See footage of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter in moving images

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter developer The Astronauts put out the first footage of the horror game today, but the studio did it in three GIFs instead of videos.

The Astronauts captured gameplay footage using Fraps and then converted it to animated GIFs, according to a blog post from the studio. Three different segments of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter are featured in the images, which are designed to showcase The Astronauts' use of photogrammetric technology in building the game world. Photogrammetry refers to the construction of three-dimensional spaces based on two-dimensional images and other data.

"We believe [photogrammetry is] the future for a lot of indie studios interested in photo-realistic worlds. The technology does not eliminate the need for artists and never will, but it allows faster acquisition of high quality in-game assets," reads the blog post.

The first image shows a rocky ascending path early in the game; the second features a supernatural event that occurs as the entire world changes; and the third shows off a cemetery from a later portion of the game. You can check out all three GIFs below (they might take some time to load; smaller versions are available here), and read more about The Vanishing of Ethan Carter here. The game is in development on Windows PC.