Good day, our dear and wonderful player community.
It may be the holiday season, but your shift isn’t over – Cadal is tempting the staff back to the Beira D with promises of gold, frankincense… and Muir. A free update for the game is available now – we added a new Silver Screen visual mode, and a Chapter Select option to jump into the story wherever you please.

Silver Screen mode allows you, the players, to immerse yourselves into the game in a stark monochrome, providing an even more cinematic atmosphere. See the Beira D in a new light as you fight to survive on the collapsing rig – no yellow paint in sight. Silver Screen mode can be toggled at any time from the Video section of the Settings menu.

Also new to Still Wakes the Deep is Chapter Select, allowing you to relive your favourite moments of the game whenever you choose. The game has been separated into 23 scenes, allowing you to experience memorable scenes – such as Caz’s standoff with Rennick at the start of the game, or the eerily beautiful elevator ride through the pontoons – whenever you like. Chapter Select is available from the main menu. We really hope you enjoy these and get excited about Still Wakes the Deep all over again.

Since launch, Still Wakes the Deep has received numerous accolades, including being named one of The New York Times’ Best Video Games of 2024, a nomination for Best Supporting Performance at the Golden Joystick Awards 2024, and winning two TIGA Awards for Best Audio Design and Heritage in Games. We also received a whooping 9 nominations at this year’s Horror Game Awards. It’s been quite a ride and none of this would be happening without your, our wonderful players.
Do be sure to follow us on our socials for all future updates. ✨

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Absolute scenes at this year’s Horror Game Awards where “Still Wakes the Deep” has bagged NINE nominations, and our studio – two. 🖤

if you enjoyed the game and like what we do, please vote for us NOW! 🙏🏼⚡🕯️

Amongst many wonderful remarks, our game is lauded for its exceptional voiceover work. Who better to tell us more about it than the game’s Lead Voice Director, industry veteran Kate Saxon. Kate was the Voice Director for our critically acclaimed 2015 title Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, so we were thrilled to continue our collaboration and thankful she agreed to write a Development Diary all about what a Voice Director does and how the performances behind Still Wakes the Deep came to be. Enjoy, all!

“TCR’s Co-founder, and the person who conceived the project and first led it creatively, the brilliant Dan Pinchbeck, first contacted me about this project back in March 2020, just four days into the first COVID-19 lockdown. We had enjoyed working together on Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture, so I instantly wanted to be involved. Dan wanted to workshop aspects of his new script for an internal demo, and he remembered very much liking Alec Newman as an actor. I had brought Alec in for an audition all those years before on Rapture. While he wasn’t quite the right fit for the role of Stephen in that, Dan agreed with me on how impressive Alec was and thought Caz in Still Wakes The Deep could be the perfect fit. So, over Zoom, Dan, Alec, and I spent some time workshopping Dan’s script, specifically the player character, Caz. This was the first stage of our work on SWTD. Often, the Performance Director is booked quite late in the process of a game’s development, so early work such as this is brilliantly helpful in discovering how a story is best told. Sadly, it’s also fairly unusual.

Day to day, my duties involve bringing the actors into the world of the game, giving performance direction regarding character intentions, tone, emotional truth, and also basic things such as the physical geography of a scene, as this also effects performance. Ultimately, my job is to get inside the heads of the creative team and the developers, understand their intentions and ambitions for the game, and ensure that I bring all of that into the performances. I need to get all the cast on the same page.

Before I explain the SWTD process, it’s useful to go behind the scenes of Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, too. In Rapture, we never see the characters. Instead, we see light trails where they’ve been. Despite that, Dan and I decided I should fully stage every Rapture scene in a TV studio. We didn’t film the actors, but we recorded their voices with boom mics and personal mics, as I do when I direct TV. This has never been done on any other game I’ve directed, and I think I’ve directed around 150 now! Our thinking was that because Rapture is so naturalistic, set in a sleepy Shropshire village, we could… and should… aid the cast to fully immerse themselves in that place, those roads, that church, the homes… by acting out the scenes in full, together. So we rehearsed as I would for a theatre production, blocking (ie choreographing) the action of the scenes. Again, very unusual for games. The actors learned their lines and fully performed all the scenes physically, despite it being for voice only! It was so exciting to be able to bring my work as a Theatre Director into the centre of a video game process. I think it really paid off.

