Shelter 2: Motherhood in a Box

Shelter 2: Motherhood in a Box was named after my interpretation of what Shelter 2 is. It nails the idea of motherhood and allows you to truly become a mother, but without the hassle of becoming a real mother. And, it comes in a box. Or at least, it would if it had been released on CD. Well, now you can play it in a box...As long as you don't have a flatscreen or a laptop. >.> You get my point.

The purpose of this guide is to inform others who may have just bought the game or even if you've played for a while but think you still have a bit to learn, while still keeping a light-hearted atmosphere and possibly making you laugh on occassion. But, just to get to the serious stuff, the cover image, and any images in the guide, are NOT mine. They are either fanart or official wallpapers and the such. Most of them were already saved on my computer, so I don't remember where most of them came from. The others, well, there's too few for me to care enough to make a bibliography. Good enough for you? Okay.

Thanks for reading this, I know it was/is long. (Is for me, was for you...? Not sure what to put there..Help please?) That is, unless you skipped to here like many people do. If that's the case, your computer will self destruct next time you sign out, turn it off, or restart it. If you're on a laptop, closing it counts, too. So, I suggest that when you do this you run out the fire escape. Fast. It'll give you a 10 second grace period, but after that, if you're still in the house...BOOM! If you have a small house like me, dat dynamite gonna kill u. And your cats...Poor cats...

No, seriously though, I'll stop talking now. >.>

I have a weird sense of humor.

Okay, I'm done. Promise.

I never was good at keeping promises.

Have I met the character limit yet?

Is there even a character limit on this?

...

...

Eh.

Section Title Key

No Prefix: Finished product; it has been edited and revised, and is in paragraph form.
{Editing}: All the main points are there, and it is in paragraph form, but grammatical errors and kinks in the formatting are still being worked out, and some areas may be rewritten completely before it is considered finished.
{WIP Editing}: All of the main points are there, but some are in bulleted lists while others are in paragraphs.
{Prewriting}: Currently in the format of bulleted lists; all the main points are there, but some things may be added and it will be formatted into paragraphs before it is considered finished.
{WIP Prewriting}: Some of the main points are there, but not all, and what is there is in bulleted lists, without any editing or revision.
{Empty}: The section is completely blank; all that exists is the title. The prewriting hasn't even been started, let alone any editing or revision. It's just there as a placeholder.

Purpose & Concept of the Game {Editing}

The obvious purpose of the game is to gather revenue, because, the way the world is, there are few who make a game that costs money without the purpose of getting rich. (Hats off to 11Bits studios for being one of those few who don't have that purpose! Also, kudos to anyone who knows what I'm talking about.) Might & Delight is able to easily complete this goal by making the game as emotionally pulling as it is, as a large group of people are attracted to games that tug on your heart strings.

Another goal that Might & Delight likely has is to teach others about the ecosystem and raise animal need awareness. It is clear that Might & Delight puts a lot of care and effort into their games, and this likely includes research into the animal they are basing the game off of. Through this research, if they didn't already, they probably began to care deeply for the animals they were studying. If they didn't, they're heartless creeps who can't appreciate the adorableness of baby animals. (But I think they can, because, really, who can't? Except heartless creeps, that is.) As such, they likely had some goal in mind to the point where they wanted to help raise awareness of animal needs and the s**t we're doing to the enviroment they live in.

A not-so-obvious purpose that they may have is to appeal to children. This is demonstrated by the children book they wrote based off the original Shelter, and the way they use patterns in their games, kinda like some children's books. Also, they made it appropriate for all ages for a reason, and this is likely it. Obviously, the game isn't 'just for kids', as many adults, youtubers or not, play it and are hooked. Even still, the appeal to children is clear to anyone who's willing to do some research into the game.

Moving on to the concept of the game, it's rather simple. You're a mother lynx, and you're raising 4 cubs to adulthood while protecting them from threats like wolves and, with the new Mountain DLC, foxes, bears, and hawks. The landslide, which some call the 'blob', or the 'mysterious brown thing that comes from who-knows-where and consumes the land and kills you and your cubs if you touch it.' is also a clear danger in the base game, along with starvation. You grow your cubs by feeding them rabbits, frogs, lemming, several types of large birds, and a healthy variety of types of deer. And then they leave you. Which is heartbreaking, because you fed them for their whole lives, and what do they give you back? Nothing! They leave you empty-handed! Ungrateful little b*st*rds! >.>

Basic Controls {Editing}

You can use the (W) key to move foreward, (A) key to move left, (S) key to move right, and the (D) key to move backwards. I do not believe that strafing is possible in the game, but correct me if I'm wrong.

