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"South of Midnight" is an upcoming video game from Xbox that explores an alternate reality, magical version of the American Deep South through the epic journey of a Black teenage girl named Hazel. Set to release in 2025, the action-adventure title from Compulsion Games finally revealed more details about its gameplay and plot through a new documentary, "Weaving Hazel's Journey," launched Tuesday by Microsoft Gaming.
In the behind-the-scenes project, creative director David Sears described the game as a "love letter" to the South, which the "South of Midnight" team admits in the doc is a complicated assignment to tackle and required bringing in several outside consultants, as well as relying on the personal experiences of members of the team who are from the American South.
"It was really crucial for us that we got as much perspective as possible, as many voices as possible, to try to show our version of a fantastical Deep South that has both dark in it, that touches upon it, but also beauty and tries to get you that range -- although the story, in and of itself, is a personal story about our main character," art director Whitney Clayton told Variety ahead of the documentary's launch. "So while it does touch upon heavy things, the main story is a personal story, and we just had to make sure we had the right voices to be able to treat all the topics appropriately. So trying to get as much perspective as possible, but then staying true to our fantastical alternate version that is focused around our main character."
Among those perspectives were those of the game's lead actors, Nona Parker Johnson, who did the motion capture and stunt work for Hazel, and Adriyan Rae, the voice actress and motion capture performer for Hazel.
"Growing up, this view of the South -- as far as media -- felt really limited, very stereotypical," Johnson said. "Kind of like, everywhere I go, I say, 'I'm from Jackson, Mississippi,' and someone's like, 'Oh.' And I'm like, 'What, I love home?' I love it there. It's a beautiful, rich place. The Black culture is incredibly rich and community oriented and ancestor-oriented and matriarchal, as well. I think something about this game that was really beautiful to me is this emphasis on women and their relationships to the women in their lives. So I think for me, the love letter is showcased in a lot of different ways, from a lot of different points of view, in terms of who's making the game, whether it's music or design or writing, and then as far as us, the acting and directing. But for me, it was about showing gamers, showing everyone who is invested in animation and media and gaming, a part of the South, and a view of the South from a young black woman's point of view that is incredibly rich and mysterious and powerful and just leaps off the screen."
A third-person action-adventure game from "We Happy Few" creators Compulsion Games, "South of Midnight" follows Hazel and her companion Catfish as they travel through a magic-filled dark Gothic version of the Deep South, using Hazel's "weaving" powers to fight creatures like Two-Toed Tom, a gigantic albino alligator with a powerful hunger, as you unravel Hazel's family's hidden past.
"I did not know any sort of fables or anything related to a giant albino alligator," Parker Johnson added. "But it was my entree into the creatures having trauma and them being manifestation of their abuse and the trauma they have experienced. This is going to get really, really deep, and it's going to get into the nitty gritty of some really dark and untouched territory, some taboo topics."
In shaping the character of Hazel, Rae spent a lot of time working with the creative team on the exact right Southern accent to convey who she was.
"I pulled from my family from North Carolina, but the team wanted for her to have an accent but still be able to be understood. So I had to draw back on my accent," Rae said. "And then I worked with Nona on the aspect and articulation of that while still having the accent. I wanted to make sure she could be heard and understood. It's also important, because there is that aspect of people from the South, and they're not as smart, that they have an accent. No, just because I talk slow don't mean I'm stupid. So I wanted to make sure that we honor. That she's smart, she's articulate, but she can still have an accent."
Game director Jasmin Roy explains the whole game is based on the idea of "the past comes back to affect the present." "And the idea of the story being really about loss and trauma and being really important to specific characters within these regions and the idea for the weaving power came from the genre of fiction that we were inspired by," Roy said.
Though "South of Midnight" won't be out until next year, members of the team are already hoping for a continuation to the story -- whether that be through another game, or an adaptation.
"I would love to see more Hazel. And I would love to see how she continues to grow," performance and voice director Ahmed Best said. "And it doesn't even have to be a game, it could be any medium whatsoever. I would love to see Hazel on stage. I would love to see Hazel in a series somewhere, because this world is so thick and it's so rich and there's so many characters in it. These characters can live so many different permutations in so many different lives. Prospero, the place where the game takes place, is a character. So we can see what Prospero looked like before Hazel. We can do a prequel -- call it 'North of Noon.'"
"South of Midnight" will launch in 2025 for Xbox Series X|S, PC and Steam, and Cloud and be available on release day through Xbox's Game Pass.
Watch the full "South of Midnight" documentary, "Weaving Hazel's Journey - A South of Midnight Documentary," below.