Abubakar Salim talks his first game, Tales of Kenzera: ZAU, an Afrofuturist platformer
3.18.2024
By Ade Adeniji, Contributor
ZAU tells the story of a young shaman trying to reclaim his father’s spirit in the fictional African land Kenzera. In an early mission, Zau is guided by the wise Kalunga, who helps our hero through various stages with incredible backdrops that get much love and detail. Zau vaults up cliffs and walls, dashes through waterfalls, and dispatches enemies through a mix of melee and ranged attacks. The Metroidvania platformer genre isn’t new, ZAU’s rich world and lore help it stand out in the world of gaming.
While the game taps the deep tradition of African mythology, the genesis of the game is even more personal and specific. After the death of his father, in order to navigate his grief, Salim conceived of a game to honor his memory. We recently caught up with Salim to find out more about ZAU’s development, how the game taps Bantu and other African traditions to bring them into the Metroidvania genre, and how he hopes for ZAU to catalyze a broader range of stories in the gaming industry at large.
Genesis
Growing up, Salim wasn’t that captivated by television, and struggled with reading because of his dyslexia. His engineer father purchased a Sega Mega Drive (Genesis in the U.S.) and the two bonded as a result. “We essentially ended up playing quite a few games on that together. Instantly that just hooked me and clicked,” Salim said.
Salim didn’t immediately go into developing games, but says he always liked the idea of telling stories. His first stop took him to theater acting, followed by film and television. Then he played Bayek of Siwa in Assassin’s Creed Origins, which really hammered home the idea of gaming as a career. Working with the legendary Ridley Scott on Raised by Wolves made Salim ready to fully make that leap.
ZAU is really a story within a story. While players control the character Zau, you’re also seeing the story through the lens and eyes of Zuberi, a young boy who lives in Kenzera in the near future. One of the more interesting choices in the game is how the storyline plays out. Beyond the in-game action, characters go back and forth through talking heads in a way that almost feels like a comic book. All by design, Salim says, and a way to emphasize that you are truly in the head of a kid who loves comics.
When playing the game, I found myself constantly Googling and looking up different African references to learn more. Head to a Patakatifu (sanctuary in Swahili) to recharge and move from one stage to the next. It feels like everything in the game has a lore and story behind it, and Salim says one of his great hopes is that it makes players want to dive in and find out more about these cultures and stories.
Sun and moon
Zau can don two masks, representing the Sun and the Moon, each state providing the player with different tools for battle. Wearing the sun, our shaman hero can perform fiery light and heavy attacks. But with the moon, everything becomes icy and dark, even ranged attacks. Salim says this goes back to Bantu cultures, where the sun and the moon represent life and death. “So it made sense to pull from these masks and this imagery. It’s a balance. Life balances death. Death balances life,” he explained.
As far as Salim’s own familiarity with African mythology, he says he was immersed in it growing up in the family conversations and culture around him. Pointing to his bookshelf behind him, he mentions Indaba, My Children, a book of folklore by South African author Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa that brings together shamanistic stories about myth and culture. Salim says he’s also a massive fan of Kingdom Hearts, as well as Ori and the Blind Forest, another Metroidvania game that helped inspire his own. ZAU was also influenced by the Dune series.
ZAU has a strong soundtrack that rides just below the unfolding action as you best enemies and blast them with your magic mask. Salim credits composer Nainita Desai, who’s worked on games like Modern Warfare II, as well as Rob Brown, lead sound designer at Surgent. “For me, Nainitia and even Rob—our lead sound designer—it was important we captured this feeling that was a clash of worlds, cultures, and time,” Salim said, also giving a shout-out to the true Afrofuturist elephant in the room: the film Black Panther.
He wanted to make sure that the soundtrack was a clash of “modern America” with “traditional African sound.” He also mentions Spider-Man: Miles Morales, a big blockbuster game that also brings the specificity of Spanish Harlem, which is where Morales is from. “We’ve got the Spider-Man track. It’s heroic. It’s Marvel. It’s Spider-Man. But by influencing that with Miles and where he comes from, it transforms it. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. And I like that.”
Fittingly, I connected with Salim on the 156th birthday of W.E.B. DuBois, the Black Harvard intellectual who also was an early Afrofuturist. But now we’re not only seeing these kinds of Afrofuturist stories in books and film, but in gaming. And Salim is hopeful that ZAU adds to the broadening representation happening across media.
“Heroes exist elsewhere, too,” he said. “It’s about hearing that and celebrating that. I’ve always said this, but I want this game to sort of act as a gateway to dive more into Afrofuturism and those Bantu stories. There’s a lot there and there’s so much more to be told. I hope it inspires people who look like me to say ‘I can tell these stories too.’”
Tales of Kenzera: ZAU will come to the Epic Games Store on April 23.