We recently had the opportunity to sit down and chat with a couple members from the Serious Sam Development team.

(PCShooter) Hello, thanks for taking the time to do this short interview with us.  Let's start by having you tell us a little bit about yourself and what your responsibility is at Croteam.

Petar Ivancek:  

2D artist

Tomislav Pongrac:  

2D/3D artist

(PCShooter) Are you at all surprised by the success Serious Sam has achieved in the last year?

Tomislav:

After Test 1 version we knew were on the right track with game and Serious Engine. The Feedback we got from publishers and gaming community was very positive and encouraging to finish game and Serious Engine.

(PCShooter) What if anything is next for the Serious game or engine?

Petar:

We continued work on the engine (upgrading it with new features, adding optimizations, fixing some critical areas...). Also we are devoted to supporting our big community, mappers, modders and programmers. We are getting great feedback from the community about game and tools that are on the game CD along feature requests to improve engine and tools.  

(PCShooter) Quake 3 has always been used to benchmark graphics cards.  People are now starting to use Serious Sam for their tests. What is it about Serious Sam that has prompted this change?

Tomislav:

Since Serious Engine uses Opengl and it can push hardware to the limits, that prompted people to use SS as a benchmarking tool. We have great relationships with graphic card manufacturers to add new features and fix some problems with their drivers and to optimize them so games will run smoothly. Engine has built in scalability meaning it will adapt to the hardware the game is running on and uses all resources possible. That makes SS great for benchmarking.

(PCShooter) Are there any map packs or add-ons in the works for Serious Sam? If so, will they include more multiplayer maps?

Tomislav:

As said, our community is large with many mods/maps in works or finished. If you go to www.planetserious.com you will find many multiplayer maps there done by mod teams or individuals.

(PCShooter) What kind of system do you need to really push Serious Sam to the max?

Petar:

Athlon 1.2Ghz, 256mb RAM and any graphic card like GeForce 3 will do :)

(PCShooter) What do you think are the Quake 3 engine's positives and negatives?

Tomislav:

Q3 engine can push many polygons, making environments detailed and rich. With that comes its down side, those environments can't be huge or open. Its network code is great and being upgraded (due to Q3 game's nature of multiplayer game). There are developers who show that variety of games can be done using Q3 engine, not just FPS.

(PCShooter) What if anything would you like to say to the Serious Sam community?

Croteam:

We would like to thank the community on the support and feedback we are getting. Our community is very loyal and expanding every day, meaning SS isn't just quick hype that will die soon. With our commitment and support SS will have its lastability which is a bonus for people who purchased our game and want more once they finish playing it.

(PCShooter) What do you think is the state of the gaming industry?

Petar:

There are many developers with great ideas and products in the works which shows that the industry is going forward. Also, besides good visuals many games released lately are actually fun to play, not boring after 30min. Developers are focusing on game play as the main idea behind the game,  not just making it look/sound pretty. With new consoles on the front, the industry can go forward with some interesting titles to appear soon both on consoles and PCs.

(PCShooter) Thanks again for your time.  We wish you continued success with this game.

Croteam:

Thank you for your interest and time. Hope you will like our next projects....

[Comment on interview] 

Visit Their Website @ http://www.croteam.com/