Hello everyone! It's been a while since the last Featured Mod, but Im sure youve been handling the wait well thanks to the juicy Talos 2 reveal that youve got! Now it's time to get serious as in this episode we are featuring another great community campaign: Crystal Impact!

Crystal Impact is a collaboration project of 17 different mappers from the Slavic Serious Sam Community Khreth! The rules are simple: each participant must continue the previous persons map with their own level while having two to three weeks to do so.

The story is the perfect warmup for the upcoming Indiana Jones movie! It follows Sam Stone himself, who finds a strange crystal that leads him on a long journey around the new power in the world, affecting different worlds and leading him to a new mysterious ally!

17 participants, 17 maps, and 10 unique worlds to explore!
On top of all that, over 50 different custom enemies from the T&C co-op pack, more than 5 bosses, and a whole load of guns!

So what are you waiting for, go ahead and start your Crystal Impact Journey!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2940322581

BASEMENT CHATS WITH YASEN

Hello Thanadrax and welcome back to the basement! Last time you were here you mentioned that you are running this collab project, well here we are a few months after its release, please tell us how challenging was it to organize a project of such scale and how happy are you with the end result.

Hey, it's Mr. Cool himself! Let's get straight to the question. To be honest, it is not the first time for me to organize some big events, and I didn't have problems with gathering and coordinating people.
The hardest part was the map pack itself. The first and the best part of the Khreth Mapping Challenge is the challenge term. No matter how skilled you are in modding - either a newbie or an experienced mapper, you have to make a level within quite a narrow timespan. It doesn't sound that hard on the first side - however, people forgot that they work on one map pack, together. Initially, there were 22 of us, others pretty much got scared of "group pressure" and abandoned us. It is understandable, since, once you realize that there are 17 more mappers waiting for your entry and it might not be that good at first, you begin to stress. It was my fault since I forgot to tell them about the polishing phase after everyone contributes to the project, and I will initially mention that in the next challenge.

Another hard part for me in terms of organizing was managing a common project vision. Many participants tried to change the direction of the mod's idea and gameplay, turning it into something else - be it a quick low resources shooter or puzzle-driven map, I had to explain that we are making a simple, Croteam - like a map pack with some funny story. I still can't believe everyone agreed on it almost instantly and got to fix their mistakes a few days later. I am happy with what came out of it, for sure.

Congratulations on being able to manage all this and having a mutual agreement from everyone about the project's direction, that is rare. So this project was organized within the Khreth community but people outside of it were invited to join and participate if they had the desire to do so, how would you describe your community to those who are wondering if they should join it?

Thanks! Regards Khreth... it's hard to answer, but I'll try! Khreth initially was a roleplay-driven discord server for Slavic countries since 2017. In 2019, I opened a public branch for my friends to both play and roleplay on the same server so we don't have to hop from one place to another. In 2020, I divided the server into roleplay and non-roleplay sections, so people interested in games/creativity could keep themselves cozy without worrying about being "out of topic".

Khreth became a community in 2021 when I lowered the "curtains" and started letting everyone in. While it all sounds easy, the hardest part is to keep the very unique wave of community activity. It's a heavy task, sometimes you have to get rid of some people tending to break it apart, and sometimes you catch yourself on some organizing mistakes or even paranoia issues since you begin to see some kind of "enemy" in every single newbie. Regards that, I can give a simple but effective advice - let everyone in, community will eventually push out those who do not belong in here.

Thank you for the answer! And now let's head to the project participants and hear about their experience working on the project! But actually, before we do this, the stage is all yours to share anything you wish with the Croteam Community!

I would like to thank Croteam for creating such amazing games which still inspire others to make something wonderful. No matter how far will I go from mod-making, Croteam games are forever in my heart. Talos 2 let's goooo!!!


LisSen
[quote=Mauritsio]
Participation in this challenge is something that I will remember for a long time. It was very cool to work with so many modders, where everyone supported each other. Since I was first on the list, I tried to make the map simple and introductory, like a little practice before the main content, and I think I got a good result.

Of the interesting stories, one can single out the story of crossbowmen. On the day of release, everyone complained about the crossbowmen on the towers with the phrase "fucking crossbowmen!", as they were almost invisible and difficult to kill. I fixed this problem, but now there are letters on the towers saying that there used to be crossbowmen there.

In conclusion, I want to say a special thank you to Riba4ok13, who made me participate in the challenge, Thanadrax for hosting this challenge, and to all members of the Khreth server for a warm welcome. See you!
[/quote]

Cyborg
[quote=Mauritsio]
Ooh, it was a wonderful experience! I would love to repeat it!
I really liked this unusual format, where each participant continues the plot of the campaign, and he is given 2 weeks for this. It was interesting to see who did what and what card you should make as the queue approached.

And so, when it was my turn, the campaign was in a very interesting position, where it was necessary to make a slightly more coherent story, summarizing all the previous ones, and at the same time make such a map that the player got out somewhere from another world.
I had to replay all the previous maps, collect all the Netricsa messages, generalize, try to patch up the holes, and think through the details. And then do the first section in the other world, the boss fight, and then a more relaxed walk on the moon, to the beautiful soundtrack of Final Fantasy 14. Oh yes, and, of course, do not forget to hide the secret room with the rabbit statue and the gallery. [/quote]


BuIlDaLiBlE:
[quote=Mauritsio]
Working as a mapper in a group project was the first for me, this was also a very solid reason for why I chose to participate. I think the group effort thing is what made other people want to participate and while the ride was a bit rough, I honestly believe everyone did a great job and that's what really shows that humans are indeed social beings that can do really cool stuff together. I was very glad to be a part of the effort, so I'm looking forward to the next Khreth Mapping Challenge next year.
[/quote]

Riba4ok13
[quote=Mauritsio]
Personally, I enjoyed participating in the Crystal Impact. It's a good way to get a feel for teamwork on one big project. The very idea of sequentially creating maps based on the ending of the previous map is pretty cool. And the most important thing in my opinion is the final polishing of each map and bringing the whole project to an overall quality.

Of the interesting stories along the way, I can only mention my shock at the quality of the map, after which I had to make my own, although it only gave me inspiration. So I worked really hard to keep up with the increased quality of the previous map. It was my second map of all time. And so, when I was finished with the visuals on the map, I was very surprised with the results. I even asked myself, "Did I create it?". I hope that in the future there will be more projects like this, where you can get together in the company of mappers and do something great and just have a good time during development. [/quote]

$uper_Dimann$
[quote=Mauritsio]

This is my first time participating in this kind of event in Serious Sam, and, to be honest, there are a lot of emotions. When I found out that I was in the middle of the queue, I exhaled at the same time, because I understood that in the middle of the map pack the gameplay could be made more dynamic, and after a while, I experienced a feeling of impatience. I wanted to make a map as soon as possible and go to rest. As soon as some of us began to leave the challenge for our own reasons, I was seriously worried.

Well, as soon as it was my turn, I, as if at the snap of a finger, rushed into the editor and sat there until two in the morning, which I do not recommend. I was so afraid of not being on time that I riveted my card in 2 days, becoming the fastest of the participants in the entire challenge. Thanks to this, we saved many days, and the map pack came out much earlier than it could have come out. Before submitting the level, I caught a bunch of errors, which caused the level to crash, and I thought that everything was over. However, I still searched for a solution all my free time, and luck smiled at me.

