The following interview has been conducted in Croteam's basement. It is related to the brand new Serious Sam Fusion mod Seriously Retro - Karnak 1996.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2429128518
- Hi guys! Nice to have you here. As an old tradition, I always ask my guests to share their origin story on how and when they joined the Serious Sam community and what made them want to mod for Serious Sam. So please, share it with us.
Nitronik: Hello! Cut to way too many years back, the Serious Sam 2 demo catches my eye as a wee little lad. It was love at first sight, and I only went deeper down the rabbit hole after getting my hands on The Second Encounter shortly after. I have been following Serious Sam Fusion for a while and seeing a modding hub of sorts, plus all the work done by the community, definitely piqued my interest. Now, here I am 1000 hours later...
Movento: I had always known about Serious Sam but didn't get into it until TSE HD released. I actually won a copy of that one when a site was doing a contest by painting the Serious Bomb logo on my hand. I remember the humor, the secrets, the colorful world, and enemies to be a really nice change of pace from the more realistic shooters that were around at the time. I’ve been following the development of the series ever since. While I messed around a bit when the TSE editor launched, I didn't release a mod for Serious Sam until BFE launched.
Toxicswarm: Hey! I was a little late to the party when it comes to the Serious Sam franchise, but the frenzied gunplay immediately dragged me on board. Since 2015, I got my hands on The Second Encounter and BFE, sharing a lot of good moments and many laughs with my mates. I had a blast with Sam! Going back to a few months ago, Nitronik approached me with the idea to create a retro-mod for Serious Sam and I was totally down for it.
- So Nitronik was the guy with the initiative I sense? Nitronik Share with us how did you guys all meet and how did you decide to start working on the "Seriously Retro'' mod. What is the inspiration behind it?
Nitronik: Yep, I guess you could call me the head honcho. Toxicswarm and I go a long way back, and recently we have found another shared interest in 3D Art and Game Development in general. I was hoping he'd be interested, and it turns out I was in luck. Movento and I got in touch around the time I was working on my first Fusion mod (BFE Devolved). I was impressed with his skill and I found our personalities matched pretty well. As for how Seriously Retro came to be, I remember Movento posting some mock-ups of retro-styled BFE monsters, to which I began wondering - how feasible would it be to take a vertical slice of Sam and devolve it even further?
Our main inspiration was the "boomer shooters" of yesteryear - an honorable mention being Quake and its limits such as lack of texture filtering, needing to have as few triangles as possible per model, etc. The recent renaissance of retro shooters also played a part in sparking this fire.
- What a heartwarming story of tree amigos working together on a Serious Sam project. But now, let's focus a bit more on the future. What does the future hold for you guys related to Serious Sam? Do you plan to continue working on Seriously Retro or do you plan to move on to something different? The Serious Sam 4's editor is just around the corner.
Nitronik: Working on this project has been fun and engaging in many ways. I'd like to see what the community thinks of it and if it's something they would enjoy more of. I know I certainly would. I'm also really looking forward to seeing what SED 4 brings to the table in terms of modding capabilities. The terrain engine looks like it'll be fun to play with, and the reworked shader editor could open up some more avenues in terms of asset creation.
Movento: I'm always down to make more content! I had a blast making this mod. It's really fun to be able to create a character or a monster in a day this way. If more were to come, I'd personally love to explore new locations and enemies for Sam to travel and fight.
Toxicswarm: Thank you Law. Right now I’m working on another personal project, but I'd be down to expand on the mod with more levels/weapons and enemies – working on new locations is going to be fun. As for the SS4 editor, I'm waiting for its release to play with it a bit and see what I can come out with!
- Good to know you guys are not retiring anytime soon. Hopefully, we can enjoy your talent and the content you create with it for many years to come!
I want to thank you all for this interview and for the hard work you put into creating Serious Sam content for the community. We really appreciate it! In conclusion, I will let you share anything with our readers. It could be editor advice to new aspiring modders or a simple shout-out, the stage is yours!
Nitronik: Thank you! I'd say stay hydrated and, most importantly, if you want to dive into modding - keep the size of your project in check. It's better to finish something small and learn from your mistakes than to never finish anything. Big up! Thanks to all the selfless souls out there handing out advice and creating tutorials
Movento: Thank you! We couldn't have done this without the community who helped us whenever we had a question about the editor.
Toxicswarm: Thank you for your time, Yasen! As for the readers, remember to always be prone to learn new things and keep actively working on small projects. Learn from others, but also from the mistakes you will make. It's a wild world out there - stay safe in these hard times!
One more thing before I let you guys go. Who's idea was to add Danny as a player model?
Movento: That would be the crazy mastermind behind the project, Nitronik!
Nitronik: Uhhh... I have no recollection of such a thing.
Whoever did it, I have feedback. Add some more weight to the player model, as it's way too slim to pass for Danny! Or better, make a player model of the better-looking community manager!
Nitronik: We are deeply sorry for not including both CMs, but we couldn't reach the beauty standards required to accurately represent the other.
EDITOR’S NOTES – We both know Danny is the better-looking guy, so the mod already has the most handsome Croteamer included.