“Give them something good.”
I can actually be a hero.
We’re doing a good thing.
I want to go for that."
Salim is perhaps best known as the voice actor of beloved Assassin’s Creed: Origins protagonist Bayek.
Now he’s jumping into the world of game development withTales of Kenzera: Zau.
ItsSteam demo was already impressivebut I was keen to understand more about its mythological origins.
As such, basing the game on these stories is Salim sharing his own perspective.
“I’m looking mainly at African developers and what they’re building and what they’re creating.
I think there is a lot out there.
It’ll happen in time.”
Lead designer Zi Peters adds the Bantu Tales “really ignited the imagination” during the game’s development.
One major challenge, though, was these stories are communicated through oral tradition.
“The hard part was conveying it in a way that felt fun and almost universal.”
Peters adds the whole development team could empathise with this core theme of Tales of Kenzera.
“It’s also made that process a lot easier.
This really means something, there’s a driving passion behind creating the game and exploring this concept.”
Indeed, he suggests a Metroidvania “lays the perfect foundation of exploring what grief is”.
And it’s something that just comes at you when you don’t know what to do.
“You are going to feel sad, you’re going to feel angry.
Some days you might even forget about it.
The tools are there, but you have to discover them as you go on this journey.
And to me that’s exactly what a Metroidvania is.
It reflects how he’s lived a life until now, but still has much to learn.
To develop this game, Salim created his own studio: Surgent Studios.
For Tales of Kenzera, that’s a game.
Having autonomy over that storytelling is also why Salim set up the studio.
In the case of Tales of Kenzera, an especially personal story.
“There’s something behind everyone and there’s a reason behind everything,” he says.
That’s something I can see really happening in the game space.”
Again, it comes back to the importance of storytelling.
“Spending 8, 10, 30 hours with these characters and going on this journey with them.
Give them something good.”