And so the level turned out - Blooming Plateau. Thank you for your attention. [/quote]

Effect of Parasha
[quote=Mauritsio]
Khreth Mapping Challenge for me fell on a very difficult time - the first job, the weekend spent all the time for the editor, and 10 hours of work on the map.
But despite the lack of time, it was a hell of a lot of fun. It was the first time I participated in something so big, I was able to communicate and work with many people in our community who seemed to me inaccessible before.

Of the stories, perhaps the most interesting relates to the 6th level, which was made by Artem-41. His unique vision of his own map was completely out of the mood of the then existing 5 levels and simply flew away towards the sci-fi setting at the speed of characters from Quake. After a while, he redid the map and that's when it sparkled with new colors: mysticism and technology of aliens, the story of Zorg mercenaries, and the continuation of the plot.

I enjoyed working together, discussing the story, and playing maps in co-op. Khreth - in itself turned out to be a small and pleasant community gathered from Serious Sam's fans and not only. Maybe you will also join and participate in the second KMC? Will wait! [/quote]

Andrey Kustov
[quote=Mauritsio]
KMC presented a great experience of developing your own map in a short time. This is an indescribable feeling of belonging to something more, revealing talents and creativity to an absolute beginner in mapping. I immediately understood that the first pancake would come out lumpy. So what to do? Pressing on what you know best - narrative.

The map was supposed to emphasize the atmosphere of the doomed place. In the past, many cataclysms happened on Earth, but life always won. Everything is different here.
I wanted the players to feel what Mental's victory really means.
The planet is waiting for a resurrection, a new dawn that will never come. It seems to me that this thought has always been the underside of the Serious Sam universe.
[/quote]

It's time to play some Tennis, Serious Sam style!

The 7Smoke Tennis project was the first collaboration project of this kind in the Serious Sam community where several mappers come together to create a unique Serious Sam experience. Each map has been made by a different mapper, picking up where the last map left off (passing it to each other just like a tennis ball!), thus creating great variety in map style and level pacing.

There are a total of 6 Tennis Projects, all of them organized by none other than Noam 2000!
The first 3 tennis projects were on a smaller scale, with Tennis 1 and 2 had six participants and Tennis 3 having four, with all rounds released in a span of 2 months between each other.

Tennis 4 in 2016 is where things started expanding, with 14 mappers working on the project. The campaign now had a whole thoughtfully fleshed-out story, and more quality control was being done on the levels. The story takes place in an alternate timeline where Earth is destroyed by one of Mental's elite commanders: "Solgar", as Serious Sam chases him across the galaxy to exact his revenge. It was the first tennis project to feature a cast of voice actors, with one of them being John J Dick himself, playing the role of Serious Sam!

After one year break from Tennis, in the Summer of 2017, Noam opened the registrations for the 7Smoke Tennis Project 2018! Due to 20 participants applying for it, Noam took the decision to split the project into 2 separate campaigns: the 7Smoke Tennis Project Blue and Project Red, with each one of them having 10 modders.

The Tennis Blue campaign is more heavily focused on the battles and the custom range of heavy artillery with which the player can blast through the forty different enemy types including bosses!

Traverse through desolated fortresses, frozen caverns, and advanced technological strongholds - to name a few. As you travel through these domains, searching for its hidden secrets, its inhabitants will come into play - a fully voice-acted cast of characters serve to weave a story about a forsaken realm burnt by a devious tyrant and his warriors, and the player character's journey to carry the legacy of those who have met with an unfortunate fate. And to make things even spicier, in this mod, your choices matter and lead to different endings.

While not a prequel or sequel to its Blue sibling, Tennis Red has a larger focus on the story and an overarching narrative. The year is 2165, and thanks to ancient intervention, the reach, power, and influence of the human race across the galaxy have become much greater than anyone could have imagined.

Red editions story takes place in three distinct locations in three different chapters:

• Parsart, a purple-clad planet unable to support human life, but is full of fantastical creatures.
  
• Zalgun, once overflooded with rainforests but is now a barren desert with the occasional abandoned stronghold.
  
• Finally, the campaign climaxes at the ever-so-familiar Earth. Theres plenty of exploration to be had in these locations but more importantly, a lot of frantic action as well.
  

Hello and welcome to the first Featured Mod episode for 2023!

In todays episode, we won't highlight a single map, but a whole package of them that we recommend you guys to check out. Today we are highlighting a contest organized by SeriousSite.ru called Jingle Bombs 2022.

Jingle Bombs 2022 is a contest in which the contestants have to create a single-player or a cooperative map with a Christmas theme. The creation that captures the spirit of the Holiday the best and has the most effort put into it, gets the top prize.


The top 3 ranked maps are:

Winner - "Break the Loop" for Classic: TSE by Cr1sTaL
2nd Place - "Stolen Snow" for Serious Sam Fusion by Riba4k13
3rd Place - "On the eve" for Classic: TSE by TesLineX

Those maps deserve a featured mod article of their own, but as I've said today, we will focus on the contest as a whole, so I strongly recommend heading over to the SeriousSite.ru website and giving those maps and also the rest of the ones submitted for the contest a check. There are a total of 8 submissions: four maps for Classic: The Second Encounter, three maps for Serious Sam Fusion, and one map for Siberian Mayhem.
Now you have plenty of variety and Serious Content to play in the upcoming snowy days!

In todays basement chat, we will talk with the contests organizer whos also a member of TimeLock Studio: Ar2R-devil-PiNKy! This is just one of the competitions that he has organized. He has been doing mapping contests since 2010 on various themes such as: Speedrun, RetroWave, Escape, Horror, Puzzles, and many many more. You can check all those competitions and maps on the SeriousSite.ru website. Now lets head to the basement and talk with Ar2R-devil-PiNKy about all this stuff!

Link to the maps: https://www.serioussite.ru/forum/33-3959-1

BASEMENT CHATS WITH YASEN

Hello everyone! It's an honor for me to welcome our first guest in the basement for 2023- Ar2R-devil-PiNKy! He is a co-founder of SeriousSite.ru and a member of TimeLock Studio. He has been organizing contests and activities for Serious Sam for way too many years now!

Welcome Pinky, nice to have you here finally. I've known you for many years now as we have co-hosted some community activities back in the day. Please introduce yourself to those of the community members that don't know you. When did you become a community member and when was the first time you started getting involved in creating community activities?

Hello Yasen, thank you for inviting me. My name is Arthur, I've been a fan of the series for more than 20 years, and have been modding for more than 17 years. I think probably every fan has come across at least one of my works, be it maps, mods, art, video content, etc. I became a member of the community back in 2009 when I was just connected to a good stable Internet. Loved playing Serious Sam 2 a lot, and during one of the co-op sessions I met two guys, they were ZIM and ALEX. ZIM introduced me to a website that he had just created. That's how it all started. The first contests were held by my friends, but a few years later I decided to make this event an annual one (with honorary members of the jury, of course). And a few years ago we added an additional second contest for every new year.

You've had quite a long journey! There have been over 15 mapping contests. Which ones hold a special place in your heart and you would strongly suggest to the community to try? My personal favorites would be "Brainiacs" and "Manhunt".

Oh, honestly it's hard to give an answer to such a question, since each contest has its own gems, heh. I would advise to start with "Treasure World", "Brainiacs", "RetroSeriousWave" and "Masters of Horror" - that's my favorite ones.

