Ten years ago, Abubakar Salim lost his father. This sadness resides within him.Professional actor who has been in Raised by wolves and Dragon HouseHe’s been searching for the right medium to ease the pain this upcoming season. A movie. A TV show. Nothing could be fairer—until he tried making a video game. “If you really portray grief in a real and honest way, it’s so open and messy, you can actually gamify it,” he said.
Salim is the CEO and Creative Director of Surgent Studios, the developer of the upcoming Metroidvania game Kenzella’s Story: Wide Edition. The game, which launches on April 23, follows Zau, a young shaman who makes a deal with Death in exchange for three great souls to resurrect his father. Its story reflects on coping with loss—even its premise is based on bargaining, a common stage for people dealing with death. Saleem said pressing buttons, changing masks — these are all representative of the craziness people can experience.
Games about grief reflect these feelings in many ways.platform game Gris Transforming the stages of grief into real ones as the heroine silently navigates a world of emotions expressed in color and music. What’s left of Edith Finch Explore the death of a family through a close examination of a family’s belongings and vignettes dedicated to the deceased.
kenzela Have your own way. Throughout the game, Zaw would pause and talk about how he was feeling. This is the result of Salim and the game’s developers trying to figure out how the character regains health. The solution was quite literal: create a space for Zau to sit under a tree and think.
Every biome in the game world is a reflection of a painful journey. Salim, who grew up playing games with his father, recalled something his father told him as a child: “When you are born, you are alone, and when you die, you are alone.” kenzelaThe developers incorporated this concept into the Woodlands setting, aiming to evoke the question: “Will I be remembered? Will I be forgotten?”
The stories Salim’s father told him had a major impact on the sport, as did Bantu culture, which he said was a form of celebration rather than an effort to educate people.In recent years, games such as god of war and Hades Brings a new familiarity to Norse and Greek mythology.games like this kenzela Something similar could be done for the cultures of southern Africa. “It’s about inspiring people to see these stories and learn more about them,” Salim said.
Although kenzelaThe battle evolved over time and it was Influenced by tempeh, a form of Nigerian boxing. Zou changes his fighting style by changing his mask – the Sun and Moon Mask representing life and death. Salim explains that in Bantu culture, the two balance each other. “That was really the inspiration for both masks,” he said. The Sun Mask is hot, fire-heavy in nature, while the Moon Mask has an icy look and feel. Both masks are beautiful and powerful, an ode to how other cultures deal with death. “Especially in African culture, [death] It’s almost celebratory in a way,” he said. “It’s the transition to something new. “