You may run via any (Shift) key.

While running, you may press (Spacebar) to jump. If you are next to a climbable cliff, you will magically jump an incredible height to reach the cliff.

You can move the mouse across your mousepad or desk to change the angle of the camera.

You can crouch by using any (Control) key. Only available in Survival / Hard mode.

(Left Click) is the primary action key, which can be used to pick up or drop cubs/rabbits, shake down nearby nests in trees, and to call the cubs closer.

(Right Click) is the secondary action key, which can be used to eat prey, drink water, and activate sense mode.

Intro Walkthrough {Editing}

You begin the game with a message stating that you're pregnant and that predators have caught your scent. As such, you begin the game in a small clearing confronting a narrow path defined by cliffs on both sides. At first, you can't run and can only walk, but then it'll give you this message if you have tutorials on that tells you the controls for running and you can jumping, which is disleading since you only need to press Shift to run, not shift + spacebar like you do for jumping. Either way, This is when the wolves start chasing you. You get a huge headstart on them but they're fast, but even still you shouldn't have any trouble unless you fool around and stop or turn around or otherwise experiment with what the game will let you do. Just follow the trail and you should be fine. When the cross the creek you don't need to jump, as most wild cats learn to tolerate water as long as they're not swimming in it, and some like tigers even like swimming in water. When you're told to jump over this cliff by the tutorials, then do it. Kinda an obvious answer, but whatever. After that a cutscene will ensue before you're taken to the next stage of the intro.

When the message about the stars speaking to you comes up, just warning, they mean it. You'll come back and there are floating stars in front of you in a trail. Seriously. Like, not to steal JackSepticEye's thunder, but cats are totally on crack. Er, some sort of drug that makes weird highly-realistic hullucinations including floating stars in a trail and crazy-looking patterns everwhere. Anyways, follow the star-trail to a large clearing, where further proof that cats are high is displayed in the sky in the form of weird constallations where you can see the lines between the stars. Weirdness in a box and wrapped in an ultra-thick layer of weirdness wrapping paper. Follow the trail further to a large tree on a hill and a cutscene will show you walking into the den.

Next, the last stage of the introduction, is when you give birth. The cute little meows made me cry the first time I played, so be prepared for ultra-cuteness. You'll be asked to name them soon afterwards, but you can't rename the mother, who is automatically named 'Inna'. The game assumes that all your cubs are female and lets you play as them next time you play the game as another mother, so while some would just name all their cubs with feminine names or just ignore that fact and do whatever the heck they want, I always want realism because I'm weird that way and so I name them both boy and girl names, but I take care not to choose a cub with a boy name when I play again. If all I have left are boys, and all the girls died, I'll restart the family tree.

Cub Stages Walkthrough {WIP Editing}

Vulnerable

This is the stage that occurs directly after naming your cubs. You'll automatically walk out of the den and your cubs will remain in the den, currently too young to leave and follow you around. At the start of this stage, it's Winter, but usually it'll become Spring before your done with this stage, unless you're really fast. Your cubs will whine a lot and you'll have to go hunt for them. Hunting is simple, and relatively easy. If your on normal mode, you should automatically crouch when you're a certain distance from your prey, but if you're on survival mode you won't. That being said, if you're on survival mode and you don't know the information I'm feeding you right now already, you don't belong on survival mode. It's hella hard and NOT for beginners.

Now that that's out of the way, the first thing you should do is right click. This will make the screen turn dark and all that, but it also highlights prey and other food sources in red. Usually, there will be at least some rabbits around that you can feed your cubs. It's worth noting that you, as the mother lynx, don't actually need to eat. You can if you want and it'll replenish your stamina and also raise your max stamina, but it won't do much else. Your stamina is the little white circle or half-circle in the bottom left hand corner of your screen. Normally, you'll start with a full circle of stamina and it'll gradually deplete every time you sprint. Also, whenever your standing still or walking, you'll notice that it'll gradually increase as mother lynx catches her breath. However, if you never eat anything, then your stamina bar will never raise above a little under half way full. It'll stop regenerating at this point unless you eat, and when eating you'll raise your stamina gradually to a full circle. That's the power of feeding your mother lynx, but it's up to you to decide if feeding your cubs or raising your stamina is more important for each meal.