How would you rate last year's two contests that you hosted: "Please fly" and "Jingle Bombs 2022", in terms of community activity (submissions) and quality of maps? I'm interested in hearing from you since you have been a member of the community for such a long time, what do you think about the state of the Serious Sam community currently, and is there something that you think we can all do to improve it further?

Very solid. Did not even expect that there would be such a number of works. Mappers never cease to amaze with their ideas. I think the state of the Serious Sam community is more or less good now. Of course, due to the long time interval between the release of the main games of the series (Serious Sam 3: BFE and Serious Sam 4), a lot of time has passed and a lot of people have come and left, but this is a common thing. Sometimes old members who have left the community come back- once a fan of Sam, always a fan of Sam. People just need to be nice to each other and, if possible, not to disturb others too much with their Marsh-Hoppers in their heads.

Very well said, people should always be nice to each other. Its been almost 14 years now since you joined the community and you are now part of TimeLock Studio, and Croteam and you also have your own personal life. What motivates you to keep doing this volunteer work for the community and still be so engaged on all fronts?

The community itself. It's always nice to bring a little piece of joy to your favorite game and share it with others, and the process of creating something is still very exciting, even if there is very little free time for it now. It was also influenced by the fact that since the age of three I have been burning with the desire to create my own games (and in secret, I am slowly going to this) and Serious Sam modding has become a confident starting point in all this.

Speaking of creating games, you now have a Serious Sam game behind your back! Could you please share some behind-the-scenes pieces of information on Siberian Mayhem: how did you join the project and what is your overall experience of working on it and having Croteam's support for it.

Sleepless nights and lots of fun. The story is quite simple, Kadath offered me to work on the project and I agreed. And sure I can tell you something interesting behind-the-scenes. You won't believe it! One day [REDACTED] and he, like, [REDACTED]. We look at [REDACTED] scene, and after that, we decide [REDACTED] until it's done. We finished at 4 o'clock in the morning (according to my time) and the result was great

Well, I'm sure the community will love it so much once they read all this spicy information exclusively here in the Featured Mod article! Thank you for sharing it all. Now that we have covered Siberian Mayhem and the contests, I have to ask you about my personal favorite work of yours Samolash. Do you plan on doing another episode and if yes then when can we expect one? Please tell me soon, the world needs more of it!

I am very glad that you liked it. Unfortunately, I can't give an exact date when, but I do aim to finish work on a new episode sometime in 2024. A lot of ideas have accumulated for the new episode and I'm hoping it will turn out to be the biggest and most interesting one! Moreover, new games have been added to the series and this is a huge scope for new jokes and parodies. And by the way, just like last time, I accept work from everyone who wants to participate in a new episode!

Exclusive news right here: Samolash is returning in 2024! I think we have gone through most of the topics, so I have to ask you: what does the future hold for you? What are your future goals and things you would like to achieve in the upcoming 1-2 years? Should we also expect more contests?

Hehe, the jury members and I have already come up with themes for the following contests for years ahead. For example, the "Please Fly 2022" contest concept was invented in 2020. Annual contests have already become a SeriousSite legacy and we are not going to stop. We also have plans for other things, but it's too early to talk about them yet.

Happy to hear that there are no plans of you stopping any time soon. I would like to thank you for coming by the basement and having a chat with me. I can't wait to see the future content from you. For the finale, by tradition, the stage is yours to address the community. Share anything you wish for them or simply give shout-outs! See you in the next episode everyone!

Thank you Yasen, and thank you handsome stranger who read this right now. Bye!

Welcome to the Christmas episode of "Featured Mod" series!

Today we will spotlight Spy's Cr3ed's Christmas themed campaign: "Winter Wonderland"!

Winter Wonderland takes place in an alternate timeline where Serious Sam did not manage to find the Holy Grail so he had to continue his adventures through the snowy world of Winter Wonderland.
The campaign has just been updated this Winter, getting many quality of life improvements such as visual updates, enhanced boss fights, and some of the most known bugs and requested changes

We highly recommend this Christmas campaign and we advise you to enjoy it with some milk and cookies. You can also call your friends for some co-op mayhem!
As always, dont forget to read the interview with Spy's Cr3ed in which he shares his experience with the creation of the campaign and his struggles from being a beginner modder to a well established veteran now.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! See you in 2023 with more "Featured Mod" articles!

Link to the campaign: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2811668527

BASEMENT CHATS WITH YASEN
HO-HO-HO! Happy Holidays everyone! Today we are speaking with a fellow countryman from Bulgaria, so I didn't need to drag him to my basement from afar. Please greet Spy's Creed!

Welcome to the basement Spy, please introduce yourself to those who don't know you. Since when are you a part of the Serious Sam community and when did you start modding for the game?

Hola Yasen, a fellow bulgar! I'm the one whose name has always been misspelled. On a serious note, I'm mainly known as a modder and recently as an animator as well. I've dedicated a good time of my childhood to modding with trials and errors and overall this has been a very fun and challenging experience. What brought me to modding was a misclick back in the day. I've always been wondering what's the purpose of the other executable icons until I ended up opening the Editor and my curiosity increased even more!

You have mostly specialized in making weapon animations and they are indeed very good. What encouraged you to create a whole campaign such as Winter Wonderland? What was the experience of working on such a big project?

I've always wanted to make some kind of campaign. I love the creativity you can put into the visuals and the way you can create interesting gameplay with proper balance and gimmicks. The only problem is that this takes a lot of time and you really gotta know what makes a map look and play interesting. Working on Winter Wonderland was a very awesome experience. A lot of stuff was constantly changing. The first idea was to just make a short map that represents one of the Serious Sam Xbox cutscenes but extended into a level. Later this turned into a concept for an entire campaign. Due to the scale of the project, I've always had concerns if it's worth it, if I can even make it, and so on, which led to some delays in the release date.

Now it's time to introduce Anna "Musearys" Lazarev who was remaking some of the Serious Sam soundtracks and posting them on CT. I remember that she asked if somebody was interested in her remixes being included in people's maps. I decided to give it a shot and showed her the concept and work in progress. She apparently liked it so much that she offered to compose an entire OST for the campaign which was very surprising, so why not give it a try, let's go wild! Besides being a composer, I met a real friend in her. She's been with me since the beginning and I'm very glad that she wasnt even concerned about giving up because it took a while. I'm not gonna lie, it took time until the release. Her work was one of the greatest motivations to actually cross the line of just abandoning yet another project. I was consistently watching how she kept improving with her music, which really made me push the campaign's visuals and gameplay as well. I wanted the soundtrack quality to complement the campaign's quality.

Anna has become a huge part of the community by doing a great job at community projects and also composing for Siberian Mayhem! Now that the campaign is a year old, do you plan on putting all the experience you have gained into another campaign or do you plan on putting it into some other project?

I have a few projects in mind, yeah. Some are in progress, but I don't have as much free time anymore as I used to before. It's not like I'm super busy, but it's just not the same. So yeah the future will show what new I can bring into the workshop I would love to. One of the most publicly known projects Im currently working on is Jungle Inferno for Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem. We've already had alpha testing and people liked it. Unfortunately, they just don't realize how much more work is required to be the way I want it to be. I can describe it as If Serious Sam 2 and Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope were merged into one. I really love the art style of both and it seems very fitting with each other

You mentioned starting modding young. What are some pieces of advice that you would give to the young and new modders, now that you have left all this experience behind?

