Everything you need to know about oil rig horror game Still Wakes The Deep set off coast of Scotland

The horror game which is set on an oil rig in the North Sea has received a release date for June 18.

Still Wakes The Deep, a new horror game set on an oil rig off the coast of Scotland, has finally received its release date.

Created by The Chinese Room, the studio behind the Hebrides-based Dear Esther, the game promises to be an atmospheric step back in time.

Still Wakes the Deep.

Set in December 1975, you play as a worker on the Beira D oil rig as it collapses around you. You must navigate the rig through vicious weather and perilous surroundings, with no communication to the shore while you search for your crew and attempt to survive an otherworldly horror.

If that tickles your fancy, here’s everything you need to know about Still Wakes The Deep .

Still Wakes The Deep Release Date

Still Wakes The Deep will be released on Tuesday, June 18, 2024.

What platforms will it be available on?

Still Wakes The Deep will be available on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. In addition, the game will be available with Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass.

Still Wakes The Deep gameplay

A first-person narrative horror game set in 1975, Still Wakes The Deep puts players in the shoes of Caz McCleary; a working class ex-boxer from Glasgow, who leaves his family behind to work offshore in an attempt to escape his problems.

The first hour of gameplay begins with the mundane. As Caz, players get to know their fellow crew and the rig itself.

In an interview with the Guardian, the game’s art director John McCormack, stated that the principle behind the opening was: “What if Ken Loach was hired to film a BBC documentary about an oil rig in the North Sea in the 1970s?”

Still Wakes the Deep follows workers on the Beira D oil rig off the coast of Scotland in 1975 as disaster strikes.

But then disaster strikes. A catastrophic event rocks the Beira D, cutting off all lines of communication as the platform collapses around the crew.

As it sinks, players must navigate the crumbling bowels of the rig, using claustrophobic crawlspaces and flooded passageways to avoid the detection of an unknowable horror which has taken root on the sinking platform.

There is no combat in Still Wakes The Deep. Players have no weapons and are largely unable to fight back against the creature which has invaded the Beira D.

Instead, the gameplay is built around players attempting to escape by solving puzzles and exploring the rig by running, climbing and swimming.

Still Wakes The Deep: A horror game set on an oil rig

To create the Beira Delta, the team looked at real North Sea structures from archived blueprints and how they were constructed.

Discussing the worldbuilding involved in Still Wakes The Deep, lead designer Rob McLachlan and associate art director Laura Dodds shared how they used BP’s online archive footage to construct what a 1970s oil rig would look like, from exploration to setting up rigs.

Still Wakes the Deep.

The game’s Beira D was constructed using references from a range of rigs, including the Ninian Central platform, Beryl Alpha and various Brent platforms. Inspiration was drawn from a variety of real life locations on board including the commissary and locker rooms as well as the drill floor.

The physical aspects aside, the isolated and claustrophobic nature of oil rigs lends itself well to a game like Still Wakes The Deep, with its characters stuck miles away from shore with all communication having been cut.

Iain Gillespie, lead environment artist, said: “We actually just leaned into the oil rig environment. An oil rig is a kind of scary place anyway. The interiors are claustrophobic and hot, they’re steamy, they’re dark.

“With the exteriors, you’re outside, against the elements with the North Sea there, a crazy storm.”

He added: “So yeah, I mean we didn’t really have to do too many tricks, just imagine what it’s like to be on an oil rig. And that’s even before things get weird.”

As Still Wakes The Deep is set off the coast of Scotland, there was a focus on the game feeling 'particularly Scottish'. McCormack – who comes from Scotland – shared how they spent hours talking with people who used to work on Scottish rigs in order to gain an idea of what life was like on board.

Still Wakes the Deep.

Alongside this research, creators would watch documentaries from the time to build both the environment – specifically how brown Scottish décor would have been in the seventies – and a believable cast of characters.

It was part of the three 'pillars' to their process: making it personal, authenticity and 'a terrible beauty'.

From small details such as the signs and pipes on an oil rig to the different areas players can explore, the creators want players to feel every aspect of the game’s setting.

An example of this is the bad weather present throughout the game. The rain is constantly beating down on players, with the poor weather becoming stronger as events unfold creating an overall grey and unpleasant environment which is, in the words of senior lighting artist Luke Norman, 'dreich'.

Bespoke instrument created to score Still Wakes The Deep soundtrack

BAFTA-award winning composer Jason Graves is the composer for Still Wakes The Deep. The American musician has composed for video game franchises such as Dead Space, Tomb Raider and Far Cry with other credits including Until Dawn and The Dark Pictures Anthology.

Focusing on a combination of 'emotional and scary', Graves has described the sounds of the score as split in half between human and non-human.

In order to create the score a sound sculpture named “the rig” was specially created. Made of metal and shaped like the rig, every surface can be 'tapped, bowed, scraped or rubbed'.

"The Rig" instrument which was constructed to create the score for Still Wakes the Deep.

There’s even an interesting story behind the song featured in the announcement trailer for Still Wakes The Deep.

McCormack had found a YouTube video of a Gaelic folk song which was used in the first concept trailer for the game. This led audio director Daan Hendricks to traditional Gaelic singer Maggie MacInnes, whose haunting version of Fath Mo Mhulaid A Bhith Ann was featured in the announcement trailer.