South of Midnight news & patch notes

South of Midnight invites you into a dark, fantastical world drawn from tales of the American Deep South—and while this might look like a fairytale, both the stories it tells and the challenges it poses are far from simplistic. Telling the tale of Hazel, who gains the magical power of Weaving after her mother is swept away by a supernatural flood, you’ll need to cross a warped take on the South in your hunt to find her mother, and answers to what exactly is going on. Along the way, you’ll battle Haints – corrupted enemies borne from the sorrow of the world – and cure the wounds of larger-than-life mythical creatures, the subjects of real folktales brought to life. Premium Edition owners can play from today (ahead of an April 8 release date for all players), and to celebrate, we’ve put together some tips that cover both exploration and combat that will help you prepare for this very unexpected and fantastical journey: 1. Look Everywhere Navigating each of South of Midnight’s chapters could be as simple as following your Guiding Strand – clicking the right stick will see magical threads guide you to your next goal. But that’s far from all there is to see. Each location is stuffed with hidden areas – some require platforming to reach, others need you to use your spells, while others will lead you into battles you might never have seen. All of them will require a keen eye to find. Your rewards for doing this usually come in the form of Floofs – the game’s upgrade currency – and we hugely recommend you take the time to look for them. With just a bit of concerted exploration, you can add upgrades to your skill tree (more on those later) much faster than by simply running from one objective to the next. Even better, you may also find Life Filaments as you go. Each chapter contains one of these – usually in its most hidden side area – and collecting three offers a permanent upgrade to your health bar. 2. Expand These Stories South of Midnight is all about stories – from the tale of Hazel’s search to find her mother, to the tragic backstories of the mythical creatures you’ll find along the way. But if you want to dig really deep, make sure to search each chapter for items, notes, and more. You’ll see these marked by small circles as you approach, often in out-of-the-way locations. Far from your regular world-building, each chapter’s hidden notes add even more detail to the characters and stories you’re learning about along the core questline. You may discover hidden motivations for why characters are the way they are, simply because you took the time to read about their lives. It’s an enriching way to add to the wider tale. 3. Upgrade Early and Often As mentioned above, you can speed through the upgrade tree with a bit of exploration – and when you start hitting harder combat sequences, you’ll thank yourself for doing it. Even on its regular difficulty level, South of Midnight’s combat packs a punch, with even the most basic Haint enemies removing whole chunks of your health bar after a single hit. Upgrades are your means of turning the tables. Upgrades tend to focus more on offering you added perks, rather than simply buffing an ability’s existing stats. When you Unravel a downed enemy to claw back some health, for example, you can add an area of-effect blast to stagger any nearby Haints before you get back into the fray. Adding a quick double-dodge to your repertoire, meanwhile, will come in very handy when you start meeting enemies that can quick-fire multiple projectiles. Take the time to explore the skill tree, and prioritize upgrades that look like they’ll solve problems. 4. Use Dodges as Attack and Defense Hazel doesn’t have the ability to block attacks – but she more than makes up for that with a powerful bonus to her dodge. Hitting B will help you escape in whatever direction you’re pointing the left stick (with some invulnerability frames thrown in) – but hitting a perfectly timed dodge, just before you’re hit, comes with a nasty surprise for whoever was trying to hurt you. Perfect Dodges send out a blast of energy, staggering any enemy around you and doing some nice damage, too. It’s worth paying attention to not just what attacks enemies can do, but the time it takes to pull them off – pretty soon, you can be doing almost as much damage by not attacking. 5. Use Spells as Interrupts As we mentioned, getting hit in South of Midnight can get very nasty, very quickly – and while Hazel has that handy dodge, it can sometimes be easier simply to stop an attack in the first place. Against most enemies, throwing out a spell – whether that’s a Pull, a Push, or a Weave (which incapacitates most Haints) – will break them out of an attack completely. While it’s tempting to spam your spells as soon as they’ve cooled down, we’d recommend keeping one in reserve as an emergency interrupt – if you see an enemy winding up during your combo, simply hit them with a spell and keep thwacking. 6. Chain Your Spells If you really want to keep an enemy locked down, you can use your full spell repertoire to keep attacks going without interruption. This is particularly useful once you have a few upgrades under your belt. For example, you could Pull an enemy towards you, with an added Weave effect (which you can also upgrade to have them take more damage while tied up). As soon as they break free, Weave them again with that spell – and when they break free again, use Push to deal some damage and keep your distance, before charging up your ranged attack (by holding X) to deal the killer blow. With a bit of practice, enemies that felt like they took an age of dodging and poking to beat in the early game can begin to go down in a single combo – it’s extremely satisfying. Happy Early Access! - The Compulsion Dev Team