Something I'd highly suggest is: START EASY! Don't go for an ultra-massive project. I know that your mind can go wild and you want to try everything, but I can almost guarantee you the burnout you'll feel with it and later the failure. If you want to make a level, cool, go for it, but let it be something that you can realistically continue working on until it's finished. Always listen to the feedback and consider applying it if it's reasonable enough. Most of the beginner modders are having this mindset that constructive feedback is a form of hate, which is NOT! Feedback is what will drastically improve your mods and you as a modder. Another thing that is community-related is that when you're asking for help, be polite and patient! Mind you that most of the modders you praise are way older than you so try to not make them feel bothered.

That is actually a very good piece of advice I totally agree with. Okay Spy, my Bulgarian brother, I would like to thank you for coming to my basement and having this interview. Lets wrap it up and open a bottle of rakija, but before that, please wish something to our dear readers for the Holiday and feel free to shout out to anyone, the stage is all yours!

If you ended up here then I guess you've read it all which is kinda epic. I hope you found anything from that interview useful and uhh.. that's about it. Happy Holidays!! I wish everyone good luck, happiness, and success in the new 2023 year! Thanks to everybody who has helped me in the past. I really do appreciate the people who had the nerve to handle me wow... UrbanDeHuman, DeadKadath, and absolutely everybody else!

Hello in another Featured Mod episode! Today we are featuring Thanadrax's survival map "Blood Sugar". Make no mistake, as this is no ordinary survival map. It works as a rogue lite, exploration project. The players are free to explore, do quests and fight bosses in a pace of their desire.

The progression goes through 11 tiers consisting of 4 quests each until the player conquers the whole island! There are 100 quests and 31 bosses you get to enjoy. It is possible to beat this survival map. The reason for it being a survival map and not a campaign one is, as mentioned before, to have a rogue lite feeling to it and the players to value their lifes.

Make sure to check the level and the rest of Thana's survival map collections. Also do not forget to read the Basement Chat with Yasen, its a pretty good one!

Link to mod: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2342502363

BASEMENT CHATS WITH YASEN
Hello everyone and welcome to the new Featured Mod episode! Today in my basement I've dragged a modder with a huge backlog of workshop items. She has made many map campaigns, game modes, and player models, but today were focusing on her survival game modes, and she has tons of good ones! Welcome, Thanadrax!

Hello Thana, please tell us the beginning of the journey that led you to have numerous Serious Sam mods. What inspired you to start modding for our games?

Hello! Get ready for a long story, which I'll gladly tell. Since childhood, I wanted to create something like my own world in one form or another. Due to age, I had very low skills in modding. I started from making maps for Warcraft 3 and eventually got to Serious Sam. I always wanted to make a map for Serious Sam, but I thought that it's very complicated and I wouldn't be able to even process how this editor works. Also in the past, there was no proper mapping guide. In 2012, I found out that the Serious Sam series has communities and my very first community was 7smoke. And hey, it was you who found me! I still have no idea how.
Ive met many awesome people out there and eventually, I started making my first map since I had seen everyone around doing it. I was around 13 years old. Surely I used to have quite explosive behaviour leading to some... incidents, but I'm still very grateful to such people like Noam who led me through the road of map making to what I have now and see me grow as a person. 7smoke Tennis was one of the best ways to start modding, since you felt yourself being a part of something bigger- and it was absolutely fun. Many things happened in my life around nine years after these days, and I can safely say that my main inspiration for the source of modding for Serious Sam is the game itself and its community. It's just what I will always cling to.

I guess I have an eye for people if It was me who found you! I could sense you were once a Warcraft 3 modder. That game was also one of the first communities in which I participated. I used to organise events there, play tons of mods and despite Sam or WC3 being such different games, I think many Serious Sam modders were in some way influenced by Warcraft, it is a game really dear to my heart. I was really happy to see this Warcraft 3 influence in mods of yours, for example the "Blood Sugar" survival map includes Warcraft SFX and also your survival map "Forest Scout" gave me "Enfo" vibes. Are there other games that serve as inspiration for your game mods?

You were right about Enfo's inspiration regarding Forest Scout. That indeed was a shout to this map. Some games which inspire me the most even now are Final Fantasy XIV, Elden Ring, and Binding of Isaac. FFXIV is a great MMORPG that has many emotional stories, some of which I would have wanted to retell in Serious Sam. Mortal Instants is entirely based on FFXIV's OST emotions. Elden Ring is the most recent Souls game, and, as I am a big fan of the Souls series. Its world-building and gross creatures inspire me to do something memorable. Some of my old survival maps for BFE were made with heavy inspiration from Souls games. Binding of Isaac is an absolute RNG fest, and boy this is what inspires me - randomness. Blood Sugar was made with the thought of being as repeatable as possible rogue-like survival. And, well, Serious Sam itself is a big source of inspiration! Emotions you have when you play this game, especially SS4 and SM- that is something I wouldn't have gotten in any other game.

You mentioned 7smoke Tennis. How does it feel to work on a collab mod? Which are your favourite collabs that you have done and would you recommend to new modders to try work on a collab?

It's both scary and intriguing! Well, for the first time. Once you get some experience, you eagerly get to work on your part. It's so much fun! If it is such a collab as Tennis, people are going crazy with story twists and effort put in maps. I will never forget 7smoke Tennis for its "Oh come on not the wake up from the sleep story again!" moments. It was so unexpected and ridiculous. In fact, working on a collab mod is not only funnier but also easier and more valuable. I myself always work in collaboration with Cyborg.SeriousSite and while I work on level design and enemies, he is doing the coding wonders for our projects. Then cool things are born after that. Would I recommend such an experience to new modders? Actually, I'd say that they have to try it out! You can participate in something big and ask others for help, suggestions and advice. This is what usual map-making lacks a lot. 7smoke Tennis 4 was my favourite collab from the past which, despite not being really the best map pack ever, left many positive memories. I want more people to enjoy this experience as much as possible, so now from April of this year I hold Khreth Mapping Challenge- a spiritual successor of 7smoke Tennis with refreshed rules. 17 participants are there. 14 have already submitted their maps!

Make sure to hit me up once the mapping challenge is finished so we can do coverage of it, sounds really exciting! I'm really happy to hear about more collab events taking place as they really create a sense of community and I think they are the perfect place for new modders to learn and improve their craft, as long as everyone is open minded about helping them. Moving forward now- we mentioned your huge backlog of mods. Which of those hold a special place in your heart and would totally recommend for people to play?

Noted. Can I just say to check every mod of mine right after 2018? I think that 2018 is the year when I started making mods for fun. There are several mods which I would recommend others to play if they want to get to know my mods. Except for 666 Darkness Way. No. Don't play it. T&C Co-Op gamemode is a number one mod that turns every session into a chaotic experience. Grab your friends, start Lobby level, set some options in the terminal and get going. Many possibilities for unique situations and experiences- this is what I always wanted to see in Serious Sam. Then, I want to recommend The Warchaser- a 2 levels campaign for Serious Sam Siberian Mayhem, where I pushed attention to enemy balance and classic formula. And lastly, Blood Sugar. It requires a lot of workshop items to play, but they are used properly - many new enemies are appearing in certain quests to spice things up. And doing quests in Serious Sam is not something you would usually see. There is a magnum opus of mine in the works, which is Project TSIR. I have been making this mod for 5 years already and hope to see it released in... far future. This mod should be my last big mod for Sam, concluding everything I made and always wanted to make. But not the last mod in general! Mapping collabs and survival maps will always be out as long as I have access to SED, haha!

