A few weeks ago, we released the latest trailer for Atomfall, our upcoming game where you will have to uncover the mystery behind what happened at the UK’s Windscale nuclear power station in the 1950s. This is a fictionalised telling of what happened following this real-life nuclear disaster in Northern England.

The trailer showcases the game’s folk horror influences and give you the first glimpse of Casterfell Woods, an eerie location within Atomfall where you will encounter an unsettling wicker man and a ringing telephone box that needs to be answered.

But what were our influences behind Casterfell Woods? We thought it would be interesting to let you know how we came up with this unique aesthetic.

From the outset, we knew that we wanted some spookier areas of the game, where we could emphasise folk horror and provide some contrast with our more idyllic areas. Most of our outdoor environments are very green, vibrant, pretty, and very much British. But for Casterfell, we wanted the player to question what things might happen in the deep dark woods. Hidden things can happen there, secret and ancient things… We knew that this would be a ton of fun – so started doing our homework.

Our initial goal was to establish the visual baseline for our sandbox spaces, with a focus on the content that we needed to build out our various natural biomes. Then, we could start adding our thematic twists.

Early in the project, the team took quite a few trips up to the English Lake District for reference gathering and to capture photogrammetry content. For several of the non-Brits on the team (myself included, as an American) this was incredibly exotic. For anyone who hasn’t been there, it is an extremely diverse area of outstanding natural beauty and diversity. It is just so wet and green, with lakes and streams everywhere, and tremendous stone formations topping the high fells and hilltops. The entire area is just dripping with greenery, ferns, and moss.

As I was new to driving in the UK, I found those tiny Cumbrian roads terrifying! There are slate stone walls on one edge, and steep drops into a lake on the other. But the trips were very educational, and the views were sensational. By the end of the trip, we had a ton of fantastic reference, fabulous photogrammetry content, and were confident that we could ground the game visually in the north of Britain.

Next up, were the twists. How could we make our world different from a typical holiday trip to a beautiful natural destination? How could we layer in an older era, and warp things a bit more?

We started looking at storytelling focused on folk horror, sci-fi, and old-school British imaginative fiction for inspiration. Films like The Wicker Man, The Blair Witch Project, Annihilation, and Midsommar were great to look at. Then of course we have BBC programming like Doctor Who, The Prisoner, and The Quatermass Xperiment, as well as books by John Wyndham, who has so many wonderfully weird stories.

We wanted the player to feel that they are stepping into an older era. The real Windscale nuclear accident was in 1957, which is when the quarantine began in our game. As we were intending to be a period piece, how could we impress that into a natural area? This was a tough one, and we had a lot of conversations about it. I mean, especially in the woods, where trees pretty much would have looked the same in 1957, 2024, or 1066.

We began asking ourselves who was living out there, beyond the comforts of village life? How would they survive with no manufactured resources?

The answer was pretty simple in that these outcasts would survive just as they had in archaic times. We would regress them even further back and have them use what was at hand. Wattle (and daub) construction became our go-to architectural style. Thatched roofs, woven branches and vines, and dry-stone structures also seemed to fit. Even though many of these traditional methods of construction can still be seen in the modern day, they are really ancient and foreign to many of us who grew up elsewhere.

Then, taking into account our inspirational media reference, and our desire for more Britishness, we began layering even more symbolic imagery. Ancient markings, effigies, and wickermen, all intermingled with more traditional maypoles and bunting to give strong pagan religious overtones.

We think you are going to love exploring Casterfell Woods and discovering the secrets that it holds when Atomfall is released on March 27 for Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC, and day one with Game Pass. We can’t wait for you guys to get your hands on the game.

Atomfall

Rebellion

☆☆☆☆☆

★★★★★

Get it now

A survival-action game inspired by real-life events, Atomfall is set five years after the Windscale nuclear disaster in Northern England.
Explore the fictional quarantine zone, scavenge, craft, barter, fight and talk your way through a British countryside setting filled with bizarre characters, mysticism, cults, and rogue government agencies.
From Rebellion, the studio behind Sniper Elite and Zombie Army, Atomfall will challenge you to solve the dark mystery of what really happened.
Player Driven Mystery: Unravel a tapestry of interwoven narratives through exploration, conversation, investigation, and combat, where every choice you make has consequences.
Explore this Green and Unpleasant Land: The picturesque British countryside, with rolling green hills, lush valleys, and rural villages belie the dangers that await you.
Search, Scavage, Survive: You’ll need to scavenge for supplies, craft weapons and items, and fight desperately to make it out alive!

Desperate Combat: With weapons and ammunition scarce, each frenetic engagement will see you blend marksmanship with vicious hand-to-hand combat. Manage your heart rate to hold a steady aim and ensure you have the energy you need to reach for your cricket bat and land the killer blow.

Green and Unpleasant Land: The picturesque British countryside, with rolling green hills, lush valleys, and rural villages belie the dangers that await you. Navigate cult-controlled ruins, natural caves, nuclear bunkers and more as you explore this dense, foreboding world.

Reimagining Windscale: A fictional reimagining of a real-world event, Atomfall draws from science fiction, folk horror, and Cold War influences to create a world that is eerily familiar yet completely alien.

We recently announced our debut game, Empyreal, coming to Xbox Series X|S in 2025, and we would like to tell you a little more about the game’s setting and inspirations.

Empyreal is an action RPG in a richly detailed sci-fi fantasy universe. While the setting is sci-fi, featuring futuristic technology and intergalactic civilizations, the feel and mood is more fantasy. And though technology replaces the “magic” from a traditional fantasy setting, the supernatural and the divine play a significant role in the lore and story of this universe.

