MIDNIGHT SET

Film lighting simulator

MIDNIGHT
SET

The cinematography simulator
where the light is real.

Get notifiedExplore the game

Coming to Steam for Windows. Made by Ritual Media, an independent studio.

01 / The lighting study
An original mannequin on a dark stage, with a warm light and a shadow across the wall.ORIGINAL WEB SCENE

Drag the light. Find the shadow.

Incident at the figure0 lx
LIGHT THE SCENE.CHOOSE YOUR LENS.FRAME THE SHOT.ROLL CAMERA.

The craft, in your hands

A room full
of decisions.

Light, frame and shoot scenes on a virtual film set. Meter real light, rig flags on C stands, build your own sets, work a real camera, and get graded shot by shot with tips that teach the craft.

A frame from Midnight Set: a light and a black cutter shape the illumination on a seated mannequin and the wall behind it.
Captured in Midnight SetDevelopment footage
01

Light you can meter.

Work in lux, Kelvin and stops. Read the light on a face, compare key to fill, and see how distance changes the result.

02

Shape what stays.

Cut light with a flag. Soften an edge with diffusion. Bring in a bounce board and watch the meter respond.

03

Make the frame.

Choose your lens. Set T stop, ISO, shutter angle and focus. Use the camera tools to read the picture before you roll.

04

Learn from the take.

Get graded on composition, exposure, lighting, focus, efficiency and brief match, with feedback that explains each deduction.

Your space. Your setup.

Build the set.
Find the light.

Place flats, walls and platforms. Change the finish and mix the paint. Move the sun through the windows and see the shadows shift.

Then make the choices that turn a room into a shot.

Follow the development

A film set you can play

Why I’m making
Midnight Set

I make videos, and I play games. When I looked for a way to practice lighting on a computer, everything I tried felt like operating software, not playing a game. I wanted the freedom of an open world sandbox: walk onto the set, grab a light, roll a stand across the floor, cut it with a flag, step back and watch the shot change.

Midnight Set is being built to be that game. Real gear and real light, with the flow of a third person game, so you can play with a scene instead of operating it.

Pat, Ritual Media

Where it is going

Where Midnight Set
is going

Midnight Set is being built to be the place you learn lighting by doing it. Every light, lens and camera should behave like the real thing, and every shot you take should teach you something.

Real gear to master.

A growing collection of cameras, lenses and lights, each one behaving differently, to inspect, rig and learn.

Your own set.

Walls, windows, paint and practical lamps, so you light the room you want, not only the one you are given.

Play or practice.

Assignments with a brief and a grade when you want structure, and an open stage when you want to experiment.

We're reaching out to gear makers for permission to use their real names. Until then, and for anyone who says no, every fixture gets its own fictional name, with the real model it's based on shown in the fine print.

Midnight Set is in active development at Ritual Media, an independent studio. Follow along in the devlog.

05 / From the set

Watch a take.

Long form and Shorts, straight from the set. Same light, shorter cut. Nothing plays until you open it.

Long form

All demos
  1. Video thumbnail: a mannequin under a hard key light seen through a camera monitor, beside the words Fail. Fail. Pass. and a pass grade of 88.4.2:5301Lighting an interrogation scene in my cinematography simulator, graded take by takeWatch on our YouTube channel

Shorts

All Shorts
  1. Short thumbnail: the ratio 3:1, with the line the lit side of the face is three times brighter than the shadow side.01My first three point light was badly overexposed
  2. Short thumbnail: a small set of white flats around a figure on a riser, captioned Add a riser.02I built my own film set, then lit it
  3. Short thumbnail: a C stand on a dark studio floor in Midnight Set.03Every stand in my cinematography sim stops where the real one does
  4. Short thumbnail: a mannequin seated at a table in a dim room with a brick floor, captioned Ten days later.04Day one of my cinematography sim, and ten days later

Every take lives on the Midnight Set YouTube channel.

Be there for the first take

Your next
set is waiting.

Get one email when Midnight Set opens for wishlists on Steam.

For musicians

Make music?
I’d like to hear it.

I’m planning a radio for the sets in Midnight Set, and I’d like it to play music by independent artists. If you’d like your music on it, leave your details and a link in the form.

I’d only ever use a track with written permission from everyone who controls its rights. That permission would set out how the track is credited in the game, with a link to the artist, and would also cover players who stream or post videos of the game with the radio on.

This isn’t a call for submissions yet: I’m finding out who’s interested first. Leaving your details commits neither of us to anything, and it doesn’t promise you a place.

Leave your details.

The form is on the Ritual Media page, in the section called For musicians, under the wishlist alert. It asks for your name, your email, the name your music is released under and a link to your music. Links only, please: no audio files. You must be 18 or over to send it.

Open the musicians form

Before you roll

A few things to know.

What is Midnight Set?

A cinematography simulation game where you build sets, work lights and cameras, shoot frames and learn from the grade.

Do I need filmmaking experience?

You can learn by doing. The light meter, camera tools and grading feedback help explain the choices behind the picture.

Which platforms is it coming to?

Windows. The lighting and exposure grades require a graphics card with hardware ray tracing. Full system requirements will be published when they are measured.

Can I wishlist it on Steam yet?

The store page is not open yet. Join the wishlist alert and get one email when it opens.

Is the interactive stage gameplay?

No. It is an original web lighting study with a simplified light model. The image labeled Captured in Midnight Set is from the game.