Scarlet Deer Inn screenshot
Image: Attu Games & Aurakenn Games

Video games are a medium that will forever surprise me. I've seen a fair few games that channel the style of medieval tapestries. Until today's launch of Scarlet Deer Inn, I'd never before seen one that uses real hand-stitched embroidery (give or take a sewing machine) as the foundation of its animation. All of this from a tiny Czech husband-and-wife duo - Attu Games - making their second indie game.

Yes, really, hand-embroidered sprites. You can see some of them in the screenshots below. While the game has a bit of a Studio Ghibli look to it once the sprites are given their final shading and dark outlines, the game isn't nearly as cute and fluffy as the painstakingly stitched art would suggest. This one's a dark, side-scrolling, supernatural medieval story about an ordinary mother of two dragged into a grim mystery.

While the character sprites are painstakingly stitched in Scarlet Deer Inn, the backdrops are hand-painted with some lush dynamic lighting effects going on. The hand-crafted aesthetic even extends to the speech and thought bubbles, which appear as scraps of tapestry with chunky, medieval-style lettering woven into them. The music also echoes the styles of the Middle Ages, and is played on traditional instruments.

It's an aesthetic triumph top to bottom, and if Steam user reviews on the demo and full game are any indication, it's not too shabby as a game, either. Scarlet Deer Inn is out now for £17.75/$20, with a small 10% launch discount running until July 28th. The only negative thing I've heard about the game so far is that it's not a massive experience, which is understandable, given the two-person team and - I reiterate - the hand-embroidered sprites.

There's also a free demo available here, while Attu's first game - Feudal Alloy (about a fish piloting a knightly robot's body) is 90% off for the week.