‘South of Midnight’ Developers Talk Inspirations Behind Southern Game

Vengeful spirits, grief-stricken souls and a massively predatory crocodile await rescue in Compulsion Games' next legendary adventure game. South of Midnight. It was originally announced in a trailer in 2023 during the Xbox Games Showcase, and with the game's full trailer following earlier last summer, the scope of what the game has in store for players has been relatively kept under wraps. However, we know that so far South of Midnight It is a third-person action adventure inspired by Southern Gothic folktales. The story follows a young woman named Hazel (voiced by Adrienne Ray, who also shared motion capture duties with Nona Parker), reeling after her hometown is destroyed by a tornado as she travels to find her mother, who disappeared during a flood. Somehow, after being drawn into a magical realism where folkloric creatures appear, Hazel embraces her powers as a Weaver—a magical mender of broken souls—to confront the formidable creatures known as Haints while untangling the pasts of her family and those around her.

In November, Compulsion Games released a 30-minute documentary showcasing more gameplay, an in-depth look at the inspirations and undertones including a creative hand-drawn stop-motion style (visuals that evoke a similar flavor to Tim Burton's graphics). Corpse bride Or Guillermo del Toro Pinocchio), along with the careful research and care for racial sensitivity that the Montreal-based studio began while helming a game set against a deep-South American backdrop in which a black female plays the main protagonist. In the documentary, creative director David Sears explains that the impetus for the project came from his desire to “send a love letter to the South,” where he grew up. “midnight “It's about bringing people together,” Sears said. “It's about learning to empathize with people who are not like you. It's about finding hidden strength.

To learn more about the southern adventure game, Deadline spoke with the development team's studio head, Guillaume Provost, game director Jasmine Roy, audio director Chris Fox, art director Whitney Clayton, and sound and motion capture artists Ray, Parker, and Ahmed Best at Compulsion. Games' Montreal Studio for additional details they would like to share below.

Delivery time: Talk about bringing that diverse profile to the Microsoft/Xbox roster. What do conversations look like to bring this game to life?

Guillaume Provost: David [Sears] And we have worked together for 30 years. The title has always been decided here in the studio. There was never a lot of conversation in terms of creative involvement from Microsoft telling us what kind of game we were getting ready to make. But we're paying attention to all the other games on their list. I get to see what all the other studios are building and there is a natural organic space to fill. I felt like the South was interesting because I felt like it hadn't been covered extensively within video games. there Kentucky Road Zero, red dead redemption, And other small indie games, but other than that no game had a US focus, which is why we originally made it [kept that premise].

Delivery time: What does the title mean? South of Midnight entail?

Dean: [William] Faulkner was a great inspiration. We looked at a lot of Southern Gothic literature for the title. South of Midnight It was this quirky piece that just captured the zeitgeist of the area and the mysticism and Southern Gothic elements that we wanted to incorporate into it. Some elements of the game have a direct relationship to the title when you play it.

Delivery time: What are you excited for players to experience?

Yasmin Roy: I'm excited for them to play the folkloric side. Also, players encounter mythical creatures and learn how we built the environment and world and how we infused imagination into it.

Dean: personally, I love all aspects of Hazel. She is brave and feisty and that is pure joy to me. But I also think our environment and the folklore we've created is exciting.

Delivery time: What did you take away from your trip to the South that you felt you had to get in the game?

Dean: There were a lot of things, mostly a mixture of curiosity and concern about how the South was portrayed when we were talking to people from that part of the region. There are a lot of ways the South is often portrayed in the media, so we wanted to tell Hazel's story as her own person through her own journey. We also wanted to celebrate the South and its myths. We are not ashamed of what is endemic in the history of that part of the South. This is definitely something we had to learn how to navigate. You cannot ignore this history. This is just a statement as if we did that. It would be like white Canadian imposter syndrome. So, we made sure we had the right people on the team to handle these topics properly. We have had good support in the team and also at Microsoft. I feel comfortable that we've connected our character's own journey line to her own story that makes her someone she cares about, along with her relationship with her family, and her mother in particular. So, I feel good about the story we're writing now, but there are a lot of things we took from the South. [Something tangible in the game] I think we were seeing some of these superstitions, like seeing porches painted hent blue and people putting bottles on trees. That was cool for us to see.

Delivery time: What are some topics you kept in mind while creating a movement cap?

