As I type this, I struggle to find the words that encapsulate my feelings on this all right now. It has been a roller coaster ride - from my father’s passing, conceptualizing this game, crafting it with my team at Surgent Studios, to now having announced Tales of Kenzera™: ZAU to you all at The Game Awards. Totally surreal.
Games, to me, are the most powerful medium to share and experience stories. The characters we play in these spaces - we go on a journey with them through all their trials and tribulations; we feel what they feel. My father taught me that. He understood that games are a great tool of expressing ourselves as people - be it as a means of escape, or wanting to be moved.
I lost my father back in 2013 to cancer. I’m sure many of you can relate, or at least can imagine the intense feeling of grief that hit. The best way I can summarise it is by saying that the whole experience of it all wasn’t ‘part of the plan.’ Ever since, I’ve been trying to find ways of processing this event: ignoring it, talking about it, working from it. It’s funny how it’s almost come full circle with the desire to create a game that honoured both my love for him and our enjoyment of video games.
Now, look: I didn’t know what it took to make a game. My only experience of being behind the scenes of the games industry was voicing Bayek in Assassins Creed Origins. But even that plays such a small part in the realities of what it means to make a game.
However, I was fueled by this feeling of grief - this raw feeling of sadness, anger, confusion even - and I used it to drive me towards making this experience. I remember talking to so many people in the industry, mining all the information on what it would take to form a studio, to form a vehicle that would take this story I had and share it with as many people as possible. I found some incredible developers across Linkedin, X, Instagram, ArtStation from across the world - Nigeria, Botswana, New York, Paris. They heard me out and understood what I wanted to do.
So here it is. A game that, from day one, was built from a need to share the love felt from one man to another. From a son to a father.
Welcome to Tales of Kenzera: ZAU
At its core, ZAU explores the power of love persevering through grief. But instead of wanting to create a game that focused on the sadness and weight of it, I wanted it to be a reflection of just how frantic and chaotic the journey can be.
The story follows a young boy who is gifted a Bantu-inspired tale written by his late father. From there, we experience the story he reads through his lens. We step into the vivid and treacherous lands of Kenzera as Zau - a young warrior shaman, who bravely bargains with the God of Death to bring his Baba back.
When I started thinking about this game, I started with the question “What would I give to bring my father back? To spend another moment with him?”. I didn’t have the answer when I started this game. I still don’t think I do now. But I’m definitely closer to one.
You learn that Kenzera was once bursting with life, and is now rife with lost ancestral spirits. Their presence acts as both an obstacle and a reflection to where our protagonist is. As Zau advances toward his goal, three formidable mythological entities will await him on his path. And despite their legacy, there is a deeper complexity to their existence.
Come chat with us
I’ve always noticed that the world of game development often feels opaque: like you can’t peek behind the curtain to see the gears as they turn. Recently though, I’m witnessing a lot more studios and developers opening up about what it’s actually like to make a game - allowing the curtain to be pulled back a bit. We want to join that movement.
The team and myself will be on our Discord server, where, with us, you can discuss, ask questions or dive deeper into what we’re building. We want to hear your thoughts. It serves as a space for people who enjoy storytelling as much as we do to connect.
We’re also on all these social channels here:
We’re both terrified, yet thrilled to be introducing you to our world, and I speak for the team when I say that we’re incredibly eager to unveil more. And your support through pre-orders means so much to our team. The impact it has to our studio is MASSIVE and it truly instills a sense of faith that we want to keep feeding through what we’re building.
Thank you for reading. Again, still trying to grasp everything that is happening, so appreciate that you are on this journey with us.
Abu"
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2316580/Tales_of_Kenzera_ZAU/