Unfortunately, I’ve never been given real rehearsal time on any other voice game jobs, except for The Chinese Room ones. Whilst there are rehearsals for Performance Capture, voice sessions often lack this luxury. Sometimes I fear there’s a misconception that actors will enter a voice booth, open their mouths, and a final performance comes out. It doesn’t! The best performances require experimentation and time to explore.

So for SWTD, even though much of the production was taking place during peak Covid, we still made sure we rehearsed, even if some of it was in hybrid conditions—some in the studio, some remote. We took the time to interrogate the script and the character choices. Thankfully Neve and Alec (who played Suze and Caz) were able to work with us in person, together in the studio. This was helpful in exploring their marital relationship, allowing us to play scenes in many different ways, in order to get to the heart and the truth of where their relationship was. Some run-throughs were calm and collected; others were painfully emotional. We explored when we wanted the emotions to stay bubbling beneath the surface and when we really wanted them to explode. Shaun Dooley (who so touchingly plays Roy in the game), was also able to be in person with us at the studio, which granted us time for him and Alec to craft their friendship together.

Another joyful part of the process was having fun working with Scottish slang. TCR’s team had researched this carefully (with the project’s latter Creative Director John McCormack being a Glaswegian from the 1970s himself!) and had it all in the script. The actors also brought new ideas to the table. Karen Dunbar (Finlay) was especially adept at bringing juicy tidbits and phrases! Rennick’s every rant is, of course, full of it, and I think Clive had fun being let loose on such a hideous character! Of all the slang phrases in the game, ‘bampot’ remains my favourite (a foolish or obnoxious person).

I was excited to work on SWTD because of the fascinating characters at its heart. Dan’s perceptiveness of human nature and fallibility always shines through in his writing and is a gift for actors. The relationships and emotions are raw and true, and if you manage to pull fantastic actors on board, these complexities—the mess of humanity in all its ugliness and beauty—can be explored. It’s in those moments that I believe we truly relate to fictional characters; when we see our own hidden depths of imagination, fears, and desires in the characters before us. That’s when I get excited to helm a story. When it feels it’s really plummeting those truths that we often hide. I knew that with such a good cast, we’d be able to unearth something that might reach beyond the ’norm’ again.

I’ve been thrilled to see this game has been both emotionally touching and terrifying for many players. It’s also been interesting to see how often reviewers have likened its intense immersion in the horror genre to Alien: Isolation, as I also directed the performance capture and voice for that! I think the art team and all the developers at The Chinese Room have done an amazing job of conjuring a specific period and design that really locates us in that most remote of places, an oil rig. Probably one of the last places on Earth I’d like to be! I loved working on this game.. and can finally let you in on a secret that I’m currently directing TCR’s next very special project… So watch this space!”

Many thanks, everyone, only a few of these Behind The Scenes Development Diaries left for Still Wakes the Deep.
We’re so thankful for everyone’s time playing it, as well as all the wonderful messages and reviews we’ve been getting. We have more plans with Still Wakes the Deep, be sure to follow us on all socials to find out everything as it’s happening:

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The Chinese Room –
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There is currently a considerable discourse about practical visual effects (VFX) in movies, where effects are achieved through physical means rather than entirely computer-generated. A prominent recent example is Oppenheimer (2023). Believe it or not, but games also choose whether to involve actual physical IRL effects, not all has to be digital. For Still Wakes the Deep, we desired to experiment in this area.

