In October 2024, Surgent Studios unveiled Project Uso, an ambitious, choice-driven RPG with beat-’em-up vibes. That was before the studio announced a partnership with Pocketpair Publishing, with the team signing up to develop a horror game that’s yet to be revealed.
I bumped into Abubakar Salim, the founder of Surgent, at the BAFTA Games Awards in London. The recent news of the partnership got me thinking about Project Uso and whether the team was still working on it because it piqued my interest when it was uncovered months ago.
Check out the full video interview here:
‘The Universe is Still Alive’
Tales of Kenzera: Project Uso is an extension of Tales of Kenzera: Zau, which was released in February 2024 to a stunning reception. I was fortunate enough back then to sit down with Abubakar and talk about the inspiration behind this emotional, beautiful game.
I learned that Surgent Studios plans to create a thriving multimedia universe around Tales of Kenzera.
When I was chatting with Abubakar at the BAFTA Game Awards, I dropped a question about Project Uso, asking if it was still in the pipeline:
Uso is still cooking. I think the way that I’m approaching the design and game dev process is we want to build things that all feed into the next game and then the next game and then the next game.
Uso is still cooking, man the universe is still alive, and that’s very exciting. There are other games as well.
I think one of the reasons we wanted to reveal Uso was, that was one of those games that we felt really passionate about and not many people do this, not many people share in the industry, something that they’re just cooking and seeing what happens.
There are still things that we need to work with and still need to conjure with that game. It’s a big game, it’s very ambitious, what we want to do with it.
Tuesday night at the BAFTA Games Awards, Abubakar Salim took to the stage to receive the award for Game Beyond Entertainment, a prestigious trophy that perfectly highlights what Tales of Kenzera: Zau is all about.
I’m very excited and eagerly awaiting more news from Surgent regarding Project Uso – watch this space.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that Escape from Tarkov’s toughest map is getting harder.
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
More from Grant Taylor-Hill
