Surgent Studios, the developer of Tales of Kenzera: Zau – which launched earlier this year – has offered details on what its next project will be. Speaking with VGC, founder and studio head Abubakar Salim revealed that Surgent Studios’ next game is an RPG.
Specifically, the studio’s next title is described as a afro-gothic isometric action RPG. As per Salim, the game is being developed under the name Project Uso, and is going to be set in the same universe as Tales of Kenzera: Zau.
Billed as a “darker, more visceral, [and] gritty” game than the studio’s sidescrolling Metroidvania debut, the game is inspired by Planescape: Torment. Salim says Surgent Studios is currently “looking for a funding partner to bring it to life.”
Talking about the game, Salim revealed that players will play as an android cradling the spirit of Eshu, the God of Chaos.
“The story (with Zau) is that as a shaman you’re challenging the God of Death as a way of looking at the idea of healthy handling grief, so I came up with the idea of what if one reader is inspired to defy death itself, so they create this android which is fashioned to cradle the spirits of the dead,” he said. “And what if that spirit isn’t a human being, it’s a God, Eshu, the God of Chaos, so now you’ve got these two mentalities in one frame? That’s something I thought would be really cool to explore.”
According to Salim, Project Uso will feature real-time combat, and will also use a new system dubbed the “Crucible” system that will see players rolling against themselves.
“We want to really focus our time and attention on the mechanics, on the gameplay on the feel of it as a whole, because I think that’s what’s really key,” he said. “That’s what is going to make it really sing.
“As passionate Dungeons and Dragons players, the Surgent team and I knew we wanted to try our hand at creating our own RPG system. As a way to give Project Uso a fast-paced, real-time feel, we created the Crucible system, which requires players to roll against themselves.”
Surgent Studios has also shared concept images for the title. You can view them below.