‘House of the Dragon’ Actor’s New Horror Game Skewers Hollywood

Abubakar Salim A Lots of beef with Hollywood – and he takes it off from his chest in his latest video game. The actor, known for his roles of Alyn de Hull Dragon House and father at Raised by wolveshas balanced its time between the big screen and the games, two industries that have been affected by a multitude of similar problems: long hours, narrowing jobs, abuses of power and, more recently, the rapid rise in the use of artificial intelligence and generating AI.

Salim’s second year game, Deadis a story of Hollywood, ambition and exploitation, disguised as a horror game that aims at the problems of its industry, from corruption to the use of AI. “Hollywood is pure horror,” says Salim.

Dead is a farm departing from his first game, Kenzera tales: Zau. Or Zau Told a dynamic and sincere story about sorrow, Dead is a psychological thriller located in the dark pieces of a Hollywood manor. After his friend Vinny disappears, the actor in difficulty Chase embarks on the house of the hottest director of the industry, Duke Cain, in search of clues. The game is an escape room by invasion of domicile; The bedroom puzzles unlock more areas from the house, which means digging in bedrooms and cupboards, or navigating in a billiard room. The Du Duke domain is strewn with clues on a lost child and a failed marriage, as well as indications on the measure where he is ready to push the actors in his films.

Salim compares the writing of the game to an exorcism. “You hear these stories,” he said about the whispers on abuse and bad behavior. “It’s horrible. To make a game that explores that looked like “Oh fuck” to industry and machine. It’s really crazy what people run away, the amount of toxicity that exists at industry. ” Dead Allows players to collect these types of stories, as you would in real life, through emails, notes and a context. An actress taken in a metoo type scandal. A director opposing his actors to each other or pushing them beyond their limits.

Throughout their research, the players find flash readers containing video clips of the actors of the game. Salim made the unusual choice to let these scenes be played as real images instead of animation. Although the use of full -movement video in games appreciated the popularity found, thanks to titles like Immortality, It is still rare. Ben Starr (Final Fantasy XVI,, Clear obscure: shipping 33) and Neil Newbon (Baldur’s Gate 3,, Date everything) Act like the tracks of the game, Chase and Vinny. The two actors have been working for years, but it is only recently that they have had the spotlight, thanks to more important roles in popular games. “They are good and I want to show this, rather than putting them behind a character,” says Salim.

As a creation professional, there are a lot of things not to like about the use of AI – and he certainly doesn’t like much – but a fear is him: images or videos being “bastard” in a way that actors and artists have no control. “I think it’s disturbing and disgusting,” he says. “The last thing I want is that someone generates a horrible image of myself and my daughter who stumbles on it as we are older. It would be horrible. “