I'm glad you mentioned those future projects of yours, because my next question was going to be about your future. What can the community expect from you in regard to mods and what are your plans even outside of modding?

It's so scary! The future, I mean. I might disappear for a few months next year, but after that I'll come back and push out plenty of stuff to the workshop. But, anyways, back to the topic. I plan to make more survival maps for Serious Sam 4 and Siberian Mayhem. Gameplay in these two games is just made for survival- it is very fun and just right to spend some hour or two by playing survival! Besides, every year I plan to host Khreth Mapping Challenges for the community to get more into mapping and release big campaigns. And now to the main point... TSIR. This mod, while being in development for a while, is still in early development. It is supposed to be a 40+ levels campaign with hundreds of new enemies, plenty of new weapons, and even skill mechanics. We will also implement an achievements system, but it would stay exclusive to my Discord server, since achievements are stored inside the Discord server channel. Currently, weve made around 11 levels, 30+ enemies, and three new weapons, thanks to Cyborg.SeriousSite and Bazar. This mod was supposed to be a remake of the infamous Thana's Insanity mod, but after a few levels, I decided to make it a different thing. Outside of Sam, I plan to make a game based on Blood Sugar gameplay. A recent Microworks release proved to me that it is possible to turn a mod into a game. Whatever else comes to my mind- be assured, I do not plan to leave the community or the game. I've got a job recently, and it's making me happy to know that, after getting back home, I can spend some time in Serious Sam, editor, and aged like a wine Supernatural TV series.

I wish you all the best in the future and I can't wait to see and play all your future work. We are at the end of this interview. I want to thank you for coming to the basement. I hope you find it good and comfy. For the finale as usual, feel free to share whatever you want with the community or do shoutouts! See you in the next Christmas Special episode my dear readers!

Serious Sam has a considerably small community. Stay together, don't go crazy for little dramas, and let newbies shine like stars. I would like to thank Cyborg.SeriousSite for being my number one person, and also CT Discord, SeriousSite, 7smoke, Khreth communities.
And, most importantly, thank you Yasen! Your basement talks are motivating people to do more original and unique mods. Expect more mods coming soon!

Special Reserve Games has teamed up with Devolver Digital and Croteam to create outstanding physicals!

This is a PREORDER for a physical product. Estimated shipping date is NOVEMBER 2022.

At the heart of our SERIOUS SAM COLLECTION is SRG's signature RESERVE EDITION for the game, which is LIMITED TO 3,000 COPIES and features:

SWITCH CARTRIDGE
Includes critical updates, patches, and DLC at the time of manufacture
INCLUDES MULTIPLE GAMES
Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter
Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter
Serious Sam 3: BFE
includes The Legend of the Beast expansion
includes Jewel of the Nile expansion
SEQUENTIALLY NUMBERED GAME PACKAGING
REVERSIBLE JACKET ARTWORK
SHIPS IN A SPECIAL RESERVE BOX
Makes a great shelf display and protects your game
SPECIAL RESERVE ART CARD
Exclusive Reserve-only art card
Metallic paper (4" x 6") with foil treatment
24-PAGE INSTRUCTION BOOKLET
Inside the shrink-wrapped game packaging

SERIOUS SAM COLLECTION is also available in an SRG SINGLE, and a SPECIAL RESERVE ART PRINT for the game is available as well.

PREORDER NOW! Only 3,000 copies of the SERIOUS SAM COLLECTION physical Reserve are available, while supplies last.

Hello everyone! Its been a while since the last featured mod article, but Im sure Serious Sam Siberian Mayhem has been keeping you occupied with some serious action.

Let's escape the heatwaves and take ourselves to the cold mountains in ArtemPredators Serious Sam Fusion campaign- Operation Frostbite"


The campaign's storyline is easy to follow- you are in Siberia looking for commander Borok, one of Mental's most dangerous commanders. All you have to do is find him and kill him, as simple as that. The gameplay however spices things up a little bit more as the map pack includes a handful of exclusive new custom weapons such as the "Blaster" rifle and some new toys for you to play with, like a battle mech! Have I mentioned that this campaign is for Serious Sam Fusion?

This mod is definitely worth checking out, give it a shot by subscribing here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2590872471

And now for something completely different

BASEMENT CHATS WITH YASEN


Hey everyone and welcome to another Basement Chat episode. Today I'm welcoming a guest who comes all the way from Siberia and that guest is ArtemPredator!

Hey Artem, nice to have you here. Please introduce yourself to the community- when did you join the Serious Sam community and when was the first time you decided to give Serious Sam modding a shot?

Hello there. I'm SilverPredator (or Artem, or Chrysalis). I joined Serious Sam's community many years ago (somewhere in 2011-2012). I was playing Serious Sam a lot that time, all games I had.
I really like many maps and mods made by the community and always dreamed about making something by myself.
I tried to learn the Serious Sam Editor by myself, but it seems I was too... young for it? Or just didn't understand some parts of it. Luckily, my very good friend Thanadrax helped me to make my first level in Fusion, which looks at least OK (my first survival map). It wasn't my first work at all, but it was my first work which looked really nice. And then... it all started = )


Operation Frostbite is pretty lengthy and big in content, when did you start working on the campaign and how long did it take you to finish it?

Well, with enemies and weapons I worked by myself (except Mossberg shotgun, which was animated by my friend Bazar- author of SS4 weapon pack for Fusion).
A huge support I got in development is scripts. Thanks a lot to my friend YANexus who taught me how to write scripts and how they can be used. It's pretty difficult work, but actually very interesting.
And of course I got a lot of feedback from the community on my WIPs in Croteam Discord server and SeriousSite Discord Server.
I took resources for models from sites with downloadable free models. Unfortunately, I don't know how to make models... not like shish....
And I also should say about Mr.Ogurchick who also helped me with making some secrets for my mod.

I am also very grateful to John J. DIck for agreeing to participate in the voice acting of the project. I was a bit shy to write to him, but he is a very nice guy. I even offered him a cash reward, which I saved up in advance. But he refused and did everything only for gratitude and very high quality.
I was very surprised and flattered by the fact that he did this for my project, which I still consider not as professional as the work of other modders.


It's always great when modders help one another and John has always been such a sweetheart when it comes to the Serious Sam Community. He takes a lot of his free time to provide voice where needed.
What does the future hold for you Artem? Do you plan to do another Campaign but maybe this time for Serious Sam 4 or maybe something else?

I am currently working on 2 projects for Fusion, both should be sequels of Frostbite.
But this time I'm trying to make something... different.... I really like to make experiments in the Serious Editor and experiment with some of the script functions which lead me to some interesting results. For the first one- I'm trying to make Serious Sam only a 3rd person game. It has a lot of script functions, but not enough to be playable with comfort.
But, actually, for now this project develops slower than Frostbite. All because I'm making experiments and... yeah... study of course. :3
About Serious Sam 4, I would like to work in it, but unfortunately for me, my PC isn't strong enough for this game. It's sad actually, because SS4 has some fixes for functions and vehicles, which Fusion doesn't have. I could even try to make something for SS4, but for now there are only 2 projects in my mind. I just can't think about anything else for now. I hope I will be able to finish them at some point in the future.


Great to hear that you are full of ideas and I'm really looking forward to what you will create next, wishing you the best of luck in that! As for the interview finale, feel free to share anything you want with our readers!


Dont be afraid to start! I really like to see when the community makes new content for the games. I used to be a newbie too (well, I'm actually still : D), but I wanna say- don't be shy to try. Most of the community will help you, show you your issues and will help you fix them!.
That was actually how I learned and am still learning Editor now.

