Looking to get your hack and slash on with the latest indie videogame to play? IndieBloom unleash to you, Kanzo 🎮⚔🗡

What’s in a name?

Kanzo is the name of the main character and is described as,

A fast paced third person hack and slash game which takes place in a cyberpunk city, the city is full of bandits and mercenaries which took down the whole city in their control. Kanzo is the only survivor left with some magical and samurai powers to clean the city. He makes himself able to deal with these bandits by enhancing his skills and abilities as the game progresses.

Being made entirely by Abraiz Khan who’s videogame company is GameBucks and is based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. ‘Kanzo doesn't have a team yet, I am the only person developing it’. Abraiz’s aim is ‘I want Kanzo to look visually great and have that immersive gameplay experience.’ We can definitely see it coming along already.

Kanzo started off as an ArtStation post,

I went through and was kind of fascinated by the animation I made. It was a samurai slashing his katana and doing an amazing combo. I thought to make the same mechanics in a game engine, at that time I only knew Unity, but as Unity has some graphics limitations, I decided to learn Unreal. Kanzo was started as a self-learning project but as I posted the update regularly on my YouTube and people are liking it I changed my mind and made it a full story based game.

Aside from video games, Abraiz’s other influences and inspirations for Kanzo included the realistion that,

While making Kanzo I came to know that one man can do great things alone and can be a one man army, the thing that's the inspiration for me is I started communicating with Discord’s indie game community and discussing certain daily life topics.

Community, community, community

From all of this, Kanzo's aim is to revamp and rebuild the vibes of the players favourite hack and slash games by trying something different that’s visually appealing. Kanzo’s main motive is that it will be totally community based - players can request adding or removing features such as weapons, player speed, new chapters etc.

When we asked Abraiz on what methods he finds are best to promote Kanzo on social media his reply was,

I found YouTube, Discord and Twitter very helpful as these platforms suggest your videos/content to the audience you targeted, I have received a very nice response which helps me a lot in polishing my game and adjusting the gameplay.

Generating a nice amount of followers within the Kanzo community, Abraiz’s most useful information/feedback currently received has been -

Related to movement speed, at first it was very slow, not really giving the vibe of a samurai but I did some R&D and came up with a polished movement speed and combos. As Kanzo is a fast paced hack and slash I had to adjust combo speed as well.

Always useful to listen to your fans feedback and suggestions.

Making the game

For all you budding game makers out there deciding whether to use Unreal or Unity to create your game, we asked Abraiz if he has a preference between the two (and his reasons why), his reply -

Yes, before making Kanzo I only knew Unity3D and I was decent with the knowledge about Unity, but when I started to learn Unreal I was really impressed by the workflow, optimization, garbage collector and of course vibrant graphics. So now I am very comfortable with Unreal Engine, no going back to Unity.

A glowing endorsement for Unreal 💡👍

With all this knowledge and talent making Kanzo, the most challenging mechanics were the Ambush System and Shadow Strike ability, Abraiz describes what these are -

In ambush system I have to do proper animation in slow motion to get that katana sweep feel which was really hard, you have to move the camera in such a position so you can see and feel what's happening with the gameplay.
Shadow Strike was the other difficult mechanic, as I was using booleans so the code really gets messy, I have to bring all code from Blueprints to C++ for optimized behaviour and it took 2 weeks moving to make it to work as intended.

Lots of patience to get there in the end with all the mechanics. We hope this makes sense to all you non videogame makers out there 🤓😝

With all this perseverance, the most pleasing situation so far making Kanzo for Abraiz has been ‘the visuals and graphics, the demo is played by a majority of people from its launch and they all love the visuals as far as gameplay’. As this is a work in progress this is pleasing to know.

Creating an action game slicing and dicing your foes with large swords, Abraiz also tells us what his favourite weapon in Kanzo has been to create.

As Kanzo is a hack and slash game the focus is on a katana, Kanzo currently has two katanas in the game. One is a cyborg blade which has different combos, skills & damage attributes. The second, and my favourite one is the sci-fi frozen blade which Kanzo can find in the chapter 2 story. This frozen blade is one of the most powerful weapons and can be used among players for its advantage as it has an amazing dash mode as well.

Which katana would you choose? 🗡⚔ With all this experience and knowledge in the field of hack and slash games, IndieBloom wanted to know where Abraiz currently sees Kanzo among the big boys?

I see hack and slash games as a great way to spend time. The way characters do combos, aerial attacks and skills fascinates me. My favourite games are Devil May Cry, Metal Gear Rising, Sekiro, Ghost of Tsushima etc. I love the mechanics and how everything is tied together, the same thing I want to bring in Kanzo.

We can definitely see the influences, inspirations and homage being shown to these titles. Along with Kanzo, which of those other games are your favs?

As a solo indie creator, Abraiz explained to us what’s been the most satisfying thing while making his game.

I can do whatever and anything I want. If I find some logic complex in C++, I can write in Blueprints, there is no one to ask me why I can't manage to write in C++. Plus I can use any asset I want freely without anyone's approval. This thing makes me very satisfied as I have no blockers or show stoppers. Just me and Kanzo.

Along with describing a typical working day for himself,

My day starts at 7:30 AM for work, get a bath and my coffee while watching YouTube or some random game related things, then I leave for work at 8:30 AM and see what tasks I have for the day, I complete them one by one, reply to important emails etc. Then I have lunch after that, back to coding. At 7:00 PM I leave my workspace and take some rest at home and at 10:00 PM till 2:00 AM I work on Kanzo. I take breaks only on weekends and don’t work on Kanzo.

Very dedicated and precise. With all this we wanted to pick Abraiz’s 🧠 and know what tips and skills he highly advises for anyone trying to make their own video game.

You don't need skills, it comes with time and practice. The thing is, you have to not lose motivation and focus. If you lose focus and get into a demotivating state you can not make it. So stay calm, stay focused.

We like that advice very much. Leading on from that, we wanted to know what’s next for Kanzo, to which Abraiz revealed -

Character skins
Different weapons
Shooting weapons
New levels
New cinematics
Optimised gameplay
New combos
Grade system
Ambush system
XP and trophy system
Keep an 👀 out!

Ending our interview, we wanted to ask Abraiz if he wanted to include any final words for IndieBloom?

I’d like to thank IndieBloom for approaching me for this amazing interview, I have a lot to share with the world. IndieBloom gives me a fantastic opportunity to showcase my work to the world. Thank you IndieBloom once again.

No worries at all!!! We are pleased to show Kanzo to the 🌎😊

For all you hack and slash gaming fans out there, we highly recommend you to download and play Kanzo which is available for PC (various download links via Linktree). Be a part of the Discord community and leave your feedback while checking out Kanzo’s various social channels. IndieBloom is once again proud to showcase the latest indie talent coming through.