Summer Games Fest continues with a plethora of promising new game reveals and information for the latest and greatest in the gaming industry. Xbox had its own dedicated presentation today, followed up by an in-depth look at the highly anticipated Starfield. One of the first games announced during the presentation was South of Midnight, a stunning title with Southern themes. Developed by the Montreal-based studio Compulsion Games, it seems like a promising new original experience from the team behind We Happy Few.
The cinematic reveal trailer hinted at the tone and story, but no actual gameplay was shown off during the Xbox Games Showcase, so it may be a little while more before players learn exactly what kind of game South of Midnight really is. However, one notable aspect of the game was on display, that being the dazzling art style which bears a striking resemblance to a popular film series currently dominating the animation scene.
Into The Spider-Verse's Innovative Animation Style
Animated feature films have been around for decades and have gone through multiple evolutionary shifts over the years. Disney broke new ground with its traditional 2D animation, the stop-motion of Wallace and Gromit added another new style to the mix and Pixar's Toy Story revolutionized 3D animation in the mid-90s. In 2018 however, a completely new visual look emerged in Sony and Marvel's Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
The movie looked exactly like the pages of a Marvel comic book come to life, with the action and colors within any individual panel jumping off the page in brilliant fashion. The look of the movie was simultaneously a love letter to almost every style of animation utilized over the last several decades.
Shifting a common expression into a new form, Into the Spider-Verse was actually a jack of all trades and a master of each, perfectly taking advantage of 2D, stop-motion, 3D, and more to craft its incredible animated world. It has proven to be such an amazing new style that another franchise has adopted it as well with the upcoming film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem employing the same visual tactics.
South of Midnight Using Spider-Verse's Animation Style
Although this animation technique used in Into The Spider-Verse, and its critically acclaimed sequel Across the Spider-Verse has largely remained in the film scene, it seems to now be seeping over into video games as well. Despite South of Midnight not showing off a shred of actual gameplay in its world premiere trailer, it's safe to assume that showing off a similar visual look to Into The Spider-Verse implies that this is what the game will look like in action as well.
This is an exciting prospect, as Into the Spider-Verse's animation style is all the rage right now and still feels incredibly fresh. Being only a few years old, it still feels like there is so much possibility that can be tapped into on both a technical and creative level with this art style. Now, by shifting into the realm of video games, more doors are being opened for how to depict this style to a player. Whether South of Midnight ends up being first or third person remains to be seen.
Simply viewing Into The Spider-Verse and all of its colorful glory is one thing, but being able to actively participate in a world with a similar look and feel is a compelling concept. It's a very ambitious undertaking, but Compulsion Games has already proven itself with the aforementioned We Happy Few, so hopefully it isn't too much longer for players to be able to see what the game looks like in action.
South of Midnight is in development for PC and Xbox Series X/S.