The Endless Forest is a multiplayer online game for Microsoft Windows by Belgian studio Tale of Tales. In the game, the player is a deer in a peaceful forest without goals or the ability to chat. Pictograms above registered deer's heads represent their names. Players communicate with one another through sounds and body language.
During "abiogenesis", every deer runs around, rubs against trees, or sits next to sleeping deer to cast Forest Magic on one another or party under a night sky filled with floral fireworks in a spectacle, created in realtime, by authors whenever the mood hits them. The Endless Forest can be run as a screensaver or an application.
A notable aspect of The Endless Forest is the community involvement. The Tale of Tales website has a forum and a community site where many players post their ideas and feedback for the game, which can affect the game's development.
The creators of The Endless Forest strived to create an artistic game, a moving painting. Dubbed by its developers as a "multiplayer online game and social screensaver", The Endless Forest is not a mainstream MMORPG – it is highly unlike other MMORPGs The most notable difference between The Endless Forest and other MMORPGs is the lack of violence and human communication (talking) in-game..
Gameplay
Basic gameplay
If the player is registered, he or she will begin the game as a fawn. As a fawn, Forest Magic wears off quickly. In a little over a month, the deer grows up and becomes a stag. Now Forest Magic stays on as long as the deer would like it to.
Common activities in the Forest are exploring, using the Forest Magic and Forest Actions, sleeping, and swimming. There are also social activities that deer commonly engage in, such as dancing, pool parties, hide and seek, and tag. Deer can also be seen jumping over rocks and logs, or running in herds.
Abiogenesis
Abiogenesis is a spectacle created by the realtime authors of the game. ABIOGENESIS knows no limits – rocks and cages fall from the sky, disco balls spin, lightning bolts flash, the sky changes color, and rainbows pop up out of nowhere. It is a system that allows Endless Forest authors Auriea Harvey & Michaël Samyn to play god. At any moment they can make it rain, make flowers grow and beasts fly. ABIOGENESIS happens either randomly, whenever they please, or in an organised event, during a live performance. It has also been known that a giant stag will come and visit during an ABIOGENESIS performance...
Forest Magic
Forest Magic is the main way to change the appearance of one's avatar, but the player cannot change his or her own look (The exceptions being some antlers, and the pelt acquired at the Crying Idol.) Other deer must cast spells on them in order to change their look, and it is up to the player to communicate and ask others to change their appearance for them. Only adult deer can keep the spells cast on them, however, registered deer will have the magic cast on them saved for the next time they log on. The magic wears off on all fawns after a short period of time. Swimming in the pond causes a deer to lose all of the Forest Magic that has been cast on them.
Forest actions
Because The Endless Forest has no chat box, or any human means of communication, players must resort to an action strip along the bottom of the game. This strip includes many buttons. Deer display the actions provided in order to communicate with each other. These actions can be divided up into three types; basic actions, expressive actions, and forest magic actions. The basic actions are stand/lie down, bleat, listen, jump, and rub a tree. For expression actions there are two other buttons, a blue button (emotions) and an orange button (motions). The blue button includes emotes such as quivering in fear, cocking the head in confusion, bowing in thanks/greeting/respect, or hunching over in sadness. The orange button includes actions such as dancing, rearing up on the hind legs, and shaking the head yes/no. Forest magic actions include casting, obtaining, and discarding magic. When a deer gains the ability to cast a spell on another deer, a button pops up. Each form of magic has its own button that will pop up when the spell is obtained; pelt, antlers, mask, and shapeshifted. For example, if a deer gains the ability to change another deer's pelt color, a gold button with a deer imprint on it pops up in the action strip. If they press this button, they cast the spell. There is also a worship button, which can only be used when near the Twin Gods Statue (see Forest Magic) and a deer shaped button where you can remove the spells the avatar is wearing.
