What is Xbox exclusive South of Midnight, and who’s making it?

This spooky blues song is a must-listen! South of Midnight was one of the more arresting trailers revealed at Sunday’s Xbox Games Showcase, but also one of the more mysterious, and easily lost amid noisier fare like the reemergence of FableThe reveal of Star Wars OutlawsThe gargantuan Starfield info-dump. How will it play? What’s the story? What’s its pedigree? What’s its pedigree?

Xbox Wire has an interview with the developers that answers some of these questions. The short version: It’s a magical realist occult adventure from the makers of The Happy Few that will explore the folklore, music, and rural environments of a fictionalized South — but the studio, Compulsion Games, isn’t saying much about how it will play yet.

When is South of Midnight’s release date, and is it an Xbox exclusive?

There is no release date. Microsoft announced several 2024 games at their showcase. South of Midnight wasn’t one of them — like FableAs an Xbox Game Studios release, the game will be available on Windows PC and Xbox Series X, Steam and Game Pass. As an Xbox Game Studios release, it’s coming to Windows PC and Xbox Series X, Game Pass, and Steam.

Who’s making South of Midnight?

It’s easy. Compulsion Games was founded in Montreal by Guillaume Provost, an ex-Arkane Studios programmer. In 2013, it released the puzzle-platformer “Pretty but Slender” as an independent. Contrast and 2018’s The Happy FewThe game is set in the 1960s England, and it’s a survival horror first-person dystopian with elements of roguelike. Microsoft bought Compulsion in 2018 and it became the first Xbox Game Studios.

Compulsion’s website says it aims to make “hallucinatory adventures in worlds strange but provocatively familiar,” with rich storylines and world-building and a “handcrafted” feel. Compulsion’s games feature strong visual styles, literary and cultural references such as George Orwell. PrisonerYou can also find out more about the following: Happy FewWilliam Faulkner The Hunter: Night of the HunterAnd the Blues of Robert Johnson South of Midnight).

There’s also some hands-on involvement from Microsoft: Narrative producer and creative specialist James Lewis is moonlighting from his day job as head of ID@Xbox’s Developer Acceleration Program to work on the game. Lewis is Black and helps the Canadian developers to handle the characters and setting sensitively.

Image: Compulsion Games/Xbox Game Studios

What’s it about?

Hazel, the protagonist of a modern-day rural South that is magical, embarks on a journey to fix a world broken by battling mythical Southern creatures. Creative director David Sears, who spent his childhood in the region, said it’s “loosely inspired by me tramping around forgotten farms and abandoned places in Mississippi.”

Hazel, a Weaver can also use her magic to traverse and combat. Her Weaving magic allows her to “take the strands that make up the universe and weave or spin them into useful forms for the player to use,” Sears says. The effects are “full of fractal geometry expressed as knitting and doilies — everything is themed after textiles.” Hazel is powerful and wisecracking, but will also have a flawed, human side influenced by her family and the world she grew up in: “She has many of the same issues as real people have,” Sears says.

As well as the creatures from folklore — like the monster that appears vaguely in the trailer (an Altamaha-ha), or Haints (evil spirits that fear the color blue) — Hazel will encounter more ambivalent figures like Shakin’ Bones, the wizened, singing giant from the trailer. He’s an immortal Archon, partly inspired by Charon, the ferry boatman of Greek mythology, and partly by the bluesman Johnson, who, legend has it, did a deal with the devil at the crossroads. It’s not clear if he’s on Hazel’s side or not, and Sears hints that there may be threats in this world other than the monsters Hazel faces.

What time will South of Midnight be played?

Sears Lewis gives away little information about the game, but an interview conducted before its release has given us some basic details. In a 2021 French-language interview with Xbox Squad (as reported by VGC), Compulsion’s PR and community developer Naila Hadjas said the team was working on third-person narrative single-player game. It won’t have The Happy Few’s roguelike elements and, unlike that game, it won’t debut in early access. “The next game is a story, we know where we are going,” she said.

Image: Compulsion Games/Xbox Game Studios

Compulsion’s handling of a Black Woman set in the South.

Sears is proud of its Xbox Wire product in the interview with Xbox Wire. South of Midnight Will feature a character and setting that is underrepresented, while being aware of potential pitfalls. That’s where Lewis, who works with developers from marginalized groups, comes in. Compulsion has also sought other outside help, including internal Microsoft resources like Xbox’s Black Employee Resource Group and external consultants. But, as Lewis says, representation at Compulsion itself, particularly on the writing team, is crucial: “The approach to this had to start by having just proper representation on the team, ensuring that we had Black women and women of colour on our narrative team is key for understanding and writing Hazel’s voice.”

Does the game address the racist past (and present of) the South? Lewis makes it sound as though it will be acknowledged, but it’s not the main thrust of the story.

“You don’t actually have to be from that area to attest that the American South has a history that makes it difficult to use as a setting without its difficult past, which we can still feel the impact of today.” But, he says, “Hazel’s job is not to fix racism or the South’s troubled history. These challenges are unfair to Hazel. It is her job to portray a young person growing up in an exciting and frightening world. Making her an authentic person that people like my wife, my daughter, my mother — who all look like Hazel — will hopefully recognise and relate to.”