Scarlet Deer Inn is a new platforming adventure from indie developer Attu Games. Its claim to fame, and the reason I and probably many other players first noticed it, is that all of the characters are made using real hand-stitched embroidery. The developer created the characters through physical embroidery, then incorporated those images into the game. Combined with hand-painted backgrounds, the effect is meant to give Scarlet Deer Inn the feel of a medieval tapestry brought to life. That gives the title a striking visual identity almost immediately.
It is important to note that this is not a story about people realizing they live inside a tapestry or anything like that. This is not Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, tapestry edition. The embroidery is there for atmosphere, visual style and tone rather than as a literal plot element.
That said, I do wish the developers had leaned into the fabric design even more. It would have been neat to see more visible thread texture in the characters, almost as if they were living patches moving across the screen. I think I was hoping for something like a Claymation world, but with fabric pieces instead of clay.
What we get instead are slightly dimensional-looking characters that feel more like animated illustrations with thin horizontal thread lines worked into their designs. That still looks quite good, and it absolutely sets Scarlet Deer Inn apart from almost everything else out there. It just did not push the embroidery concept quite as far as I expected. It’s almost like Inkulinati, which is not a bad thing all, but with a bit more texture.
Players take on the role of Elise, a young woman running the Scarlet Deer Inn after the death of her husband. She is also the mother of two children, a young boy and a slightly older girl, and keeping everything together in medieval times is clearly not easy. Some of the townsfolk even suggest that Elise is in over her head. But she keeps going, trying to maintain the inn, caring for her children and making everyone’s life feel as normal as possible. Honestly, that already makes her a superstar in my book, especially given the timeframe.
When Scarlet Deer Inn begins, Elise is given a series of small fetch quests around town. This early portion of the adventure is quiet and conversational with subtle humor in the dialogue and choices. One of the first decisions, whether to bring an elderly neighbor a bottle of your best high-quality mead or a cheap bottle of wine-like swill, does not resolve quite the way you might expect. You can even take your time if you want and pet just about every animal in the title, from cats to sheep and geese, which is a nice touch.
The music is also impressive. The soundtrack sounds like medieval folk music, and the developers note that it was inspired by the Middle Ages and performed on traditional instruments. It fits the setting well and shifts nicely during the more exciting or dangerous portions of the adventure.
At first, I was settling into what I thought would be a Pentiment-like adventure, waiting for the mystery to slowly reveal itself through conversations, town politics and local secrets. But then, Scarlet Deer Inn threw a curveball I did not see coming.
I can normally spot video game plot twists from a mile away, but this one genuinely surprised me. In one quick sequence, the mood shifts from cozy medieval adventure to something much closer to survival horror. It only takes about 10 seconds for the whole tone of the adventure to change.
Once Elise finds herself trapped underground in a dungeon-like complex, Scarlet Deer Inn becomes much more of a platforming adventure. Players run through dark passages, throw levers to open doors, light fast-burning torches to keep monsters away and perform parkour-style jumps over instant-death pits while trying to explore and survive.
The torch mechanic is one of the most important parts of those underground sections. Elise can relight her torch at certain braziers, but it only burns for a short time. If she gets stuck in the dark, creatures will attack her. That creates real tension, especially during sections where you are trying to navigate quickly while also figuring out where to go next. The official Steam description is not kidding when it says the only thing protecting Elise from certain death is her torch.
The platforming segments are the biggest concern in terms of gameplay. They are not brutally difficult compared with the hardest titles in the genre, but some of the timed sequences are demanding. Sometimes you are chasing the only available light source. Other times, platforms collapse shortly after you land on them. For players used to platformers, those sections are manageable. For players who came to Scarlet Deer Inn expecting mostly a cozy storybook adventure, they could become a barrier.
That is probably the one area where expectations matter most. Scarlet Deer Inn looks gentle at first glance and parts of it are. But this is also a game with monsters, pits, timed runs, boss battles and some fairly unforgiving underground sequences. We are not talking Cuphead levels of difficulty, but it can still be challenging, especially near the end.
The checkpoint system adds to that frustration. If Elise dies, Scarlet Deer Inn returns players to a hard-coded checkpoint, and Scarlet Deer Inn could use a lot more of them. You cannot save whenever you want, and sometimes the last checkpoint is farther back than it should be. For example, at one point, I died during a platforming section and was sent back to a different part of the dungeon with different architecture. Before I could try the timed segment again, I first had to navigate my way back to where the challenge started. That was a bit too much backtracking. Either letting players save at the start of difficult areas, or adding more checkpoints near the toughest sections would make those moments feel much fairer.
I also ran into a few bugs that blocked progression, including both soft and hard locks that required exiting the game and reloading a save. To the developers’ credit, they seem to be patching issues as players report them, but players may still run into a few problems that have not yet been fixed.
There are also a few adventure-game logic problems. One of the biggest mechanics in the dungeon involves relighting your torch at braziers. At one point, I had an unlit torch while standing near a burning candle, but the game would not let me use the candle as an ignition source. Only special braziers count. That is a small gripe, but it reminded me of older computer adventure titles where real-world logic did not always match the logic of the puzzle system. Fire is fire in real life. In Scarlet Deer Inn, only the approved fire counts.
Eventually, players return to the town and its calmer conversations, but by then there is a much larger crisis hanging over Elise’s head. That means it is harder to simply relax and enjoy the village atmosphere the way you could at the start. Before long, the adventure returns to its more dangerous jumping, torch-lighting and monster-avoiding sections.
The story itself is pretty good. Scarlet Deer Inn does a nice job building Elise’s motivation and making it believable that an ordinary woman would push herself into such dangerous situations. She is not a trained hero. She is a mother trying to protect her family, and that makes her easy to root for. I liked Elise and wanted to see her succeed.
The ending resolves her most personal goal, but it also leaves much of the larger story open. Elise reunites with her family, but there are still bigger mysteries and consequences left unresolved. It made me wonder if the developers are already thinking about a sequel because the story certainly leaves room for one.
Scarlet Deer Inn is less than $20 on the Steam platform, which is a good value. Future releases are planned for the Xbox Series X and Nintendo Switch consoles if you want to catch it there instead. The adventure only takes about three or four hours depending on how much you backtrack after deaths or how much time you spend enjoying the calmer town sections.
Scarlet Deer Inn is probably best suited for players who enjoy both light adventure gaming and platforming. Those who only want a cozy medieval story may find the underground sections more difficult than expected. But players who appreciate unique art styles, folk-tale atmosphere, dangerous dungeons and a story about an ordinary person forced into extraordinary circumstances will find a lot to like.
Scarlet Deer Inn lured me in with its gorgeous, embroidered characters, then surprised me with how dark and dangerous it became. It’s not perfect, and it needs a few more checkpoints and bug fixes. But it’s also creative, heartfelt and visually distinct in a way that very few titles are. That makes the Scarlet Deer Inn well worth visiting, even if the stay is a little more dangerous than the name suggests.
