Shelter vs The Endless Forest
Shelter
Shelter is truly a one-of-a-kind game where you'll get to play as a mother badger who's taking care of her newly-born cubs. Developed by Might and Delight, the game puts you on an exciting yet heartwarming adventure as you travel about with your cubs in tow in hopes of finding the perfect shelter to raise them. In your journey, you and your family will encounter lots of danger and it is up to you - the mama badger - to protect your cubs from harm, whether it is a raging forest fire or a bird of prey.Besides adventure, the game also comes with a second game mode called Nurture. It's a lot like a Tamagochi game where you'll need to head into the game every day (at least once) to give your cubs the stuff they need to survive and also to forge closer bonds with them.
This is one of the breakout indie games of 2013 but it's not the sort of game that will get old with age, so if you love games where you'll get to play as an animal and you enjoy a good story-adventure, then Shelter is your best bet!
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.