Hi Everyone,

I have explosive Serious Sam news to share with you. Serious Sam: Kamikaze Attack! has launched on Steam! The game was first released 10 years ago on mobile as a part of the Serious Sam indie series, but over time the game slowly disappeared from the stores. As the games developer it was painful to see it fade away. Fans have been sending in requests to keep the game alive and it was haunting me that I couldnt revive the game until now. Ill finally be able to rest peacefully knowing the hordes of headless kamikazes are back at their jobs of chasing down Serious Sam.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1623420/Serious_Sam_Kamikaze_Attack/

Its an honor to bring Serious Sam: Kamikaze Attack! to Steam for you to play. If you have any questions or want to chat about the game please feel free to post in the games community group or join Croteams Discord server.

Thanks for playing!

Brad Johnson
Be-Rad Entertainment

[previewyoutube=rOvbHwicQdU;full][/previewyoutube]

Hi everyone! Its been a while since we last featured a mod on these here pages, but times are tough. The pandemic, a new game release (check out Serious Sam 4 if you havent already, my guy), and a bunch of earthquakes all had an impact on what's happening in and around Croteam. However, we havent forgotten about our great modding community or the players who enjoy them. It just so happens that another cool mod has landed on the Serious Sam Fusion Workshop today, and what makes that one special is that Im a playable character.

All jokes aside, Seriously Retro: Karnak 1996 is an absolutely amazing total conversion mod which takes you back in time. Sam is super low-poly again, and hes revisiting his old friends in the Karnak Temple. As the authors say, the mod brings a bunch of changes to the original, which include reworked battles, secrets, and traps, as well as environments. The mod is even ready for VR!

Check out this cool Seriously Retro - Karnak 1996 trailer below, then grab your mice or put on your VR headsets, and get shootin.

[previewyoutube=wL0gzOupRZ8;full][/previewyoutube]

For more info on the mod, please visit Seriously Retro - Karnak 1996 on Steam Workshop.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2429128518

With that being said, wed like to take this chance to introduce to you a brand new section we like to call Basement chats with Yasen. Yasen has been locked up under the Croteam HQ and luring in prey for weeks. The first ones to fall for his traps are the authors of todays featured mod. Nitronik, Movento, and ToxicSwarm spoke about the motivation behind the mod and gave us a little insight into how it came to be. Read more below.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/564310/view/3044969559720189843

Are you making Serious Sam or The Talos Principle mods yourself? Reach out to our community team directly via Discord, or holler at us via Twitter - @croteam, @serioussamiam, @danny_hr, and @yasenstavrev.

Much love from Croteam!
Danny

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. Ive 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 Im 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.

EDITORS NOTES We both know Danny is the better-looking guy, so the mod already has the most handsome Croteamer included.

Hey everyone!

I'm pretty sure many of you have already seen what's up by today, but here's a breakdown.

Serious Sam 4 is launching this August, and pre-orders are open now. You can get your hands on a Standard and Digital Deluxe editions with cool bonuses. The store page has a ton of new info and some new screenshots, so check it out!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/257420/Serious_Sam_4

We have released a cinematic trailer, as well as a few behind the scenes videos that show some actual gameplay. Both are listed below.

[previewyoutube=qhBUvRhaA4U;full][/previewyoutube]

[previewyoutube=6C8kJ78H_Qs;full][/previewyoutube]

Love you all! Byeeee.

Hey Everyone! It's been a while.

Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter is 10 years old today. Time sure does fly super fast when you're having fun. To celebrate this huge anniversary we're planning a TSE themed multiplayer event this Saturday night, so spit-shine your weapons, sharpen your skills and get ready for mayhem.

Be sure to join our Discord channel at discord.gg/Croteam and get to know the community before we start this Serious Saturday in style.

Don't forget to follow our developer page on Steam for any and all future events, news, and announcements: https://store.steampowered.com/developer/croteam

Details to follow!

Cheers!
Danny

All of us at Croteam wish you have a great Winter break.

Happy Holidays and have a great New Year. 2020 is about to get Serious!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yvz1-pWeq7I

Hey everyone! By now, we really hope you played through Red Day: Episode One, an amazing mod that was the star of our first Mod Feature back in May. We also believe its about time for another one. Weve played some of them recently and decided that summertime is perfect to play through Plastic Patrol 2: Replastered. This custom campaign mode tells the story about the Green Army and a fight to save their home.

Some of the highlights of this really cool mod include six unique maps that you can play through solo or with friends, along with appropriate weapon mods, enemies and everything youd expect from such a mod. Theres even a decent plane mission, something wed never expect from a Serious Sam mod.

The mod was made by the powerful Pan, with help by Mauritsio, UrbanDeHuman, and Soulmyr, so were sending massive props their way.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1497358886
NOTE: To play the mod you'll need to own SSHD: The First Encounter, SSHD: The Second Encounter and SS3: BFE.

Are you making Serious Sam or The Talos Principle mods yourself? Let us know, we'd love to check them out.

For all things Serious Sam hit Mr. Stone up on Twitter and Facebook. Follow Croteam on Twitter and Instagram, like us on Facebook, and subscribe to our YouTube channel. Oh, and dont forget to join our ever-growing Croteam family on Discord and Reddit.

Hey everyone! Check out this epic Serious Sam Fusion mod Red Day: Episode One. It's a custom campaign mod telling a story about Sam's war against the Mental forces in Russia.

The highlight of this Serious Sam Fusion mod is a three-part, 50-minute long campaign set in a typical Russian provincial city Muhogradsk. The Red Day campaing is full of chaos and crazy arena-style action spaning over three custom levels, with cutscenes and everything you'd expect from a full-blown campaign. Oh, and there's a brand new soundtrack, as well so make sure you check it out on Steam and let us know what you think.

Massive thanks to the powerful Dead_Kadath for making this mod happen.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1511106169
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ6DMrbd5wk
NOTE: To play the mod you'll need to own SSHD: The First Encounter, SSHD: The Second Encounter, Legend of the Beast, SS3: BFE and SS3: BFE Jewel of the Nile.

Our community has always been big on modifying Serious Sam and The Talos Principle to their liking, so we thought it's long overdue giving them mad props for all the creative work they do. This is why we have decided to periodically feature some of those mods on our channels and get more people in on the action.

Are you making Serious Sam or The Talos Principle mods yourself? Let us know, we'd love to check them out.

For all things Serious Sam hit Mr. Stone up on Twitter and Facebook. Follow Croteam on Twitter and Instagram, like us on Facebook, and subscribe to our YouTube channel. Oh, and dont forget to join our ever-growing Croteam family on Discord and Reddit.

Hey everyone! It's that time of the year again, the time of Fusion updates. This time, we're bringing to you a relatively small update focusing mostly on bug fixes and tweaks, rather than new features, engines and other huge changes that were introduced several months ago.

Guided by our community we have made huge progress in providing you with a stable, up-to-date Serious Sam experience, and Fusion is at its peak right now. It's THE way to play all supported Serious Sam games.

