South of the Circle, a narrative drama about love and promise, is coming to Xbox

South of the circle tells a cinematic story of survival, hope and love. A story about the beautiful moments in life that are worth capturing and big promises to be made. But we also deal with the big question – how do power and politics affect people and how can they lead to catastrophes? And it wasn’t without a particular plane crash in Antarctica during the Cold War.

I was fascinated by the surreal beauty of Antarctica, especially in the 60’s because there was so much low tech back then. They still hunted seals with wooden guns, they had no communication. It was a fascinating time, like the Cold War era. A family friend was working in Antarctica at the time and survived a plane crash, as did Peter, a Cambridge academic and South of the circle main character. Our family friend also helped finalize the Antarctic Treaty, a peace treaty that protects the world from nuclear war, and the tension in the game depends on it. As Peter is forced to venture into a blizzard in search of survival, he remembers all of his past. Meeting the wonderful Clara, an academic, and experiencing a burgeoning romantic and intellectual love affair that brings him to the point where we see him. How will he reconcile his feelings with an ambitious career? And can he keep his promises?

in the South of the circle

we examined what happens to a person when they are torn out of all the structures of everyday life. Who are we when we are separated from all political and social constructs? It was a great way to explore someone’s mind because when you’re in an environment like this, what else do you have? And the surreal beauty mentioned above? Even now, in retirement, our family friend is still drawn back to Antarctica. I was even lucky enough to travel with him on a research trip for this game to explore its magical appeal. We all have this image of the perfect iceberg floating in Antarctica, but when we got there we discovered that there are things like sunken volcanic craters with black ash on the side that’s hidden from boats so you’re right in theirs can sail in the middle . Even on a gray day with no color anywhere, which is interesting in itself, as if it were black and white. The sounds were really inspiring, you can hear things from miles away. Once, right in front of us, down in the bay, a chunk of ice the size of a building broke off and fell into the water, making a sound like I had never heard before. It was like thunder going off and reverberating in four different places at once, and the sound stayed there for about a minute, and then it was completely still again.

We wanted to tell the story about power and the individual and how these great forces can affect our lives. A lot has happened socially since the 1960s and this game explores the struggles that Clara in particular faced during this period as she attempted to become an academic. Part of second-wave feminism, she has ambitions to become a successful academic that are in many ways thwarted by the power structures around her. But the more we worked on the story of Peter and Clara, the clearer it became that this was the story of the individual and the choices we make. We realized that the most interesting and important things in our lives are all those small emotional decisions and the promises we make in life. And we really want you to experience this as if you were there. We’ve worked with some of the best actors in the world including Gwilym Lee from Bohemian Rhapsody, Olivia Vinall from The Woman in White and Anton Lesser from Game of Thrones to bring real authenticity to the characters and develop a Way you talk to them in the game with the flow and emotions of a real conversation.

I really hope you choose the experience South of the circle for yourself now that it’s available on the Xbox Store for Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.