‘Trapped on an oil rig with an unknowable horror’: Still Wakes the Deep is a dark 70s throwback

The makers of Everybody's Gone to the Rapture return with a story about drilling down into something terrible lurking beneath the North Sea

How do you fancy making a 1970s horror game set in Scotland? That was the question that art director John McCormack recalls being asked by Dan Pinchbeck, co-founder of the Brighton-based studio The Chinese Room, when he joined the company a few years ago. McCormack's response was immediate: Well, as a Scotsman from the 70s, I would say that you've got me: I'm in."

McCormack had been attracted to work for the studio by its reputation for storytelling and authenticity. The Chinese Room made its name with the cult hit Dear Esther in 2012, and went on to create the Bafta-award-winning Everybody's Gone to the Rapture in 2015, featuring an incredibly detailed recreation of a mysteriously deserted English village. Still Wakes the Deep carries on that tradition of faithful reproduction, although this time the setting is a North Sea oil rig rather than the bucolic English countryside.

Still Wakes the Deep will be out in 2024 on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox