Exploring the forest with the little mouse’s encyclopedia

today Little Mouse Encyclopedia Debuts on Xbox consoles. Our team members’ kids had a great time with it. It is obvious. However, I was very surprised by how much this game helped me appreciate a trip into a real forest.

First contact

When I was around 5-10 years old, I enjoyed going out into the forest, but when I couldn’t see much depth there.

The appearance of an animal was certainly an exciting event, but I’ve only divided trees into deciduous and coniferous and other plants – those that can be stabbed with and those that are relatively safe.

The mad botanist

When we started working with Circus Atos on the Xbox version of Little Mouse Encyclopedia Here at RedDeerGames, one of my first jobs was going through all of the illustrations in the game.

These are hundreds of leaves, stems, flower buds, roots, stems and branches. I looked at her up close and with great interest and felt a bit like a mad botanist.

Bring pictures to life

Tereza Vostradovská, the author of the illustrations for the game, did a great job. The game seems like an old school cartoon, but at the same time you can easily spot all of the plants and animals. They are full of detail and very realistic.

“I was trying to find a simple way to represent nature as a recognizable system,” explains Tereza. “But still with a stylization point. That was the hardest part. The main influences were some Czech animators and artists such as Bedřich Pojar, Zdeněk Miler or Jiří Trnka. “

“We also have a huge gaming background like the Amanita studio, which is a huge inspiration to me,” adds Tereza. “All of the illustrations are handmade, it’s watercolor on paper. I painted all of the animals, plants and backgrounds on a separate layer, then scanned them and created all of the scenes on my computer. A demanding technique. “

Forest meditation

My next visit to the forest after playing Little Mouse Encyclopediawasn’t the same as the previous one. I found myself slowly exploring the place. I began to pay attention to the smells, to the textures of the plants, and I realized that I was listening to individual sounds of nature with my eyes closed.

I was looking for what I remember from the game. I looked around for anthills. And I thought how nice it is that it is home to more than 1 million ants. I looked for male ferns and mosses. And I really enjoyed her presence.

Young explorer

There are some games that I have a lot of fun with but I finish them and forget about them. Little Mouse Encyclopedia I stayed with myself for a long time and after turning off the console the experience still continued – in the real world.

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