[1] Common activities include exploring the forest, eating, drinking water, and sleeping under trees.

[2] There are also social activities that deer commonly engage in, such as dancing, pool parties, hide and seek, and tag.

Exhibition curator Michel Dewilde invited Tale of Tales to contribute to the fourth edition of the yearly Ename Actueel group art exhibition (September 1, 2005 to October 30, 2005) organized by the Provincial Archeological Museum in the small town of Ename in Belgium.

[4] When it was first created, its main focus was on Tardis, a time-and-space-travel device featured in the Doctor Who television series.

After that, the base of the ruin was introduced, resembling the archeological site of a gothic Saint Salvator church.

But when they stopped playing and the deer went to sleep, the soul of this visitor escaped and started floating through the forest.

Now that the exhibition and Tardis is over, the ruins stand exactly as they have been created, left to be seen by the current forest players.

Weeping willows, frogs, lily pads, the occasional flower, and some brightly coloured koi fish make up the pond location.

The Old Oak's most notable trait is the low humming sound emitted when the player travels close enough to it.

A player can activate the ABIOGENESIS camera, which focuses on the Twin Gods statue, by pressing the keys CTRL + W. In addition, if a player uses the 'pray' action at the Twin Gods statue the deer avatar receives a temporary devout pelt.

De Drinkplaats (The Watering Hole) is a magical place where deer gather to drink from an endlessly running source.

Fantastic Illusions is a show of work by contemporary Chinese and Belgian artists that refers to the romantic desire to step into a picture and become immersed in it ("Die Sehnsucht, im Bild zu sein").

The game creators have yet to respond to queries into the origin of these items, or to the possibility of creatures in addition to the deer living out of sight.

The creators of The Endless Forest strived to create an artistic game, a moving painting.

[8][10] The game's prototype was originally commissioned by the Musee d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg, in 2003.

With the release of Phase Two came the use of Forest Magic, the ability to change the avatar's appearance, a handful of emotes to express oneself, a giant tree known as the Old Oak, and an update to the ABIOGENESIS system.

The Fawn was created for Pixel Me, a traveling art exhibition for young teenagers in Belgium.

On January 16, 2007, the artistic game project reached 10,000 registered players and had been downloaded over 64,000 times since its first release in September 2005.

[18] During this time The Endless Forest was being supported by Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean in Luxemburg, Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds and Design Vlaanderen.

It was during this Summer Solstice ABIOGENESIS that The Endless Forest experienced a record breaking attendance, over 80 deer at one time, much more than the little server could handle.

In this version, new players began playing as fawns for a little over a month, which after that they grew into full grown stags.

It was also in this phase that two new areas were created; The Birch Forest and The Playground, consisting of a bunch of large boulders.

Version 3.2 was released in honour of Mardi Gras, where 8 new sets, designed by players and textured by students at the Howest college in Kortrijk, Belgium were added to the game.

On March 9, 2008, The Endless Forest reached 25,000 registered players and was downloaded almost 200,000 times[23] Despite the game's growing popularity, the funding was becoming a problem.

The general plan states: "There's two main facets to the interaction design of The Endless Forest.

On the one hand, it is sort of a magical deer-RPG or simulation game and on the other a stage for virtual performances (kind of an extreme form of Dungeon Mastering).

Every once in a while we, Auriea Harvey & Michaël Samyn, the authors and directors of this project, will intervene with one thing or another.

Usually a remainder of these occasions will be left in the forest, but it will be most interesting to witness and participate in the event when it happens.

"[27] In 2016, the developers launched a crowdfunding campaign to remake The Endless Forest using the Unreal Engine.

The Endless Forest has been invited to exhibitions such as Le Cube Festival,[30] Game/Play,[10] Bradford Animation Festival,[31] IETM Autumn Plenary Meeting,[32] VELOCITY festival,[33] Play Cultures,[34] Els límits de la natura ("The Limits of Nature") at Centre d'Art La Panera,[35] Gameworld at LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industriale,[36] Night Garden at Mediamatic,[37] Mediaterra,[38] Pixel Me,[17] Edge Conditions at the San Jose Museum of Art,[39] and more.