Zau’s Art Team Talks Blending Afrofuturism And Mythology

Video games have, thankfully, come a long way since their 8-bit days and, thanks to the incredible technological advances now available, we are in an age where developers harness the creative freedom to explore a wide range of artistic endeavors to really bring their visions to life. After all, there’s no question about the transformative power games hold and the impact they have on their audiences, either by connecting, giving strength, producing happiness and sadness, or even educating players.

In Tales of Kenzera: ZAU, an upcoming Metroidvania title developed by Surgent Studios and published by EA, it not only ticks all of those boxes, but the game goes even further by weaving in the importance of understanding Zau’s grief as it encapsulates life and death in the African culture as well as lifting the lid on Bantu mythology through beautifully vibrant visual Afrofuturistic motifs. We had the pleasure of sitting down with Tales of Kenzera’s lead artist Ackeem Durrant and lead animator Griffin Warner to talk about the game’s story, environments and unique art style, coupled with its design influences and also the challenges it faced through production.

You only have to watch the vivid and electrifying trailer for Tales of Kenzera: Zau to understand that this game embodies passion and an understanding of what it means to bridge the gap between incredible visual design and a compelling story, because this isn’t always an easy feat to juggle throughout game development and sometimes, one can be sacrificed for the other. Thankfully, Zau doesn’t seem to suffer from this issue as it compels you into wanting to know about the treacherous, yet beautiful, lands of Kenzera and Zau’s heartbreaking struggles.

I ask Ackeem and Griffin what they’re most proud of in Tales of Kenzera’s game environment and if there were any challenges implementing its overall design. Sheepishly and with a cheeky smile, Ackeem seems to want to go into some of the issues the team faced, replying, “There are so many things that didn’t come across, I want to go into one of those,” he says with a laugh, not wanting to spoil too much for players. He tells me that the “limitations of tech” are a challenge and that they would have loved to have included shadows on the floor from clouds or the flickering of torches that they got into the game but “didn’t have the time to massage properly”.

Ackeem added his answer, saying “…getting that unison and cohesion between storytelling and art, that’s the thing that the team is most proud of and why we nitpick every little thing and will be doing so right up until release”.

With so many stunning environmental elements included across the entirety of Tales of Kenzera, you can understand why Ackeem and Griffin are so jovial and animated when discussing it. Griffin adds that he particularly enjoys the game’s waterfalls and how cool it is that they can be frozen (by the player) but, “…at the same time, it is one of the things that has been a challenge. We have a lot of hazards in the game, like spikes that instantly kill a player, and when freezing the waterfall, we have a spikey motif there and a lot of players thought that would kill them, so the messaging there was all wrong, and we’ve had to address that a little bit since the demo”.

Ensuring the game’s story and art are complementary and that everything flows seamlessly is incredibly important to Surgent Studios. Ackeem informs me that due to grief being represented in such a uniquely colorful way, it marries into the story and enriches it, thus, making it incredibly vibrant, “It’s a different viewpoint on the world. It’s the celebration of life rather than the grieving of death really” and it’s “two sides of the same coin”. Griffin holds the same viewpoint, “All the biomes represent different stages of grief. We have areas that are a little lonelier or areas that are more intense, and a little bit scary almost, but it all just factors in how the character is feeling, or even how the player might be feeling within the story itself”.

Video games offering a sense of escapism is nothing new; immersion is a great strength of the medium. When asked if Tales of Kenzera immerses the player through its environments, Ackeem triumphantly answers, saying “when you dive into its world, and see the architecture that has fallen and the trees growing over assets, you feel like the world has been living before you got there, and events have taken place so when you hear the audio kick in and Zau is running, you get lost in the story fairly quickly”.

Though Tales is a side scroller, Griffin reveals that a great effort has been put in to make the player feel like the world has depth, “There is far more to the world than you can actually see and, in some cases, we’ve built some places out of the way of the player, and even though it is largely implied and not there, you can still feel it so major props to the art team for making it feel that way”.

A reality of game development is that a lot of good ideas end up on the cutting room floor. Ackeem said technical struggles hindered certain aspects of Tales of Kenzera as the team fought with different engine versions and compatibility, though the results weren’t negative, he adds “…it never felt like we were making decisions that made the game worse which is always the important thing when you’re working with a team, and it was always to improve the game”.

Griffin echoed this, saying “the majority of the cuts made ended up streamlining the game in a way that is beneficial, but equally it hurts as a developer”. Surgent Studios had a lot of ideas, like teleporting into interiors, or even the inclusion of NPCs, but they ultimately didn’t fit the game’s vision and were cut.

In terms of ‘vibes’, Tales of Kenzera takes inspiration from Ori and the Blind Forest as well as Kena: Bridge of Spirits. Also, the ancestral plane from Marvel’s Black Panther was used as a reference point, “The ancestral plane was influenced by other cultures as well, so it was a nice cornerstone,” Ackeem says.”Those fundamental design motifs from being based in Africa and looking at the references and rituals, that’s what feeds into all of this. Black Panther is a big cultural phenomenon that ended up happening and was received really well, so we are going to make use of that”. “It’s impossible to ignore Black Panther, but it’s not something we wanted to get close to,” says Griffin “We just happened to draw from the same mythologies and the same cultures.”

Other games that explore complex themes like mental health can end up quite dark, but Tales of Kenzera is looking to explore these same sentiments colourfully. Ackeem dives into this by telling me “That’s the interesting takeaway. It’s just different, culturally. It’s different people and different cultures in the world. So in some places, death is represented in this really colorful way and that’s one of the important aspects here” he continues. “When you go through grief, that’s not to say it needs to be black and dark, it could be a fierce fire or flame that comes from it. It’s the culture that really just pushed us in that direction by looking at different rituals and ceremonies that you’ll see across the continent. It’s always bright, it’s always colorful, and it’s rare that you’ll see somber and sorrow”.

As we conclude, Griffin and Ackeem discuss the Bantu language used in Tales of Kenzera, and how they weave in the Swahili dialect, leaving its placement unexplained as a means of immersing the player. Ackeem says Bantu mythology is what they’re drawing from, explaining that the Tikoloshe for example, is an evil creature in the game and also part of Bantu folklore, possibly pushing curious players to research the culture.

Griffin emphasizes the ‘goal’ of Tales of Kenzera, saying “The game takes place over a legacy period, and an Afrofuture period, so there’s this marriage of old and new through the art, the music, and the effects. Everything we do is trying to bring these together.”

Tales of Kenzera: Zau

Wield the dance of the shaman. Reclaim your father’s spirit. Brave the beautiful and treacherous land of Kenzera with the God of Death in Tales of Kenzerz: ZAU, a Metroidvania-style adventure crafted by Surgent Studios.

Released

April 23, 2024

Developer

Surgent Studios