A 'House of the Dragon' Star Made a Video Game to Grieve His Father

A decade ago, Abubakar Salim lost his father. An actor by trade, with credits in Raised by Wolves and House of the Dragon's upcoming season, he searched for years for the right medium to work through the hurt. Nothing did it justice--until he tried to make a video game. "If you're really depicting grief in a truthful and honest way, it is so open and chaotic that actually, you can kind of gamify it," he says. Salim is the CEO and creative director of Surgent Studios, the developer behind the upcoming Metroidvania game Tales of Kenzera: Zau.