Scarlet Deer Inn is a new adventure with beautiful embroidered animation

destructoid.com:

Every day we read stories about the potential (inevitable?) end of human creativity due to advances in AI. But meanwhile, in the Czech Republic, a brand new developer is creating a game utilizing embroidered animation, hand-painted backgrounds, and traditional musical instruments.

It’s titled Scarlet Deer Inn, and it is being produced by Attu Games. This studio consists of a husband and wife team that decided they wanted to craft a video game entirely in-house, and I’ve never wanted to cheer someone on more. While Eva and Lukas Navratilova have been tweeting about their game since 2021, it’s a recent Twitter post that seems to be catching the internet’s attention.

Hi, I'm making a game where all characters have embroidered animation. pic.twitter.com/nMgNOsCNKc

— Eva Navratilova (@EvaBalikova) April 29, 2023

“Hi, I’m making a game where all characters have embroidered animation,” wrote Eva Navratilova in a succinct comment. Eva also attached a brief video of said animation as well as a fascinating clip of the embroidering process. Twitter users were full of praise for how cool the idea is, and the footage has received high praise from curious video game fans.

The process seems very time-consuming. Eva, who serves as the game’s writer and designer, as well as Attu Games’ community & marketing manager, described the basic process for Twitter users. Firstly, the animation frames are drawn out, before being stitched over. Once these embroideries are scanned and digitally cropped, then outlining and shading are added. While the embroidery process itself can add an outline to the character, Eva notes that it is much smoother when added digitally.

The frames are drawn, stitched, scanned, cropped. Then we add lines and shadows.