Tales Of Kenzera: Zau – New game inspired by House Of The Dragon actor’s grief over losing his father

Growing up, Abubakar Salim never felt like he was destined to be a screen star.

The “Jamestown” and “Raised by Wolves” actor joined the cast of HBO and Sky this year Dragon Housenot too concerned with the world of television and film in which he would later become famous.

“As a kid, I didn’t really like television,” he recalls. “The cartoons are quite good, but now they are on a fixed time schedule, so you can’t watch them all the time!”

Since he is dyslexic, reading does not come naturally.For a young Salim named Abu, it was game It turned out to be an escape.

“It’s something I’m passionate about – and my dad sees that too.

“I wouldn’t have become an actor without games – they inspired my love of storytelling. My dad thought they were my only outlet.”

“He knew I was obsessed”

Abu’s father Ali is Kenya– A natural-born software engineer who loves technology. hertfordshire and his mother.

Father-son relationships are often driven by a passion for gaming, and shared adventures in Sonic the Hedgehog and The Legend of Zelda deepened their bond.

“He knew I was obsessed,” the actor said.

Recalling a moment in a Zelda game that “always scared me” (one that involves zombies, we’ve all been there), Abu fondly remembers how his dad sat next to him while he was going through it .

“It was always like, ‘OK, he’s with me – I feel ready’.”

a sad story

But Ali never saw his son, now 31, play his breakout role.

The 66-year-old man died cancer In 2013, a few years before Abramovich became famous British Academy of Film and Television Arts– Nominated actors.

More than a decade later, the loss inspired his ultimate passion project—a new action-adventure game they thoroughly enjoyed playing together, shaped by his experience of grief.

Tales Of Kenzera: Zau, will be released on April 23 game console, Xboxpersonal computers and Nintendo Switch is the first game from British Surgent Studios founded by Abu in 2019.

Players take on the role of Zau, a powerful but sad warrior determined to bring his father back to life.

It was inspired not only by Abu’s grief but also by the myths and legends of the Bantu people – a mixture of hundreds of ethnic groups from countries in central and southern Africa, including Kenya.

a place full of passion

In an increasingly diverse medium still dominated by familiar franchises and white protagonists, Zau’s inspiration evokes a compelling aesthetic, albeit one that is also informed by a love of comic books and the work within them. Wear some Afrofuturistic graphic influences on the sleeves.

“It comes from a place of passion,” says Abu, who serves as creative director and voices Zau, although the entire game can also be played in Swahili.

He previously voiced the protagonist in 2017’s Assassin’s Creed: Origins, his gaming debut, and given the game’s vast scope, he became the narrator for much of my free time that year.

It was this part that inspired Abu to look into how to create his own game, and assembled a team to create the world of Kenzera and “tell the story from a different perspective.”

The team of just 30 remote workers pales in comparison to the hundreds, if not thousands, of people who work on Assassin’s Creed games, but it brings together a diverse cast of British talent, some of whom have unorthodox ties to Abramovich game creation journey.

united team

Composer Nainita Desai was born in India and studied violin and piano at school, joined choirs and had her own pop band, but put her musical ambitions on hold to study mathematics at university .

“I didn’t realize composing could be a career,” she admits.

“I thought it was for old white men!”

Her career has since spanned film, television and games, but few have inspired the same passion as Zau, who performed with a diverse orchestra at London’s Abbey Road to ” “The ancient sounds of African culture” are combined with modern synthesizers to create a score that’s already being hailed as a possible awards contender.

Desai also recruited the Voquality choir, which had performed in Marvel’s Black Panther movie.

She said bringing attention to Africa’s rich Bantu mythology was one of the things that made the “beautiful, wealthy” Kenzela such a compelling project.

For artist Ackeem Durrant, it’s a chance to bring his lore to a wider audience, much as games like God of War and movies like Thor have done for Norse and Greek mythology That way.

“When you see these things in the media, you Google them, right? You check these things out,” he said.

“That’s what we really wanted to inspire by covering Bantu culture in this game – it’s a huge rabbit hole.”

Surgent draws inspiration from the Bantu pantheon, from the environments players explore to the enemies they fight and the abilities they learn along the way.

It belongs to the so-called “Metroidvania” genre, named after the influential 2D Metroidvania and Castlevania series, known for its addictive mix of combat, puzzles and exploration.

Enemies are inspired by the water elf Tiklose and the fire elf Kalunga, while levels from the Kakaramban Highlands to the Chiulia Forest draw on the continent’s diverse landscapes.

Lead designer Zi Peters describes it as a world in which players will initially “feel a little lost.”

‘You are not alone’

While the developers may have fallen down the rabbit hole of Bantu mythology, they never lost sight of the game’s most important inspiration – grief.

“This game will hopefully be an experience that lets people know they’re not alone,” said Peters, whose father also died of cancer in his 20s.

“It’s one of those things you can’t plan for, especially when it happens sooner than you expect.

“You have to allow yourself to feel it and not force yourself, but also don’t let it completely overwhelm you.”

Each level in Zau’s journey and the abilities he learns “can be compared to the journey of grief,” ensuring that the story and how players actually interact with the game “work in harmony.”

evolution and change

For Abramovich, this makes games a powerful tool for telling stories and inspiring people to “think differently.”

“If I had known as a kid that you could actually work in gaming, I probably would have gone straight into gaming,” he admits.

Movies or TV shows can only “keep you like a fly on the wall,” whereas games allow you to “step into the shoes of the characters and go through the journey with them that they’re going through, and you’re going to evolve and change with them.” .

Abu has done a lot of “evolving and changing” and his father’s death forced him to “accept the new version of me and be cool with it.”

Whether it’s the death of a loved one or friend, a breakup, or even a job loss, “it never leaves you,” he said.

“You get used to it – you have to accept it and keep going and keep working hard.”

Read more: The Science of Heartbreak

“I think he’ll like it”

Early discussions around Zau have been positive – already in last year’s game awardsmaybe this year’s show will finally be a full-circle moment.

Whatever the final reception, Abramovich has probably made the most important people proud.

“I showed my mom the trailer after we made the announcement and it really touched her,” he laughs.

“She said, ‘I’ve never seen anything like this before!’ My mom is in her 70s, so it’s really cool to have something like that and surprise people who think they might have seen it all. ”

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What about dad? What would he do?

“He’d be like, ‘You can be like Sonic the Hedgehog! That’s really deep, man!'”

“No,” Abu laughed. “I think he’ll like it.”