‘It’s about power, control, and corruption’: Why actor Abubakar Salim is making a horror game about the entertainment industry
The Tales of Kenzera director opens up about his next move
Why a horror game, and why Pocketpair? Those were our questions for Abubakar Salim, star of Raised by Wolves, House of the Dragon, and now, like so many others, a struggling indie developer.
Tales of Kenzera: Zau, the first game from Surgent Studios, was loved by players and met with a warm critical reception. Despite this, Surgent, like many other studios, has faced an incredibly difficult few years. Multiple developers have been let go from the studio, and the status of the Tales of Kenzera franchise is up in the air.
Now, he’s found an ally in an unlikely source. Palworld publisher, Pocketpair.
“At The Game Awards, we had this encounter with the team,” Salim explained to VGC. “It was basically these devs talking about their honest experiences. We both had these very different experiences. Ultimately, there was this kind of connection over a love for games. Essentially, it was about making what you want. Developers who want to give back to the community. Going back to that honest, pure reason as to why we make games. They have the power to do that, that’s where they’re coming from.”
When the publishing deal was first announced, the game was described as a “mile marker between where we’ve come from and where we’re going”. Salim told VGC it’s born from his experience working as both an actor and a developer in the entertainment industry.
“A lot of what we do is build from experiences. We want to share experiences we have felt and deliver them artistically,” he said. “Last year, I felt extremely powerless; it got me thinking about where that power lies in the entertainment industry. What does that mean to people in art? I think I stewed on those thoughts and wanted to turn them into something.
“I straddle these worlds between being an actor and a developer. I’ve seen how that power can corrupt, and I’ve seen how those people in power react when confronted with people without power. This game is a response to that feeling of powerlessness.”
“Last year, I felt extremely powerless; it got me thinking about where that power lies in the entertainment industry. What does that mean to people in art?”
While Salim isn’t sharing much about the game, such as how it will play, the vision is clear. “It’s going to be a short, weird, horrific experience. It’s about power, powerlessness, control, and corruption… which is so different from Tales of Kenzera (laughs). We want to make these raw, uncensored kinds of experiences, rooted in a human truth. It goes beyond race, gender, identity, it’s about what makes us human.”
“The thing I love about horror is that it taps into a primal human instinct to survive; that’s what I wanted to tap into as a genre. The fact that you are prey. How are you going to survive this? That moment, that threat, is something that I love. That’s something we’re going to really play with.”
As for Pocketpair, just how involved is the publisher? “They give us good creative license to play. It’s an open room. There’s not a sense of ‘oh if I say this I’m going to offend.’ It feels like a safe space to be open and real and connect. That’s the one thing that’s been really cool, there’s nothing to hide behind.
“Ultimately, we want to find the right people to tell the right stories with. There’s something weirdly lovely and magical about going from the big publisher of EA to working with Pocket Pair for the first time, and how that affects the game and the story.”
The new horror game won’t be set in the Tales of Kenzera universe and won’t be related to Project Uso, the in-development title that studio boss Abubakar Salim showed off to VGC last year.
“That’s the thing with Surgent. The Tales of Kenzera universe is still alive, It’s about finding the right home for that. I think a lot of people expect game 1, and then game 2 and game 3, and it’s all a similar ilk.”
“You see that a lot with film production companies; they can make a horror or a rom-com, and I think that’s how we shape our core through-line. That’s something that I know won’t change with us, no matter where we go.”
“The Tales of Kenzera universe is still alive, It’s about finding the right home for that. I think a lot of people expect game 1, and then game 2 and game 3, and it’s all a similar ilk.”
“It’s about pulling from my own personal experiences in the entertainment industry and putting that in the front and highlighting that. When it comes to the genre and the gameplay, it’s all deliberate, from casting to setting; it’s all there to expose what happens when ambition, power, and silence collide within this space. Even with horror, there is comedy there, but there’s also a real darkness there that needs to be shown in its totality.”
As the rest of the games industry struggles, we wanted to know if there were any green shoots that Salim could see that would give him hope for the future of the space, and of Surgent.
“The industry itself is going through a metamorphosis. It’s changing at such a pace that you have to adapt and survive. The old methods aren’t working. Why should Pocketpair start a publishing arm? The truth is you have to look for people who have the same kind of mentality, like Pocketpair, and align yourself with elements of that. For me, it’s always been a sense of just being honest and faithful and actually listening. ”
The unnamed game is still planned for this year. “Very soon,” Salim tells us while laughing. “Very soon.”