You need stamina to catch prey, as you'll need to sprint, and you can't sprint without any stamina. The first thing to do is locate prey using right click and then get close enough to the prey so that you start crouching. It's generally a good idea not to sprint up to your prey as that'll usually startle it and make it nearly impossible or at least needlessly hard to catch it. While crouching, get as close as you can before you feel like you might scare it. You'll learn how to judge how close is too close over time. If you have fast reflexes, you may be able to wait until the prey is startled and then immediately press shift to sprint after it. Once you start sprinting after your prey, you'll automatically catch rabbits or moles when you get close enough. Deer and all the birds in the game require you to jump on them to catch them.

Okay, so you've caught some prey, now what? Bring the prey back to your cubs in your den, of course! If your lost, you can right click and look around until you find a white symbol that resembles a single tree on a rock. Head in the direction of that symbol and it'll lead you to your den. If you drop the rabbit with left click near your cubs, they'll come and eat it. If you catch a total of three rabbits and/or moles and feed them to your cubs, they'll grow a bit larger and begin to follow you. You have moved on to the next stage!

-Toddling Cubs. (This is when they just begin to follow you, but they can't hunt on their own.)

-Growing Pains. (This is when they get bigger suddenly and can hunt on their own, but aren't completely proficient.)

-Solitude. (This is anytime after the message is displayed about the cubs starting to follow the path of independance. When they leave has nothing to do with how much you feed them, and more to do with when the season changes to autumn.)

Epilogue Walkthrough {Prewriting}

-Back to the den. (Start heading towards the den and then watch the cutscene.)

-Stars in the night. (Follow the floating stars.)

-The Circle of Life. (Don't panic when the music turns into battle music and you start stalking something unseen, it's because you hear something but you don't know what it is, it turns out to be your future mate.)

-Dreadits. (This is what I call credits, because I dread them. Anyways, the first time you play through in a family tree, you can't skip them. After the first time, when you play your living children, you can skip it by pressing the escape key.)

Playing Again {Prewriting}

-There is a family tree feature you can use to browse your past generations.

-You can play the game again by pressing 'new game' and selecting a baby from the last generation to play with. Coat colors and names will carry over, and if you forget the coat color of a child, then you can hover over the name in the family tree, but it only works when starting a new game.

-The game has no gender feature. In other words, you may play all your cubs, because the game assumes they are all female. If you want to include gender, give some of them male names and then just make sure you never play ones with male names.

-There are achievements for every generation up to generation 5 (I think) but you can play longer than that.

-Personally, I've played the game at least 10 times already. And I'm still playing. Often. I'm addicted. :P

Hunting & Being Hunted {Prewriting}

-List predators and prey.

-Explain how to catch prey as far as controls, and strategies to make hunting easier.

-Explain how to avoid or evade predators.

-Include information about 'the blob' or the land-slide looking thing that sometimes appears.

Tips and Tricks {WIP Prewriting}

-If you want to manage who eats what by feeding two cubs a rabbit and then feeding the other two cubs a rabbit, but you forget who ate the last rabbit, look for the blood on the cub's mouth and paws. This'll generally only last until about the time you feed them their next meal. I don't know the specifics of when it dissappears, but it's a useful hint when it's there.

Review {Prewriting}

-Introduction: Who is writing this review? Who was Shelter 2 developed by? What is Shelter 2 about? What type of genres does the game fall in to? What type of people would you reccommend it to? Answer these questions in this paragraph.

-Story: 6/10. Note: The story isn't really a story, because it gives you too much freedom to be considered inside the linear confines of a story, but this isn't neccessairly a bad thing. Touch upon the fact that most of what you do is hunt prey, and that can turn boring really fast. Isn't for people who dislike repetitive behavior in games.

-Graphics: 9/10. The only reason this didn't get a 10/10 is because it just isn't for some people. If you're in love with all the photo-realistic games and can't play anything that looks remotely not like real life, this isn't for you. It adds to the atmosphere of the game perfectly, but it just isn't for everyone. I do reccommend slightly higher contrast, however, or lower brightness, as it seems too greyish/tannish/faded sometimes when I'm not in a really dark room. (Hard to see.)

