Abubakar Salim leads a talented team who are creating a unique, representative experience.
I was already excited for Tales of Kenzera Zau, but hearing about it direct from Surgent Studios’ Abubakar Salim (top, right) has placed it on another level entirely.
Announced back at The Game Awards 2023, Zau is the first title from Surgent, a developer founded by a somewhat unlikely source: Salim is known to players as the voice of Assassin’s Creed Origins protagonist Bayek.
“I always get asked… why I made this into a game and not necessarily lean into where I originally come from professionally, be it either film or or TV,” Salim said, explaining both Surgent’s beginnings but those of Zau as well.
“The truth is, my love for games got me into acting — actively stepping into the shoes of these characters and evolving with them — [and that] made me fall in love with storytelling,” Salim continued.
“It was my father who introduced me to games. So it felt right.”
Zau further serves to honour Salim’s father, who sadly passed away more than a decade ago.
“I wanted to create and experience that honoured my father and the ones that we have loved and lost,” Salim said. “It was really inspired by the question I would ask myself almost every day after my father passed: what would I sacrifice to bring my father back, [to] hear him again.”
The format of a video game means Salim can create a character — or rather, two, as he voices both protagonists, Zau and Zuberi — who can potentially do something he couldn’t.
“Zau who makes a deal with Kalunga, the God of death,” Salim said. “That, in exchange for the three great spirits, he will bring his father back to the realm of the living.
Salim explained that Zau is “laced [with] Bantu myths and legends, mainly from stories my father would also tell me as a kid,” and framed accordingly through the Metroidvania genre.
“This journey… that we want to share with you had to live in [the] Metroidvania genre because, to me, [its] rules and structures behave like grief.
“You’re thrown into an alien world that you couldn’t prepare for,” Salim continued, “and yet the longer you stay in it — explore its corners at your own time — the more comfortable you get with it.”
If the idea of a Metroidvania inspired by Bantu legend doesn’t fully entice you, maybe this will — priced at just $30 AUD, Tales of Kenzera Zau nonetheless has between 8-15 hours of playtime, according to Salim.
“We respect the audience,” he said. “We want to respect your time. There’s so many good games out there and there’s so much to play and consume.”
“We wanted to almost treat it as like a good season of TV. Plus, you know, with the [$20 USD or $30 AUD] price point — it’s respect the wallet,” Salim continued.
“Gaming is an expensive hobby and we want to make this as accessible to as many people as possible, especially with the idea of it being this universal theme of grief.”
Expect Tales of Kenzera Zau from 23 April 2024 on Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, PS4, PS5, and Switch.
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Tales of Kenzera Zau23 April 2024PC PS4 PS5 Switch Xbox One Xbox Series S & X
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