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44236943/306daaf6a7d25c36480f02b9b90b30197038e043.png Today, we announced that South of Midnight is officially Steam Deck Verified! Here’s what you can expect:

• All functionality is accessible when using the default controller configuration
• This game shows Steam Deck controller icons
• In-game interface text is legible on Steam Deck
• This game's default graphics configuration performs well on Steam Deck

Disclaimer: This game does not default to external Bluetooth/USB controllers on Deck, and may require switching the active controller via the Quick Access Menu. For an optimal experience, we playtested and tuned the settings for the Steam Deck specifically. Please note that in our pre-launch testing, the game consistently runs above 30 FPS on the Steam Deck in medium quality and in the standard resolution of the device (800p). We recommend turning on the 30 FPS frame limiter (in the graphical options) for a more consistent interactive experience during play, but we chose to leave it off by default for those of you who would prefer getting reduced latency during combat encounters or plan to play your Steam Deck while using a power outlet. - The Compulsion Dev Team

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44236943/57e3cf6eceb6de9c0b8d8bd9b1eafe3d42adeefa.png We're thrilled to announce that South of Midnight has officially gone gold, with the game’s development now complete and approved for release! Alongside our gold master announcement, South of Midnight’s three-album soundtrack, created by visionary composer Olivier Derivière, is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Bandcamp, and more! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44236943/b63c90a8fb0ffb1d4d581bdaaf2671ec979eb7e3.jpg To celebrate the soundtrack's release, Derivière and our Audio Director Chris Fox spoke with Xbox Wire to shed light on how they crafted South of Midnight's unique musical experience: https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2025/03/20/south-of-midnight-music-interview/ South of Midnight arrives April 8, 2025, on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox app for Windows PC, Steam, Cloud, and will be available day one with Xbox Game Pass; or play up to five days early, starting April 3, 2025, and get access to digital extras with the Premium Edition. - The Compulsion Dev Team

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44236943/c8889ad5abd0f10c1307e6c813d4ea7626c0b469.png In collaboration with Clyde Henry Productions, we’re excited to present an original South of Midnight stop-motion piece created with real puppets and handcrafted maquettes using traditional stop-motion animation techniques. Join us on Tuesday, February 11th, 2025, across Compulsion Games social channels as our global preview embargo lifts. Press and creators from around the world will share their first impressions and previews of South of Midnight! - The Compulsion Dev Team

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44236943/a8453e525b30a096730ee9f561ca4c49cb1fe86f.png Today, we made an appearance at the 2025 Xbox Developer_Direct, where members of our studio team shared more about the gameplay, look, and feel of South of Midnight. We also released our brand-new story trailer, which expands on the narrative of South of Midnight while including all-new gameplay, characters, and mythical creatures from the game: In this trailer, our heroine Hazel and her mother are preparing for the impending hurricane. The storm proves massive, causing catastrophic flooding-and causing their own home to be swept down river with her mother in it. Its aftermath shows the fictional town of Prospero, located in the southern United States, eerily calm while irrevocably changed from the hurricane’s destruction. Hazel then undertakes a journey in search of her mother, while finding out more about herself and her family’s lineage and encountering an assortment of new creatures and magical phenomena. South of Midnight will be available on April 8, 2025, on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox App for Windows PC, Steam and cloud, and can be played day one with Game Pass. And if you want to dive into the macabre and fantastical world of South of Midnight a tad bit early, you can purchase the Premium Edition and play up to 5 days early, along with access to digital extras (only available in English): {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44236943/4171c89e2df234cb26d9d79a219d3923a1e9a1f0.jpg

