If there is something that intrigues me, it’s when I see a game that has something about it that’s either unique or innovative, and I know I’m in for something that’s unlike anything I’ve played before. Therefore, I was instantly excited when my editor shared Scarlet Deer Inn with me in the late hours of yesterday evening.
At first glance, nothing seems overtly different about Scarlet Deer Inn or Elise, the game’s protagonist. However, look into Attu Games, the Czech-based indie studio’s Twitter account, and you’ll quickly be blown away to discover that the entire game is constructed out of actual thread.
Let me explain if that last sentence has you scratching your head in confusion. Every character within Scarlet Deer Inn is created in real life using an embroidery machine before being animated and pulled into the game’s digital world. Talk about a unique, albeit time-consuming, concept.
A little sneak peek into the process of making an embroidered character animation for Scarlet Deer Inn. 🦌🌿#indiegames #madewithunity pic.twitter.com/Z36bzRJpB2
— Eva Navratilova (@EvaBalikova) April 27, 2023
Attu Games consists of a husband and wife duo, and Eva Navrátilová is the one who does all the embroidery and, as a result, is the one responsible for all the mind-blowing. All the work is done using a Brother PR670E. Even though embroidery has nothing to do with the game’s story or gameplay, it’s still one of the most innovative ways to create characters that we’ve seen recently.
The entire process consists of characters first being drawn by hand. They are then digitised using Hatch Embroidery 3. After that, they are put through the embroidery machine before being scanned, cropped, and finally given black defining lines and shadows, digitally.
When the husband and wife team first started on this project, neither of them knew how to embroider in the first place. Throughout this process, they’ve had to teach themselves the necessary skills. The due also handles all the writing, programming, painting and instrument playing for the soundtrack.
In an interview with Kotaku, Eva Navrátilová was asked about why they would choose to develop a game using such a time-consuming method:
“It could be done easily with some shaders or simply painted in Photoshop, but where would be fun in that? It’s the main reason why we make games, to have fun trying different stuff. Even though it’s so much ‘unnecessary’ extra work, it’s really cool to work on something completely new and fresh and a surprising number of people really like this crazy idea, and we are getting a lot of positive feedback. If we hadn’t used embroidery for animation, we wouldn’t be doing this interview now, wouldn’t we?”
As for when the game will be available, no one yet knows, but it will be coming to both Nintendo Switch and Steam, and honestly, we look forward to seeing all the threads pull together – pun intended.