Abubakar Salim: New game inspired by grief for my father

Abubakar Salim said announcing the game on stage in Los Angeles was hugely emotional

An actor who has starred in films, TV and games says the grief of losing father inspired him to make his first video game.

Abubakar Salim, 30, bonded with his father Ali Salim over their mutual love of games while growing up in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire.

On Friday the actor appeared on stage at the Video Game Awards in Los Angeles to reveal Tales of Kenzera: ZAU.

"I felt like I was being naked on stage," he said of the appearance.

Ali Salim worked as a software engineer at Xerox in Welwyn Garden City, was excited about technology and introduced his son to video games.

When the 66-year-old died with cancer in 2013, Abubakar said he felt compelled to "muscle up, soldier on and man up".

"I think there's a thing, especially where I come from in regards to my culture, where feeling sadness or emotion is not good," the 30-year-old explained.

In 2019, the Napoleon actor founded Surgent Studios and began working on a game to tell a story that would help him explore his feelings of grief.

"It's almost me having a communication with my dad, saying the things I wish I said to him, the things I remember him saying to me - all of it has been reflected in this game."

The game was developed by Mr Salim's Surgent Studios, whose staff work remotely from a number of places including New York, Botswana and Nigeria

Mr Salim, who is set to appear in the next season of the Game of Thrones prequel House of Dragon, had no prior background in game development.

He has played roles on TV shows such as Black Mirror, Jamestown and Raised By Wolves.

The actor also provided a voice and motion capture performance for the lead role in the 2017 video game Assassins Creed Origins.

"I thought it was important to explore in this medium," he said of his early forays into game development.

The studio founder said games give an audience a unique experience impossible to replicate through other storytelling methods.

"What is really powerful about games is you actively go on a journey with the characters instead of passively watching it," he said.

Game players explore a large world, locate special items and retrace their steps to try and access previously inaccessible areas

Zau is in the Metroidvania genre, in which players explore a large world, locate special items and retrace their steps to try and access previously inaccessible areas.

Mr Salim believes the genre "encapsulates with grief means".

"Players are thrown into the middle of a world where they have to figure out what is going on, and even though they are given the tools to work around it, first they have to find them, that's essentially what grief is," he explained.

"You have to make mistakes, you have to go back and forward all the time, retracing steps - is that not exactly what grief is?"

The Surget Studios founder insists the game, although inspired by loss, is a celebration of life.

"It's almost like it's own little therapy but it's celebratory as well, it's celebrating the relationships we did have," he said.

Tales of Kenzera: ZAU will be released on 23 April.