Surgent Studios, builders of this yr’s fetching Afrofuturist platformer Tales of Kenzera: Zau, have laid off greater than a dozen employees. The cuts come simply over two months on from the discharge of the debut online game launch from the multimedia studio based by Murderer’s Creed Origins star Abubakar Salim.
Earlier than Tales of Kenzera: Zau, Surgent contributed to numerous movies beginning with 2021’s The Whale, via to this yr’s Wild Goat Surf. The studio invoice themselves as specializing in storytelling throughout quite a lot of media, from video games and movie to podcasts, with Zau being their first online game undertaking.
Information of layoffs first broke by way of posts from former staff on LinkedIn (thanks, Recreation Developer), together with a degree designer and technical artist. Surgent subsequently confirmed the cuts by stating that “simply over a dozen folks” had been affected, with Salim itemizing producers, artists and animators as amongst these laid off.
“It’s a tough time within the video games business, however we stay extremely pleased with our whole group’s work on Zau and of the reward it has obtained from critics and gamers alike,” they continued, earlier than including that the studio’s focus could be on “supporting these affected, persevering with our work on Zau, and trying to the long run with our subsequent artistic initiatives”.
Zau was revealed on the finish of final yr as a transferring metroidvania impressed each by African Bantu cultures and Salim’s personal experiences of grief. In our evaluation round its launch on April twenty third, Alice Bee (RPS in Peace) praised its sensitively-told story and exquisite design, whereas discovering its platforming and fight to be just a little imprecise at occasions.
Surgent are but to announce their subsequent undertaking or future plans for Zau. Better of luck to these affected by the layoffs.