The changelog is below:

• fixed an issue where the player would stop moving after using the weapon wheel
  
• added various missing translations
  
• fixed some navigation issues in Karnak (TFE)
  
• fixed an issue where the menu palette would not change in some cases after leaving multiplayer games
  
• fixed an issue with the weapon wheel becoming unusable after finishing a level
  
• fixed an issue with the text overlapping on certain screens
  
• VR FPS counters will no longer be shown in non-VR games
  
• fixed an issue with client aiming being off in 3rd person in multiplayer
  
• newer Nvidia Quadro GPU's should no longer be marked as not compatible by mistake
  
• rebaked visibility on all SSHD and Sam 3 levels
  
• fixed an issue where the serious bomb would not disappear from the inventory upon finishing the level
  
• fixed an issue where killing certain enemies would cause crashes in rare instances
  
• the game no longer has issues starting-up on lower end dual-core CPU systems
  
• the weapon wheel should now work when using custom button layouts on a gamepad
  
• various other tweaks and performance/stability fixes
  

• locate the game in the Steam's "Library" panel
  
• right click and invoke "Properties"
  
• select the "Betas" tab
  
• choose "previousversion"
  

Serious Sam is 18 years old today. It was on March 21st, 2001 that Serious Sam: The First Encounter hit the shelves. Quite literally, as digital distribution was still a distant future back then.

We were young, super passionate and, after a successful tech test launched in the summer of 2000, confident that Serious Sam would resonate well with the gaming community. Turns out, we were right. Serious Sam: The First Encounter caused quite a stir in the gaming community, won dozens of awards (including Gamespot's Game of the Year) and laid the foundation of everything Croteam is today.

Fast forward 18 years later and Serious Sam got numerous sequels, spin-offs and remasters on most platforms. Hell, we even sent Sam to virtual reality and as with everything else - had tons of fun doing so.

Even though he's 18 years old (and legally allowed to buy a beer here in Croatia, finally), Sam's still going strong and we can't wait to take you on another journey of chaos and mayhem with Serious Sam 4.

Until then, we'll raise a glass (of aforementioned beer) in Sam's name and celebrate all of you for being Seriously awesome. Whether you've been demolishing hordes of aliens since day one or just joined our community we thank you for supporting us from the bottom of our hearts!




BOOM GOES THE ALIEN!

Hey guys. We have another update for you. This one is not that big in size, but fixes some of the issues that were missed in the latest patch.
We have also realized that some of you have been experienced a performance drop after the last patch. This was due to the new system we use for shadows and the higher shadow resolution. This was readjusted so you should see a performance boost on higher settings now.

Unfortunately, we also noticed many OS-X players weren't able to start the game after the last update. The workaround for this was getting back to the "previousversion" branch. This is now fixed, so you can go ahead and update the game to the latest version.

Changelog:

• fixed an issue where the final boss in TSE would not be visible after death
  
• fixed an issue where the game would crash on some systems after entering the GFX options menu on Linux
  
• fixed an issue with the game not being able to start up on some OS-X systems
  
• fixed an issue with credits not displaying properly
  
• the weapon effects should now be rendered properly in first person and third person views
  
• improved voice quality when chatting in game lobby
  
• logos in the intro cut scene will no longer break down on lowest performance settings
  
• decreased bloom intensity on the game intro
  
• the weapon selection wheel should now be fully functional with a mouse and keyboard, and not only when using a gamepad
  
• menu music no longer plays during the intro cut-scene for Serious Sam 3: BFE
  
• the Xbox gamepad icons should now be displayed properly across the board
  
• various performance and stability improvements
  

Admit it. You thought this day wouldn't happen, right? But alas, a brand new Fusion update is upon us.



To be honest, it's been way too long since we've last updated the game so we thought we'd let you know why that is. Some of you might know already, but for those who don't, Fusion is a central hub that connects all the main Serious Sam games in one and allows regular and VR players to jump in to the game together. Fusion also brings many improvements to previous games including a brand new engine - the same one Serious Sam 4 will be based on.

This development path brings with it various potential hickups, many of which we have experienced during the preparation of this patch. However, we are finally at a point where Fusion can be branched out as a stand-alone project, so SS4 development will no longer make its code unstable. Unfortunately due to this, the patch will re-download and re-install your game from scratch. With all games available, this makes the download around 12 GB.

The good news is - you can expect more frequent patches from now on. Happy days!

Please find the purged changelist below.

General Changes:
- Fusion now has its own menu and gametitle as default, the game no longer launches with the SS3 menu settings. As such, the SS3 intro now plays when the first level of SS3 is started.
- Added new default gamepad layout (classic one is still available as option).
- Added a new weapon wheel that slows down time when used to select weapons.
- Added a new Bloom system.
- Menu now properly scales on 4K resolutions.
- Many other smaller changes.

Fixes:

- Fixed hitscan tracer bug.
- Fixed tilted projectiles bug.
- In Versus, the player should be damageable while crouching now.
- Fixed bug where weapon effects would be rendered on both split screens when first player fires gun in first person view.
- Lots and lots of other smaller fixes.

Editor:

- Much larger Navigation meshes are supported now for more complex levels.
- Added support for textures up to 8K resolution.
- New system for damage multipliers on hulls. Hulls are added through "DamageMultiplierHulls" mechanism. Hulls with damage descriptions are embedded into puppet body params. Damage hull can define damage multiplier and damage type.

Notes for Content Creators:
- Changed how lightmap sizes are generally set up: Now every model should have its lightmap sizes defined in their mesh settings, instead of individually in Shader Modifiers (but shader modifiers are still needed to apply the lightmap). Some custom maps might need to have their GIs rebaked and some custom models' lightmaps adjusted due to this.
- Changed Nominal Velocity for Moving Animations: They are no longer set up in Moving Animation schemes, but in the animations directly in the Animation editor. If you have custom animations, you will likely get error messages related to this.
- Editor now puts out an error if a model uses invalid bones for attachments. You have to fix those or remove those attachments for the error to go away.
- Thanks to the new Bloom system, it is very possible that some custom maps might have problems with overly strong bloom. You can reduce the bloom on your level's post processing effect entity.
- Due to new NormalMap format, all custom Normal Maps will have to be recreated!
- In general, all custom content will likely have to be resaved for them to work again.

Dear modders, if you're having trouble with your mods after this patch, please refer to this guide by the powerful Noam2000, and make your mods look peechy again.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1551651827

***

As always - if you are having any issues with this build, the previous one is still available for opt-in, by doing this:
- locate the game in the Steam's "Library" panel
- right click and invoke "Properties"
- select the "Betas" tab
- choose "previousversion"

They call Infinity War the most ambitious crossover in history, but wait until they see I Hate Running Backwards, a game where Serious Sam is joined by other action heroes in the craziest shoot-em-up to date!

I Hate Running Backwards brings you heroes from Shadow Warrior, Hotline Miami, Enter the Gungeon and other fan-favorite games. Play it now on Windows and Linux!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/575820/I_Hate_Running_Backwards/

http://store.steampowered.com/app/257420/Serious_Sam_4_Planet_Badass/

Hey everyone!
The time is finally right for us to do an official announcement of Serious Sam 4: Planet Badass. The full reveal will happen at the Devolver Digital E3 conference, this June in LA, but in the meantime be sure to wishlist the game on Steam to get all the latest info and updates first.

Oh... and there's a nice little teaser on the store page, so be sure to check it out and tell us what you think. :)

Hey everybody.
We've just released a hotfix update 341433 that fixes the issues with projectile aim when playing in VR.
Also, the flickering while using DX11 on older video cards under Windows 7 should be gone.

All the other recent changes are mentioned in the last update (341203):
http://steamcommunity.com/app/564310/discussions/0/1700541698689161214/

Hey everybody.
We've just released a hotfix update 341433 that fixes the issues with projectile aim when playing in VR.
Also, the flickering while using DX11 on older video cards under Windows 7 should be gone.