• Artbook: Organized by the game's story chapters, The Art of South of Midnight includes never-before-seen character art, environmental art, iconography, artist commentary, and more.
• Original Soundtrack: Inspired by the haunting allure of a Southern gothic Deep South, the South of Midnight original soundtrack blends traditional Southern-style music with a dark, otherworldly essence. With visionary composer Olivier Deriviere at its helm, the dynamic soundtrack features performances by Southern artists and incorporates traditional instruments to create a diegetic musical narrative that evolves in response to the player's actions and environment. From soulful blues to lively honky-tonk, each song invokes the region's rich cultural history, immersing players in an eerie, otherworldly atmosphere where reality and myth collide.
• Digital Comic Book: We've teamed up with award-winning comic book artist and writer Rob Guillory to create The Boo Hag, a digital comic book set in the South of Midnight universe. Presented in full color, The Boo Hag explores protagonist Hazel's encounter with an infamous mythical creature from Deep South mythos, giving readers the chance to dive even deeper into the game's fantastical and folkloric world.
• Music Video: Feel the magic of South of Midnight's lyrically driven narrative music with Songs & Tales From South of Midnight, a visual compilation featuring three selected songs from the South of Midnight OST. This field recording-style music video showcases and celebrates the diverse range of Southern musical genres that define South of Midnight's soundtrack, all while telling a cohesive story through delightfully haunting visuals.
• Director’s Cut Documentary: Weaving Hazel's Journey: A South of Midnight Documentary (Director's Cut) offers fans an extended look at the development of our third-person action-adventure South of Midnight. This director's cut explores in even greater detail the team's world-building process and inspirations drawn from Deep South folktales, featuring exclusive interviews and commentary from various Compulsion Games developers across multiple disciplines, including gameplay, narrative, art, music, and more.

We’re excited to share that soon, press and creators from around the world will be receiving a pre-release build of South of Midnight in order to share their first previews impressions publicly. We’ll also be sharing a special preview ourselves on the Compulsion Games and Xbox social channels. Stay tuned for more on Tuesday, February 11th, 2025, when our global preview embargo lifts! - The Compulsion Dev Team

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44236943/bff0f8974c8505461a1a243114b6d3e5f9aaf991.jpg Join us at 1 PM ET/10 AM PT/6 PM GMT for Xbox Developer_Direct as we bring you even deeper into the world of South of Midnight. Tune in here:

Weaving Hazel’s Journey: A South of Midnight Documentary is available now! In this feature, we explore the vision, art direction, music, and talent behind South of Midnight, along with an exclusive first look at brand-new gameplay footage and interviews with the team! In partnership with Dutch design studio Cook & Becker, we're also proud to announce the official Art & Music of South of Midnight Box Set! This box set includes: 📕 160-page hardcover artbook 🎶 Double-LP vinyl with full soundtrack by composer Olivier Derivière 👻 ‘The Boo-Hag’ South of Midnight comic by artist Rob Guillory 💃🏾 Kooshma's Cabaret metal signage artwork 🐊 Big Game Tours fridge magnet 🎁 Premium gift box {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44236943/7ba427956a1fa72bb899275ed64856ca5f0ca559.png *Please note: box set does not include a copy of the game Pre-order now: https://www.cookandbecker.com/en/artwork/3528/the-art-and-music-of-south-of-midnight-south-of-midnight-compulsion-games.html - The Compulsion Dev Team

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44236943/91c7a5b6cdd5cd9019fa7668dc751a53a0a69b2b.png Following the Xbox Showcase 2024 gameplay premiere, Xbox Wire posted an article offering more insights into Hazel’s journey. Editor-in-Chief Joe Skrebels interviewed key team members: David Sears (Creative Director), Whitney Clayton (Art Director), and Jasmin Roy (Game Director). https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2024/06/09/south-of-midnight-interview-details-xbox-games-showcase-2024/ In this article, you will learn more about:

• The structure of our American Deep South world
• The characters: Hazel, Catfish, The Haints, and Two Toed Tom
• Weaving gameplay elements (combat, traversal, and puzzle-solving)
• The character-driven lyrical music ♫Twooo-Tooooed Tooooom♫
• The crafted art direction
• And more!

- The Compulsion Dev Team

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44236943/6ff7b992a189ee9a40a6e82c7cf01d6ca2b09b86.png Fresh off its Xbox Showcase 2024 premiere, we are excited to present our latest South of Midnight gameplay reveal trailer. Fully captured in-game, the trailer showcases an unedited gameplay segment from about one-third into Hazel’s journey. You'll get a glimpse of in-game cutscenes, traversal, combat, as well as our crafted art direction and unique original soundtrack. In this gameplay segment, Hazel and her ally, a giant Catfish, need to lure away one of the game’s Mythical Creatures: Two Toed Tom, a giant albino alligator. Two Toed Tom reigns over the flooded countryside and has taken a liking to the river near some farms, which he considers his personal buffet. Using her weaving abilities, Hazel must reach the church bell to distract Two-Toed Tom and escape with Catfish. - The Compulsion Dev Team