Tales of Kenzera: ZAU dev’s next game is a psychological horror all about the entertainment industry’s dark secrets

Earlier this year, Palworld developer Pocketpair announced their intent to get into games publishing using some of that Scrooge McDuck-size swimming pool of money they’ve acquired over the past year. They already had a game signed up too, from Tales of Kenzera: ZAU developer Surgent Studios, and today said indie dev has offered a small tease of a reveal at their upcoming psychological horror game Dead Take.

For now the game is mostly wrapped in mystery, but it’s apparently all about taking a look at the “darkest secrets” that lurk underneath the “glittering facade” that is the entertainment industry. You’ll step into the role (pun intended) of an actor exploring a mansion to “piece together the story of how far a powerful executive will go to seal his legacy.” There’s object-based puzzles to solve, and you’ll need to edit video clips you find to figure out what happened there. No full trailer just yet though.

In a statement Surgent Studios founder Abubakar Salim said that they’re “being secretive” about the game “for a reason,” continuing on to say that the “subject matter of this game is delicate, and it hits close to home. When it comes out, and it won’t be long until it does, I want players to think, ‘I can’t believe they actually did this.'”

For some context, before getting into game development, Slim was an actor, having appeared in Ridley Scott’s Raised by Wolves and Napoleon, House of the Dragon, and on the video game front he was also Assassin’s Creed Origins‘ Bayek, as well as Tales of Kenzera’s titular Zau. One can only imagine the stories any actor working on such big names might have.

Release date wise it’s supposedly launching this year, but for now you can wishlist the game on Steam.