Its good

the art style, music, sounds, story, is all adorable!! i really enjoyed playing this, even if it was (so far) only once. would reccomend!

A short low poly survival simulation game of a badger caring for its young.

Pros
+ Unique
+ Good gameplay

Cons
- Camera angles

Shelter is a short survival simulation presented in low poly graphics where you are a mother badger that must ensure the survival of your cubs. You make your way through the wilderness battling the elements while constantly foraging for food to feed your cubs, all the while trying to keep them together and periodically evading predators as best you can.
The music is well crafted and gives feelings of serenity and intensity for different points and situations in the game.

Nature is harsh, you are likely to lose some but its all the natural cycle of things and its ok.

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Cozy graphics, nice gameplay and cute badger babies! They all look unique so I could name them. I called them Blaze, Embrace, Honey, Stripe and Halo. Besides the normal gameplay that follows a little story and you move forward through the world, there's the "nurture" mode, which allows you to come back every day to feed them, from when they're small and stay in the den, until they leave to be on their own, which takes some days.

A meditative experience thanks to the pleasant sound design and visuals.
comes from an animal lover~

Feed the starving child, now or else it'll eXpLoDe!

Well, I haven't beaten the game yet, but I've played enough to know that I am taken.

I remember in the heat of my mostly-blind splurge on Steam sales that one of the few long-suppressed wants I've had for computer games was for games that allow us to play as non-anthropomorphic (no hard feelings, Sonic) non-human animals.

Now, I know that now some games are catching on that allow this, like "Stray" and "The Isle". However, in the throes of the mid-2010's you couldn't make a website catalogue with the total games in existence that fit this bill.

Enter "Shelter". And not only do you get to play as a non-anthropomorphic non-human- in this case, a badger- but you also get to play a mother, with actual babies, and survive in nature.

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Well, kind of. This is not an in-depth sim, the like of which I definitely recommend if you were ever as desperate for a timesink of an animal game like I was. Rather, this is a simplified adventure game where you work to walk from one side of a level to the next, feeding your babies- and, later, protecting them from predators- along the way. The art style is not photorealistic, nor does it try to claim itself to be. Rather, it has a paper mache look that, but for cell-shading, gives the perfect impression that this badger and Amaterasu from Okami could briefly sniff each other's snouts before going their separate ways (Assuming the badger and her babies wound up in Japan or Ameterasu wound up shipwrecked in North America, Eruba, or the British Isles).

The game's premise is indeed simple, and so too are the controls; and yet it goes for creative use of the relatively simple kit at your disposal. The same button can be used to bark, dig, pick something up, or drop it, and the same button that lets you slow-walk to sneak up on prey animals also lets you crouch down inside tall grass or flowers to hide from predators. Likewise, the sprint button, useful in this game like every other game sprinting is in for covering ground faster, also lets you ram trees to knock down fruit for your kiddo's. Not realistic, but not incapable of satisfying, especially if one of your kids was turning grey.

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Cons include that in some maths your ability to sprint is disabled- and it's not made clear why it should be in these areas. This goes double for a walk out of a riverbed at nighttime, when you could really use that sprint button to make it to safety as soon as possible and the devs don't give a lot of cover.

Another is that the bark/bite button can get stuck sometimes, and/or mixed up with the left mouse button. This can break the flow of the game and deny you a crucial skill you need as the backbone of your kit.

One more thing I'm tempted to call a con, but maybe should be thought of as more of a buyer-beware condition, is that, in a nod to the immersion as an animal with no access to human tools, there is no minimap or compass. You have to memorize the undeniably redundant environment as you walk around and figure how to get around yourself. This broke my streak in the fire level, where I had to quit after getting turned around so much.

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If you're really eager for a computer game where you play as a non-anthropomorphic non-human animal living in nature, Shelter 1 is here for you. However, its simplicity, the control mixups, and the obvious lack of replay value make the $15 price tag a mismatch unless you expressly want to support the devs and publisher for the outright sake of doing so. Wait for a sale wherein Shelter is available for about $5 and it's worth the try.

It is a cute game

Interesting experience. Enjoyed the game.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★