Serious Sam Preview

Hey, it's not like id, Epic, and Lith are the only ones coding away at 3D FPS worlds... Croteam has risen from relative obscurity (kinda like Arnold Schwartzenneger when he flashed his naked butt in the original Terminator and muttered out 'I'll be BACK') and has gained quite a reputation with the 3D shooter online community. And while Jason Hall and John C. are flexing their stuff and battling over the top spots, Croteam is diligently coding away and patiently waiting for their chance. And judging by the Serious Sam furiously fast single player demo, I think they're on track to achieve their goals and ambitions and even surpass them maybe. Meet Serious Sam:

Action Trip: Could you please introduce Serious Sam to the Sam-newbies?

Davor Hunski (Tools Programmer and Designer): Serious Sam is fun frantic arcade shooter. We are using our own 3D engine for it, called Serious Engine. Engine introduces some advanced 3D technologies . It is very comprehensive and we hope that it will allow creation of many new games and some great MODs for Serious Sam. The test that we introduced this year was received very well by gamers all around the world. I think that they liked our streaming for basic, somehow archaic, but very addictive playability. That's what we like. And, of course, our levels are bright, vast, and beautiful. No dark dungeons, caves, and such. Gamers had enough of corner-room-corner like games. Sam brings a kind of unconventional approach, and gamers like it.

AT: How's the net code coming along? MP demo is on its way, right?

DH: Net code is pretty much finished right now, and after preliminary testing it turned out to be very good. Of course, it has to be proven in real life gaming environments all around the world. We wanted something more than standard net code, so we went for prediction algorithms that will show off in coop gaming via modem. I don't think (at least I don't know) that any other development team has a net code with better prediction algorithms at the moment. I hope it was worth spending so much time for it. As you may noticed, it delayed MP test, but we are not back on track. I think that it won't be too long before MP test will come out.

AT: Any plans on including bots?

DH: We didn't plan for any bots, because we are concentrated mainly on single player. We will try to revive cooperative gaming, and add something new to deathmatching. Again, nothing conventional. We will try to go for another approach to DM. We will see how it turns out to be. Again, expect some experimental stuff. And note that we are much more pushing for single player experience. My opinion is that there are some very good DM only games out there and I can't see how could we beat them on their own field.

AT: Your favorite DM map in the game, and why?

DH: Unfortunately, we don't have many DM maps to compare, but I'll have to go for some levels with tweaked gravity. There are also some levels with great connectivity. They offer fluid movement, promising a lot of fun.