Abubakar Salim has quite a lot of beef with Hollywood—and he’s getting it off his chest in his newest online game. The actor, recognized for his roles as Alyn of Hull on Home of the Dragon and Father in Raised By Wolves, has been balancing his time between the massive display screen and gaming, two industries which have been affected by a slew of comparable points: lengthy hours, shrinking jobs, abuse of energy, and, extra not too long ago, the speedy rise of synthetic intelligence use and generative AI.
Salim’s sophomore recreation, Useless Take, is a narrative of Hollywood, ambition, and exploitation, dressed up as a horror recreation that takes intention at his trade’s issues, from corruption to AI use. “Hollywood is pure horror,” Salim says.
Useless Take is a agency departure from his debut recreation, Tales of Kenzera: Zau. The place Zau informed a vibrant, heartfelt story about grief, Useless Take is a psychological thriller set at nighttime rooms of a Hollywood mansion. After his pal Vinny goes lacking, struggling actor Chase breaks into the house of the trade’s hottest director, Duke Cain, searching for clues. The sport is an escape room by means of dwelling invasion; room-by-room puzzles unlock extra areas of the home, whether or not which means digging by bedrooms and closets, or navigating a poolhouse. Duke’s area is suffering from clues a few misplaced youngster and a failed marriage, together with hints about how far he’s prepared to push actors in his movies.
Salim likens writing the sport to an exorcism. “You hear these tales,” he says of whispers about headline-making abuse and dangerous habits. “It’s horrific. To then make a recreation that explores that felt like ‘oh fuck you’ to the trade and the machine. It truly is mad what individuals get away with, the quantity of toxicity that exists on an trade degree.” Useless Take lets gamers piece collectively these kinds of tales, a lot as you’ll in actual life, by emails, notes, and context. An actress caught in a MeToo-like scandal. A director pitting his actors towards one another, or pushing them past their limits.
All through their search, gamers discover flash drives containing video clips of the sport’s actors. Salim made the bizarre option to let these scenes play out as real-life footage as a substitute of as animation. Though using full-motion-video in video games has loved newfound reputation, due to titles like Immortality, it’s nonetheless unusual. Ben Starr (Ultimate Fantasy XVI, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33) and Neil Newbon (Baldur’s Gate 3, Date All the pieces) act as the sport’s leads, Chase and Vinny. Each actors have labored for years, but it surely’s solely not too long ago that they’ve had the highlight, due to extra outstanding roles in in style video games. “They’re fucking good and I wanna present that, reasonably than placing them behind a personality,” Salim says.
As a inventive skilled, there’s loads for Salim to dislike about AI use—and he actually does dislike loads—however one concern stands out to him: photos or movies being “bastardized” in methods actors and artists haven’t any management over. “I believe that is disturbing and disgusting,” he says. “The very last thing I need is somebody to generate a horrific picture of myself after which my daughter to encounter it as we’re older. That may be horrible.”
