Shelter tells the story of a family of badgers living a popup book. With only a brief tutorial and almost no text or dialog whatsoever, the game manages to communicate its premise rather clearly: keep your pups alive. Through clear illustrations the various challenges of sneaking, securing food, and traversing rivers rather effectively. Each pup has distinctive markings and will slowly turn from brown to grey as they grow hungrier. The game actually doesn’t allow you to leave the starting area until you nurse one of them back to health. The pups are somewhere between acting as extra lives (though the game does not end if all of them are lost) and achievements. While you can complete the game as a strong independent badger-momma, there’s a degree of challenge to keeping the pups alive. Also they’re pretty cute.
Sheattack author Rebecca discusses the differences between Shelter and it's sequel, Shelter 2.
Do video games need more cats? The answer is yes, and this video proves it.
SteamFirst: Shelter has you playing as a mother badger with one goal: Keeping your 5 young badger cubs safe and well fed while escorting them through a forest. But Shelter isn’t just a casual stroll through the forest, there are predators and other dangers looming in this Innocent looking forest.