Nona Parker: There was a lot of freedom in not having to question myself as much and being able to trust my body's movements.

Adrian Ray: I've been fortunate to have a lot of meetings about tone and background. But while building Hazel, I wanted to make sure she was always Hazel, no matter what was thrown at her. I wanted to keep her certain spunk, her confidence that can sometimes come off as arrogant, all those aspects of her. There will be certain ways I can lean on the door to show her confidence that she is comfortable in a situation, but then I can also ask myself, do I need to take control of the situation and stand forward and completely upright? There were certain things I wanted to pick out and decide that even when she was walking, I wanted her to be more confident and have good posture because she's a runner. I also wanted her to read trust because she was literally thrown into the world of creatures and magic and everything else. But regardless, she attacks him head-on. While some characters may be afraid of this or run away, they don't even hesitate. It's more like, “Oh, I have to do this, and that's that.” So, I wanted to make sure that her body movements and the way she held herself fit the personal description of her character.

Ahmed Best: It was very important to me that Hazel was a black woman because there are idiosyncrasies in the way they, especially black women from the South, conduct themselves with their bodies that are an integral part of their personality. It is very difficult to teach someone how to do this. It was important that Hazel was played by good actors and that we didn't look at the performance capture as a body double. We looked at the performance, how they moved and walked, and the thought process and intention behind it. It was very important to me that the black girls who would play this game would say, “Oh my aunt danced this way” or “My grandmother moved this way” or “If my mother moved her head this way.” It means she's crazy.” Those things are made [the game] original.

Delivery time: Talk about the importance of being part of this Black game as an all-Black crew and your initial reactions when booking the job and reading the script.

opinion: All I got were fake sides that said: fake lines, black female, unannounced game, unannounced title, Xbox [laughs]. But after I was cast and read the script, I was like, “Wait a minute, this is really dope.” I remember having a Zoom meeting about the creatures and how those creatures fit into the Gula Geechee culture of these stories and myths, that we're told and that we pass on to each other, so we can then bring that into the character. We can bring a little bit of that “don't do this” feeling and a little bit of paranoia or fear, but I think what's great is that Hazel knows all these things, but she steps up and tries to fight and conquer. [these emotions] anyway.

Parker: I felt excited. I didn't have time to question him. I jumped on the plane and said, “Let's go.” The writing was amazing and thoughtful without cutting through the really serious material. The game begins with the aftermath of the hurricane's devastation. So, the trauma and experience that Hazel goes through is very honest and regionally insightful into what things are like in that region.

better: It was a challenge because I think we all thought the same thing: What do these people from Montreal know about the Southeast? But the wonderful thing about it is that they didn't know. They were open to learning. There was some talk at the beginning that we knew Compulsion would be a good game. We had no doubt about that. The game isn't just about killing hints and healing monsters. The traditional part of the game is what black people who played the game would look at. They'll be like, is this real? Is this real? And this is the person you want this game to be real for. Because if not, they'll say something, so when we had those conversations, I have to give credit to the coercion. They were very open about everything, and the fact that we were hiring black women as actors and not putting black skin on the white actors was really important to me.

Delivery time: In terms of art and sound, what was important to you about capturing the game based on your visit to the South?

Chris Fox: I wanted the soundtracks to be completely authentic and for the game to be set within the different biomes so that if someone from there played the game, they'd be like, “Cool, looks like we're home or away.” That was something I wanted to represent honestly, meaning that maybe in music, I could take it somewhere new but also still be influenced by all the songs of the Deep South and make original songs that could stand on their own and be sung or played.

Whitney Clayton: On a higher level with the settings we wanted to make, it was important to take things that people could relate to themselves but then give them a heightened, festive touch. In the game, we do this using our [animation] Style, folk tales and magic. The personal part for me was identifying those details that people would hopefully relate to. [I’m hoping] They'll be like my grandmother had that orange sofa. It was about capturing the familiar texture and comforting elements of a place you've been before while staying true to what makes the place special, which is different from the stereotypes of the South. Also, on our trip, we saw a lot of diversity in terms of scenery and food, and the people were very friendly, so having that beauty in everything was important. We had to constantly ask ourselves how to infuse that in a way that felt personal and relatable and change it so that there was still a beautiful escape from the folktale and magic in the real world. This combination was very important to me.

South of Midnight It will be released in 2025 on Xbox Series

[This interview has been edited for length and clarity]