Our collaboration with video artist Sam Spreckley led to the use of real celluloid film, sometimes burnt, for effects frequently encountered in the game. We believe these real analogue effects enhance the game’s authentic feel and deepen the player’s immersion.

The game’s Associate Art Director Laura Dodds: “I was exploring distorted film stock, bubbling imagery and memories when I stumbled across Sam’s beautiful work. His work really resonated with me, because the whole story is about Caz trying to get home to his wife and two daughters. We have various flashbacks and sensory moments in the game where we want to get a sense of Caz’s internal life and emotions. I think Sam’s exploration of Synesthesia is really interesting too, because the horror doesn’t understand what humans are, what memories are, what senses or emotions are. It isn’t evil, it’s just come into contact with the rig and the crew and is trying to understand it.”

Sam is a very talented visual artist (do be sure to check out Sam’s extraordinary work here), it was great to collaborate with a creative mind on bringing more tangible practical effects into the videogames sphere.

We also sourced many of the pictures belonging to the crew that you see in the game by asking our studio’s team members to share their old family pictures. Here is just a tiny selection of the wonderful submissions, some of which you will most probably recognise:

(Certainly, we’ll share all of them in our forthcoming real tangible Development Book)

In the comments, tell us of more games or studios that utilise analogue effects. Of course we’re thinking of the incredible Amanita Design who drive the medium forward on this front. 🎨
There are certainly more, let us know your favourites!

Dear wonderful community of ours,

We’re so thankful for your incredible support for Still Wakes the Deep. It’s resulted in a great score on all platforms and our team is thrilled.
Still, we are aware that a few of you were affected by some nasty bugs. We apologise for them and have now quashed them! The patch 1.3 for Still Wakes the Deep is now live!

NEW FEATURES

• Added a Yellow Markers toggle in the settings menu and when starting a new game. When set to “Reduced”, additional yellow markers (such as yellow paint stains) will be removed to increase exploration difficulty. This does not affect objects such as ladders, railings, etc.
• Added a Restart Scene function in the pause menu
• Added a setting to reduce the number of UI action prompts so they only appear on the first interaction with an object. This does not affect quick time event prompts.
• [PC Game Pass] Added three upscaling technology plugins:
  • AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 3 (FSR3)
  • NVidia Deep-Learning Super Sampling (DLSS)
  • Intel Xe Super Sampling (XESS) (AI Enhanced Super Sampling)
• [PC Game Pass] Added additional resolutions when playing in windowed mode

BUG FIXES

General

• Fixed clipping issues with characters and clothing
• Fixed issues with character hair and textures not displaying properly
• Fixed several reported crashes and softlocks preventing progression

UI

• Fixed an issue with subtitles turning back on after dying despite being turned off
• Fixed an issue with light switch UI displaying incorrectly
• Fixed an issue where button bindings were not displaying correctly in tutorials
• Fixed an issue where WASD button prompts were not displaying at the correct size
• Fixed an issue where the “skip cutscene” prompt did not fade away properly
• Fixed several overlapping UI issues

Achievements

• Reduced the requirements for “McLeery” so it now unlocks faster
• Reduced the requirements for “Me and My Spoon” so it now unlocks faster
• Fixed an issue with “Walking Simulator” where time spent sprinting was not tracked correctly

Huge thanks for your patience in bearing with us.
(And if you were able to benefit from the patch and found joy in the game in the end, may we ask you to please consider leaving a review or updating an existing one, if you’ve left one. It’d be such a gift.)
Thank you, all! We’ll be in touch in the next few weeks with more cool BTS content about the game. So many more interesting stories to tell!✨

Players must have noticed the handsome industrial posters decorating the Beira D.

We’re incredibly thankful to the extraordinary Richard Littler who collaborated with us on these. Littler is one of UK’s most sought-after and artistically ambitious graphic designers who takes the craft to a whole new level. We’re thrilled he found the time to work with our Art team on this.

