South of Midnight: How we brought the Deep South to life with Compulsion Games
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Every now and then a game comes along that looks and feels truly singular. South of Midnight, the new action-adventure game from our partner Compulsion Games, has achieved that feat. Our artists, who worked on the title for about four years from March 2021, are proud to have contributed.
Set in the American Deep South, South of Midnight is decidedly Southern Gothic: despair and decay are woven into small towns soaked in atmosphere, where time seems to have stood still, only to be disturbed into life by Hazel, the game’s protagonist.
South of Midnight’s stop-motion, timeworn art style is a central part of its melancholic feel. Every detail carries the weight of the past, from reed overgrowth to the game’s fantastical creatures inspired by real Southern folktales.
“The genesis of Midnight was my desire to create a love letter to the South,” said David Sears, South of Midnight’s Creative Director.
This project came with much responsibility.
Here is what we did.
The challenge
“Add a little more love.”
This was the Compulsion team’s battle cry throughout the project. They had a clear vision of how the game should feel—in fact, their main request was to “put soul into every piece of the game,” to quote Oleksandra Moseichuk, our Realistic 3D Environment Artist.
The visual references given to our artists were often real photographs, showing that despite plenty of stylized elements, the game is grounded in realism. In fact, finding this balance between realism and stylized was a key challenge of the project; adjusting to the uniqueness of the aesthetic required that our team be receptive to the partner’s game plan, but also that they had the independence and self-confidence to execute.
It fell on us to help actualize the game’s gorgeous art direction. Our artists also brought their own creativity to every challenge, as the partner entrusted us with increasing responsibility.
What we did
Most of our work was done by our 3D Environment artists, spanning Level Art, Props, and Lighting.
Level Art: Level art made up a large part of our contribution to South of Midnight. Firstly, we worked closely with Compulsion to set up a smoother, more streamlined workflow for fixing bugs and optimizing level art by reducing dependencies across departments. Some of the areas we set-dressed include the Huggin’ Molly boss arena, traversal areas, Two-Toed Tom’s belly, the area surrounding Hazel’s broken-down house, the arena for the Kooshma boss fight, and much more. Our efficiency and output quality led to Compulsion trusting us with handling many areas and set dressing across the game.
Our Level Art specialists did more than make assets look pretty. They also made sure assets functioned well technically by being optimized and glitch-free: art, collision, and level-of-detail bugs were a key focus for us throughout this project. The South of Midnight team made huge efforts towards optimization and debugging to ensure the game would run smoothly, and our team is proud to have been part of that.
Lighting: South of Midnight’s stop-motion, animation-like art style meant we had to be extra careful to get the lighting right in the areas entrusted to us. Compulsion wanted the lighting to be more theatrical than traditionally game-like, so we used a lot of stylized, artificial lighting. We also scripted and blueprinted gameplay lights, so that they would fit coherently with gameplay logic.
3D Environment Props: We made many differently sized, differently shaped natural and urban props—boulders, cliffs, cave walls, melting oversized candles, church crucifixes, wooden doors and so on—utilizing high- to low- and mid-poly workflows.
We worked on many organic assets that were integrated throughout the game, such as the Nexus and Corruption roots. We created modular kits for various environments, including churches, farms, steamboats, mansions, cottages, caves, and—our favorite—inside the belly of the mythical Two-Toed Tom alligator, where Hazel fights an unforgettable battle.
Here is the full list of art services we provided:
- Character Concept Art
- 3D Characters
- 3D Environments
- Level Art
- Lighting
- 2D Animation
- 3D Animation
- Realtime VFX
- UI/UX Design
- Production Management
Project highlights
Some highlights from our work on South of Midnight, summarized:
Our team designed and animated all 26 animals in the game. Our 3D team mastered semi-realistic sculpting techniques during this project, as it required considerable skill to execute South of Midnight’s rough-hewn style. We often joked that we had officially become directors of a zoo at Room 8 Group, given the number of creatures we created!
We helped design, and fully animated, the game’s 14 Storybooks. Each new game chapter begins with a unique Storybook—14 chapters, 14 Storybooks. We created these from scratch, from initial illustration to final 2D animations. The Storybooks held a special place in our hearts: the partner placed a great deal of trust in our vision, giving us the creative freedom to bring them to life.
We helped create a cohesive, readable character style to convey South of Midnight’s artisanal aesthetic through its Storybooks. We achieved depth through contrast, while fitting all key plot actions into one or two frames per illustration.
We helped create a stylish and visually appealing user interface, incorporating decorative (but not intrusive) lace patterns. We worked on a range of UI elements, including buttons, switches, panels, frames, screen backgrounds, and HUD notification prompts. We also designed icons—including more than 40 Steam achievement icons as well as character icons—that were detailed yet clear and readable.
We assisted in improving game performance through lighting optimizations, asset adjustments, and bug fixes. We also worked on HLODs, reducing performance issues while maintaining visual fidelity, and identified and resolved major technical problems, including collision bugs affecting gameplay.
We also handled many of the game’s VFX. Many of the game’s combat and environmental effects are the work of our artists. The partner put full trust in our expertise, not just to deliver specific effects based on briefs, but to also execute on the overall VFX vision for entire levels.
The outcome
Compulsion Games trusted us with their vision for South of Midnight, and we followed their lead as they made a beautiful game that has already been showered with praise for its visuals. We took seriously the partner’s call to put soul into every part of the game, and we feel privileged to have contributed.
…a clear and well-executed artistic vision that makes it one of the more memorable Xbox console exclusives of this generation
IGN
The partner gave us gradually more responsibility throughout the project, which is testament to the skill and reliability of our artists. Eventually we had significant ownership of the art in some parts of the game—including some of its biggest levels.
Working with our partners at Room 8 Group meant not just an extension of our own South of Midnight team to help us build and ship the game, but it meant expanding our own perspective and approach to solving creative challenges together with amazing talent. Our colleagues at Room 8 Group offered us production flexibility, and a deep respect for our creative process and high-quality demands
Anouk Bachman, Lead Producer (South of Midnight), Compulsion Games
For our artists, they developed their skills through working on this project by:
- expanding their skills in composition, anatomy, sculpting, and lighting optimization;
- tackling the challenge of incorporating lace patterns into the game interface, creating a decorative yet functional design;
- Mastering semi-realistic sculpting techniques while maintaining a unique aesthetic;
- and much more.
Our team is incredibly excited about the amazing reception South of Midnight has received. It’s always rewarding to see the community connect with something we’ve poured so much passion into. … It’s a special moment for all of us
Lead Level Artist, Room 8 Group
South of Midnight speaks for itself: it is stunning visually, with a wholly unique charm. We are eternally grateful to have had the opportunity to work on this game with an amazing partner in Compulsion. We appreciate the trust they placed in us. Congratulations to them on an outstanding release. It is out now on Steam and Microsoft Store!
