I was thinking Stranded or Stranded 2 until you mentioned the bird's eye view thing. Hmm, I have heard of a game like that too, just wait....
WELL Now, i remember a while back, i searched something like "Survival Simulater" in Google, and one of the pics i clicked on, had a review of 3 games, they were Ski Stunt simulater, Stranded 2, and another game with a German title, that i couldn't find a download for that I really wanted
Drop me a PM if you find the name of the game
Only problem is now, Those stupid Virtual Villager games clog up the search engines
im goona try a search for Stranded 2 on wikipedia, and see if the game im thinking of is in references.