movement. There will also be more places for you to explore, besides the endless forest, as well as fun and relaxing activities to do.
You can still download the screensaver version of The Endless Forest is you want to get an idea of what the game would be about - It's completely free, after all, but if you want to play the actual game, you might need to wait a bit since the game's still under development.