This hand-embroidered medieval adventure game looks like a lovely, chill time—but I'm warning you, don't be fooled by its pleasant exterior
Overview & Key Takeaways
Scarlet Deer Inn releases next month.
Before I explain to you why Scarlet Deer Inn is one of my most anticipated games of this year, I urge you to download the demoon Steam and play it for yourself. It's hard to describe why I'm so excited by it without spoiling the very specific moment I realised it had serious juice, so I highly recommend you take 20 minutes to give it a try.
Alright, you've been warned. Scarlet Deer Inn is a side-scrolling adventure platformer created by Czech husband-and-wife team Attu games, distinguished from all the other games of its ilk by having an "embroidered" art style. This description is not entirely accurate. The backgrounds are actually hand-painted. But the characters—and every frame of their animation—have been created with a sewing machine rather than drawn, then scanned into the digital realm.
This is neat. But it also conjures images of a specific kind of experience. We're in the domain of cosy games, something that's warm, gentle, funny, maybe a little bit twee. Scarlet Deer Inn sounds like the kind of game you might show to your nanna in an attempt to convince her that you're growing up right.
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And there are elements of that to it. The introduction to protagonist Elise presents you with an idyllic portrayal of medieval life. Rolling fields, sun-dappled woodlands, villagers chewing over the local gossip. It's a pleasant space to roam around. It's a surprisingly funny game, too. Not in a Monkey Island way, squeezing jokes into every possible crevice, but in a way that emerges naturally from the characters and their situations.
Scarlet Deer Inn - Release Date Trailer - YouTube
I enjoyed all of this in isolation. But then, eventually, comes the turn. At a certain point, it becomes clear that Scarlet Deer Inn is a game with teeth. And bones, and…other things. It's one of the more effective dramatic twists I've encountered in a game for a while, and it happens very early on, which makes me very curious about what else the game might have in store.
As you can probably tell, I was impressed by it, and have been looking forward to getting my hands on the full game for a while. Naturally, then, I was thrilled to see Attu announce a release date that's fairly imminent—July 17.
There's also a new trailer for the game that you can watch above, though again, I'd recommend downloading and playing the demo instead, as the trailer gives a fair amount away. I know there's an absolute avalanche of games headed our way in the next couple of months, but I'm confident that Scarlet Deer Inn will prove worthy of your attention.
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