The game begins with your character arriving on a hitherto unexplored planet, only to discover the remnants of a lost civilisation. What’s more, it soon becomes clear that, though ancient, this civilisation made breakthroughs and discoveries that are far, far removed from humanity’s understanding of the modern world.

Soon, you are confronted with a looming and inscrutable monolith. Why is it here? Who built it? What is it for? And what power does it contain?

Naturally, we won’t be answering those questions for you here and now – these discoveries (and more) are for you to make when you play for yourself. However, what we would like to share are some of the esoteric references that influenced some of the themes in the story, and the relevance they hold even to the modern world.

Embracing a Paradox

While the universe of Empyreal is not directly based on or related to a specific culture or mythology from history, there is one figure that represents an important idea that permeates a core theme of the narrative in the game – the ancient Greek god, Dionysus.

Dionysus is typically portrayed as a drunken party animal in much of modern pop-culture media, but in his seminal work “Dionysus: Myth and Cult”, classical philologist Walter Otto paints a much more complete and complex picture.

While there is truth in Dionysus being the god of wine and the festival, he was also the god of madness and death. Although at first this may seem a perplexing juxtaposition, is there some truth we can learn from it? Otto claims that in “The visage of every true God is a visage of the World”. In other words, even in myth, we invariably find an accurate insight into the nature of the world.

In the case of Dionysus, he represents the paradox of duality. The understanding that life and death, madness and beauty and conflict and creativity are opposites, and yet also pre-requisites for each other. Embracing this paradox is a core philosophy behind Empyreal – to see the universe as both a “Mystic Temple and a Hall of Doom” (an idea introduced by Thomas Carlyle in his text, Characteristics) and to accept this dual nature in its totality. This life-affirming perspective is known as the “Tragic View”.

Empyreal does not feature an encroaching but ill-defined “darkness”, or a “corruption of the land”. Nor does it feature a pantomime villain of inexplicable evil for no other reason than to have an “evil antagonist”. Instead, the story and characters are designed to prompt careful reflection on the nature of humanity, our place in the universe and what it truly takes to guarantee the future of mankind.

Exploring the Human Condition

Now, just because Empyreal does not feature a “big bad” intent on destroying the world for whatever reason, that doesn’t mean the game is without conflict. As before though, the intent is for this conflict to reflect the struggle that life itself invariably presents.

Unsurprisingly, you are not the only one invested in the exploration of this lost civilisation and its achievements. When you arrive on the planet, it is ostensibly to provide a relief effort to a beleaguered expedition that has already been there for two long years, with little progress and innumerable setbacks to show for it.

Each other member of the expedition is an important character with their own personal questlines that you can choose to follow for unique rewards. There are nine of these quests in total, with each questline exploring a different facet of the human condition, based on the ideals of the individual themselves, the challenges they have faced and what they hope to ultimately achieve.

For example, there is an accomplished scientist who, despite their achievements, lives in the shadow of their Great Grandfather, who made technological breakthroughs that transformed modern living. This character has dreamt all their life of making an innovative breakthrough to rival that legacy, and in reverse-engineering the technology of the lost civilisation, that opportunity has seemingly presented itself.

You can choose to assist them in their goals, but it is also possible to set them on a different path by sharing even greater insight into the true divine nature of the cosmos, which then puts the character’s relentless material pursuits into sharp perspective.

There is also a veteran of several wars who is now the Quartermaster of the expedition. Having seen the excesses of humanity in his time, he is pragmatic and optimistic, but acutely appreciates the need to have a firm understanding of one’s own beliefs; a solid foundation on which one is able to face the world. As a result, he will frequently challenge you on your beliefs and play devil’s advocate no matter your response.

Choice and Consequence

These are just a couple of small previews of the characters you will come across in Empyreal. Not only do all nine characters have questlines you can follow, but each one has at least two distinct endings. Quests can play out differently depending on your choices and accomplishments and each ending offers a unique reward. But don’t fret too much about which way to go in a given quest – the game will feature a fully fleshed out New Game+ at launch, so you’ll be able to go back and experiment with different outcomes in subsequent playthroughs.

That’s about all we’ve got time for in this blog. While we have touched on a few of the inspirations and references that influence Empyreal’s themes and narrative, this is far from a comprehensive list, and there’s much more to be uncovered. The game draws heavily on classical and existentialist philosophy, theology and history, with many inspirations not mentioned here that we look forward to players discovering and discussing as they play the game.

Empyreal

Secret Mode

☆☆☆☆☆

★★★★★

Get it now

Empyreal is a complex, challenging, feature-rich action RPG.

In a far-flung corner of the galaxy an Expedition arrives on a hitherto unexplored planet to find a colossal Monolith built by a lost civilisation. These are no mere ruins: the Monolith is filled with danger, and the Expedition is ill-equipped to unearth the secrets within.

All eyes turn towards an elite mercenary who may succeed where all others have failed.

Venture inside the Monolith and face the automatons that yet remain, remnants of the impossibly ancient civilisation that built this unknowable structure. Survive and uncover revelations that transform our understanding of humanity itself.

Features:

• Stand against formidable foes; your only hope of victory lies in mastering a unique and complex combat system
• A memorable cast of characters, with personal questlines and multiple endings for each one
• A beautiful but shattered ancient world. Explore breathtaking environments filled with hidden details
• Customise your character with a vast array of equipment and collect armour sets that confer powerful bonuses
• Upgrade and modify the loot you find
• Unlock new abilities to personalise your playstyle