Still Wakes the Deep‘s Associate Art Director Laura Dodds:
“When we started researching how a 1970s oil rig might feel, the world of Scarfolk Council was a big inspiration for us in its slightly sinister and satirical recreation of British establishments during that time. Fast forward a few years and we were looking for a graphic designer to help us with our 2D art from safety posters, fictional oil and gas promotional materials and maps and signage. I thought it was a long shot, but I got in touch with Richard and was so delighted when he came on board. His eye for detail was spot on from nailing the tone of voice for Cadal slogans to helping us with anachronistic typefaces and colour palettes.“

We adored collaborating with Richard, it was such a privilege to work with someone with such depth of expertise and cultural prowess. Here are examples of Richard’s work for Still Wakes the Deep, many of which you’ll recognise from the Beira D corridors you’ve roamed…

Once again, huge thanks for everyone’s support with the game – leaving reviews and wonderful comments. We’re so lucky to have you! We’re also working hard on the patch that will be available very soon, huge thanks to the people affected for your patience.

But today, and for the next few weeks, we wished to share with you some cool Behind the Scenes details that you may find interesting. Let’s start with a certain scarf…

When one begins our game’s experience, one of the first spaces they encounter is our main protagonist’s Caz’s lodgings. His desk is covered with Christmas decorations, and items dear to his heart – postcards from his family (as actually drawn by our team’s family members!), boxing memorabilia, a scarf belonging to a football team he supports…

Now the latter, the beautiful yellow and red scarf hanging at the top, is not just any scarf we conjured up for the sake of adding there. As you know, authenticity is always key to The Chinese Room’s games, so when we find opportunities to mesh our creations with the real world – we try and make it happen.

Partick Thistle FC is one of the world’s oldest football clubs founded in Glasgow in 1876. Loved ones of our team are avid followers of this club.
We were blown away and so thankful when their comms team wrote back to us agreeing us adding the club’s scarf as an asset into our game. What absolute legends. So infinite support from us in perpetuity. Go Partick Thistle FC, and to our players – consider joining their fan base here.

We’ll be back next week to talk about and celebrate more real-life cultural collaborations we crafted for the game. Speak soon!

Please check this link for all the info, an extraordinary amount of love and info is going into this beautiful, tangible piece, we’re incredibly proud.

We hope, we know you’ll enjoy it!

5 days to go, all the mini-documentaries on the making of the game are now out, with Art being the latest one. Huge thanks to all the wonderful collectives with whom we collaborated to release these – Horror Games Community, A Sound Effect, Horror Games Awards, PC Gaming Show and others.

Find out the behind the scenes of the creation of a game like “Still Wakes The Deep”…

🎨 ART ⬇

🔊 AUDIO ⬇

⌨ CODE ⬇

📏 DESIGN ⬇

🎶 MUSIC / SCORE ⬇

📕 NARRATIVE ⬇

📊 QA + PRODUCTION ⬇

Two weeks ago, members of the press got to play the first two hours of Still Wakes the Deep. The reviews are in, and well, we couldn’t be more pleased…

“Every so often, there’s a horror game that manages to get the balance of beautiful, intriguing, and horrifying just right – Still Wakes the Deep is exactly that.” – PC Gamer

“The Chinese Room appears to be firing on all cylinders here – they’re on the cusp delivering another masterpiece of gaming horror.” – Xbox News

“Still Wakes The Deep was never going to be a journey of sunshine and rainbows, but I’m fascinated by how well Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 developer studio The Chinese Room executes its claustrophobic hide-and-seek gameplay in such a unique setting.” – GamesRadar

“Still Wakes The Deep could well end up being one of those memorable games that makes you ask, ‘Why hasn’t anybody done this before?” – Play Magazine

“That cross-disciplinary line is the moment it all clicks for me, actually. There are scares here, clever set-pieces, <…>, but it’s the cross-disciplinary Design, the way Art and Sound and Level creation come into play that make it so special.” – Eurogamer

And a brilliant Preview video on PlayStation Access: