{"id":11604,"date":"2026-08-05T11:20:01","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T01:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/therefinedgeek.com.au\/?p=11604"},"modified":"2026-09-21T11:50:29","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T01:50:29","slug":"scarlet-deer-inn-my-lady-must-be-fed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/therefinedgeek.com.au\/index.php\/2026\/08\/05\/scarlet-deer-inn-my-lady-must-be-fed\/","title":{"rendered":"Scarlet Deer Inn: My Lady Must be Fed."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There’s much to be said about effortful endeavors in the age of AI and easy outcomes. Gone are the days when the actual thing you created had a direct tie back to the effort that was invested in it. Instead today it’s easy for anyone to build something that has the same impression<\/em> as something that had great care and time invested in it but lacks the hallmarks of friction, strain and vision that goes into creative works. So it is that I, and I feel many others, feel pulled towards things that embody that meaningful creative process which is something that Scarlet Deer Inn has in spades. It is, however, still lacking in the game mechanics department and I unfortunately lack the cultural heritage and knowledge to deeply appreciate the fable that is seemingly recounted here. But in a world that is now infested with AI slop I can’t be more happy to see things like this still being made. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Eli\u0161ka is a young widow, left to care on her own for two children and the inn that her husband left to her. It’s not an easy life, especially with the constant din of the townsfolk saying she should just give it up, but she is determined to make it her own for both her and her children. However one day her children disappear, seemingly without reason, which sets her on a path to discovering the dark world that lies beneath the town. What follows is a tale of loss, greed and the supernatural as Eli\u0161ka does everything she can to make sure her children are returned back to her safely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scarlett Deer Inn’s claim to fame is that much of the characters, NPCs and other items within the world are actually embroidered on fabric then translated across into the game engine. It’s certainly an impressive undertaking even considering that it’s not applied universally throughout the game. Something is definitely lost in the process however as the videos of the embroidery look absolutely incredible but the resulting textures in the game look much more like some intricate shader work more than they do actual embroidered work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The game play is a relatively straightforward puzzle\/platformer, sending you all over the place to gather items, dodge obstacles and generally do the things that your run of the mill game in this genre is want to do. I was a little worried at first that this was going to be another inventory management nightmare when I saw the size of the backpack that popped up but it turns out that’s just because every item in the game is represented on there, and you’ll end up carrying most of them around for the duration of the game. Indeed most of the puzzles are pretty self contained and straightforward, none of them requiring you to double back on you progress to continue on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The platforming is probably the game’s weakest aspect though as it consists of 2 distinct modes: one where you’re left to explore and find a route forward and a second where you’ll be chasing a kind of goblin creature through a winding section of the map. The first is fine, if uninspired, but the second is an exercise in frustration as the game does its best to trick you into dead in routes that then spin you right back to the start. On a short section? Not an issue but they get increasingly longer as the game progresses and re-running the same scene numerous times over just isn’t fun. I get that the playtime metric is on every dev’s mind but there are better ways to do it than have us replay the same section 10 times over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I got the distinct feeling that the story would have more impact on me if I was more up to speed with Slavic folklore which this game draws heavy inspiration from. There’s a lot of elements that seemingly come out of the blue, like a lord having someone’s body parts<\/em> in their stores and being weirdly willing to trade for them<\/em>, which I’m sure is a reference to something that I simply have zero idea about. The game gets its overall message across well enough but it just didn’t have the emotional resonance on me that I feel it might otherwise for someone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scarlet Deer Inn is a wonderful expression of what it means to pursue a creative endeavor in the age of AI slop. Whilst the core visual aspect might not have translated perfectly to the digital world I still very much applaud the effort and hope that they continue to refine the process over time. Mechanically the game is decidedly middle of the road being mostly component but still needing some polish to make it transition from good to great. The story might’ve bounced off my forehead but I feel like that speaks more to me and my somewhat lacking cultural heritage (being a 5th generation Australian, for what it’s worth). All in all it’s something that I’d say you should play simply to support those who pursue these kinds of things just so they keep doing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rating: 7.0\/10<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scarlet Deer Inn is available on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X\/S and Nintendo Switch right now for $8.50. Total playtime was 2.9 hours with 60% of the achievements unlocked. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s much to be said about effortful endeavors in the age of AI and easy outcomes. Gone are the days when the actual thing you…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9,16],"tags":[3554,6841,6842,6843,6138,733,839,3679,6840,6449,5911,6401],"class_list":["post-11604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-games","category-review","tag-2d","tag-attu-games","tag-aurakenn-games","tag-embroidered","tag-nintendo-switch","tag-pc","tag-platformer","tag-puzzler","tag-scarlet-deer-inn","tag-singleplayer","tag-xbox-one","tag-xbox-series-x"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/ppBqt-31a","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/therefinedgeek.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Scarlet-Deer-Inn-Review-Screenshot-Wallpaper-Title-Screen.jpg?fit=1280%2C720&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therefinedgeek.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therefinedgeek.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therefinedgeek.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therefinedgeek.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therefinedgeek.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11604"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/therefinedgeek.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11608,"href":"https:\/\/therefinedgeek.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11604\/revisions\/11608"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therefinedgeek.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therefinedgeek.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therefinedgeek.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therefinedgeek.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}