-Sound: 7/10. The music isn't bad, but it feels kinda quiet even on max volume everywhere but in the main menu. I'm not even sure it's there. But, on the main menu, I really enjoy the music despite the fact that it is almost drowned out by the sound of a strong wind blowing hard against the bare land that is the tundra. Now, that being said, the sound effects are incredibly surreal, except when you kill a lemming, it seems to squeak for too long after it's death. With rabbits, you kill them swiftly and they barely make a sound, and you attack lemmings the same way. So why so long? Also, may just be lag on my part, but sound effects are noticibly but not upsettingly delayed after killing prey.

-Length: 3/10. Sorry, just had to put this in here, because the game is incredibly short. An hour to two hours really isn't worth 20 bucks (Unless you got it on sale.) without a ton of replayability.

-Atmosphere: 9/10. The graphics really support this, along with the emotional tug when (no spoilers) some events occur. The sound doesn't really do much for this since it it mostly sound effects, but the ambient noises do make up for this a bit in certain places. But even without the sound, the graphics alone make the game into a serene experience, with the unique art style popping out and yet fading into the distance at the same time.

-Replayability: 7/10. Most of this is for the effort of the developers. It is clear that they tried to make up for the short game by making the game replayable with the family tree where you can play again as your children, the collectables, and later the Mountains DLC which adds tons of new content for old players to return to the game. For me, it worked, but this may also be because the theme of the game is like, what I've been wanting for 5 years before I discovered this game. The closest that came was wolfquest, and, well, yeah. >.> So, in other words, I'm a bit biased on this.

-Compatability: 5/10. I run a decent computer and on medium settings it lags when I sprint, which you have to do a lot in order to hunt, and even a little bit on low. By 'decent' I mean that it's the run of the mill computer, maybe a bit better than what most casual gamers might have. And this is definitely a game for casual gamers.

-Conclusion: Reiterate the questions in the introduction, also include the overall score and your impression of the game in it's current state. (Not for everyone, but perfect for a select audience.)

-Overall score: 8/10.

Petition {Editing}

If you want a Shelter 3, please comment that you would like to sign your name and what you would like to be signed as, along with what type of animal you would like Shelter 3 to be revolved around, and if we can get 150 signs, I'll show this to the developers to see what they can do. I really appreciate the help!

1.) Steam Name: Rlong9000
Nickname: Echo
Animal: Timber Wolf and/or Red Fox

2.) Steam Name: Joysy1015
Nickname: Kulta
Animal: Arctic Fox

3.) Steam Name: Warrior Cats
Nickname: Nanuk
Animal: Polar Bear

4.) Steam Name: Poshpaw888
Nickname: Mist
Animal: Gray Wolf and/or Deer

5.) Steam Name: annanmazie
Nickname: Winter Fox
Animal: Arctic Fox And/or Red Fox

6.) Steam Name: Kkhaebsong
Nickname: Song
Animal: Coyote or Deer

7.) Steam name: snowleopard_15
Nickname: Mocha
Animal: Chickens

8.) Steam name: MissAkito
Nickname: MissAkito
Animal: Cheetahs

9.) Steam name: ShinyTreecko2003
Nickname: Shiny and/or Tree
Animal: Deer, Wolf, or Fox

10.) Steam name: muffin13421
Nickname: Mozzy
Animal: Bunny, deer, or bird

11.) Steam name: Bamboo
Nickname: Gummy
Animal: Bear or Fox

[fawnfluff]

Steam name: Bamboo
Nickname: Gummy
Animal: Bear or Fox

[nishapon]

steam name: muffin13421
nickname: Mozzy
Animal: Bunny, deer, or bird

[WackadoodleGrimm]

Steam name: ShinyTreecko2003
nickname: Shiny and/or Tree
Animal: Deer, Wolf, or Fox

[MissAkito]

Steam name: MissAkito
Nickname: MissAkito
Animal: Cheetahs

[SnowLeopard]

7.) Steam name: snowleopard_15
Nickname: Mocha
Animal: Chickens

[fartmonkey91]

6.) Steam Name: Kkhaebsong

Nickname: Song

Animal: Coyote or Deer

[Rowan]

5.) Steam Name: annanmazie
Nickname: Winter Fox
Animal: Arctic Fox or Red Fox

[Freefelle]

1.) Steam Name: Rlong9000
Nickname: Echo
Animal: Timber Wolf and/or Red Fox

[vale]

4.) Steam Name: Poshpaw888
Nickname: Mist
Animal: Gray Wolf and/or Deer

[rlong9000]

Had to update again because I'm hardcore that way so I did the Intro Walkthrough. Cub stages is next... >.>