All the other recent changes are mentioned in the last update (341203):
http://steamcommunity.com/app/564310/discussions/0/1700541698689161214/

Hey folks. We did some more fixing around, so here's a brand new update for you.

This update focuses on some of the issues that have been reported more than once.

For those of you who are playing VR, this update brings official support for Windows MR headsets, with official ghost controllers, adjusted controls etc.

The list of changes is posted below.

General changes:
- added a check for content corruption during the downloading of mods
- fixed a problem where XAudio was causing audio stuttering for some users
- fixed an issue where commands containing "/" would not execute in console
- added a pop up for downloading mods when connecting to a modded server, clients can now download or refuse to download mods
- improved the crosshair so that it's now in a fixed position when playing form the first person perspective
- fixed instantly respawning items on Versus maps

Sam HD Specific:
- Harpies will now shoot at Sam while he is in water

Sam 3 Specific:
- enemies should no longer despawn while using the jetpack during the final fight on Guardian of Time
- the Serious Sam (Classic) player model should be selectable in multiplayer yet again
- fixed weapons misplacement in the third person view

VR specific:
- Windows MR headsets and controllers are now officially supported, with MR specific control schemes
- fixed the problem with alt-tab not working correctly when VR's mirror was set to full-screen
- fixed the problem with random teleporting when using custom teleport controls on Oculus
- fixed the problem where players would be unable to jump out of the water while using teleport movement

***

As always - if you are having any issues with this build, the previous one is still available for opt-in, by doing this:
- locate the game in the Steam's "Library" panel
- right click and invoke "Properties"
- select the "Betas" tab
- choose "previousversion"

Hey folks. We did some more fixing around, so here's a brand new update for you.

This update focuses on some of the issues that have been reported more than once.

For those of you who are playing VR, this update brings official support for Windows MR headsets, with official ghost controllers, adjusted controls etc.

The list of changes is posted below.

General changes:
- added a check for content corruption during the downloading of mods
- fixed a problem where XAudio was causing audio stuttering for some users
- fixed an issue where commands containing "/" would not execute in console
- added a pop up for downloading mods when connecting to a modded server, clients can now download or refuse to download mods
- improved the crosshair so that it's now in a fixed position when playing form the first person perspective
- fixed instantly respawning items on Versus maps

Sam HD Specific:
- Harpies will now shoot at Sam while he is in water

Sam 3 Specific:
- enemies should no longer despawn while using the jetpack during the final fight on Guardian of Time
- the Serious Sam (Classic) player model should be selectable in multiplayer yet again
- fixed weapons misplacement in the third person view

VR specific:
- Windows MR headsets and controllers are now officially supported, with MR specific control schemes
- fixed the problem with alt-tab not working correctly when VR's mirror was set to full-screen
- fixed the problem with random teleporting when using custom teleport controls on Oculus
- fixed the problem where players would be unable to jump out of the water while using teleport movement

***

As always - if you are having any issues with this build, the previous one is still available for opt-in, by doing this:
- locate the game in the Steam's "Library" panel
- right click and invoke "Properties"
- select the "Betas" tab
- choose "previousversion"

Hey boys and girls.

We have just released a hotfix update (337175) that fixes the issues with verification which became apparent this morning.

All the other recent changes are mentioned in the last update (333254):
http://steamcommunity.com/app/564310/discussions/0/1489992713708158545/

Hey boys and girls.

We have just released a hotfix update (337175) that fixes the issues with verification which became apparent this morning.

All the other recent changes are mentioned in the last update (333254):
http://steamcommunity.com/app/564310/discussions/0/1489992713708158545/

Things just got more serious. Unleash Sam’s true potential and enhance his instincts with Tobii Eye Tracking. Now armed with several features, Aim at Gaze to target enemies by aiming with your sight. Features like Extended View and Clean UI make gameplay more immersive and allow you to seamlessly experience the spectacular landscapes - without modifying traditional controls. From invasions to battles, your gaze is your new weapon as you save the universe.

Compatible Eye Tracking Devices: Tobii Eye Tracker 4C, Alienware 17 Notebook, Acer Predator Notebook 21 X, MSI GT72 Notebook, Acer Predator Monitors Z301CT, Z271T, XB271HUT.

Don't have an Eye Tracking device? Enter here for a chance to win one:
https://twitter.com/SeriousSamIAm/status/940989703884562432

Things just got more serious. Unleash Sams true potential and enhance his instincts with Tobii Eye Tracking. Now armed with several features, Aim at Gaze to target enemies by aiming with your sight. Features like Extended View and Clean UI make gameplay more immersive and allow you to seamlessly experience the spectacular landscapes - without modifying traditional controls. From invasions to battles, your gaze is your new weapon as you save the universe.

Compatible Eye Tracking Devices: Tobii Eye Tracker 4C, Alienware 17 Notebook, Acer Predator Notebook 21 X, MSI GT72 Notebook, Acer Predator Monitors Z301CT, Z271T, XB271HUT.

Don't have an Eye Tracking device? Enter here for a chance to win one:
https://twitter.com/SeriousSamIAm/status/940989703884562432

Hey folks.
We have gone ahead and released a new patch that brings some performance improvements and tweaks for people using Vulkan or DirectX 12.

For those of you that take this gaming thing all serious, there's an official changelog below.

Changelog
- Improved performance and various tweaks for Vulkan and DirectX 12

;)

As always - if you are having any issues with this build, the previous one is still available for opt-in, by doing this:
- locate the game in the Steam's "Library" panel
- right click and invoke "Properties"
- select the "Betas" tab
- choose "previousversion"

Hey everyone.
We have just released a new patch for Serious Sam Fusion 2017. Check a look at the changelog, it's short but sweet. :)

Changelog

Hey everyone.
We have just released a new patch for Serious Sam Fusion 2017 with changes that were made according to community feedback, so thanks for that. :)

Changelog

SS3VR Specific:

• Fixed an issue where third person view camera was locked to sandwhale when being eaten by it in SS3VR:BFE
  
• Fixed issues with cutscenes not working as intended in SS3VR:BFE
  
• Finely tuned Sledgehammer weapon in Serious SS3VR: BFE
  

• Kleers can no longer jump/walk above the gate before it opens on the first level.
  

• Disabled client position correction if client havs VR movement enabled, players should not be warping around in multiplayer anymore
  
• Fixed text scroll hud element for VR which was rendering at wrong placement when the VR rendering ratio is not 100%
  
• Dynamically created items that have set custom respawn time will now be respawned in deathmatch
  
• Various other tweaks and fixes
  

• SSAO precision no longer adjust its depth offsetting
  
• Fixed an issue with wrong mouse cursor position tracking in full-screen modes that doesn't match Windows' desktop resolution
  

Surprise! We're releasing Serious Sam 3 VR: BFE in 3, 2, 1... aaaand it's out! That's right, the game is already available. Grab your motion-controllers and start mowing down Mental's horde!

Thinking of pulling the trigger? Do it now as there's a week-long 10% launch discount. We know that (virtual) reality can be tough so there's an additional automatic 10% discount available to all existing owners of Serious Sam 3: BFE. Thank you for supporting Croteam and Croteam VR!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/567670/Serious_Sam_3_VR_BFE/

Serious Sam VR bundle is updated as well so bundle owners can pick up Serious Sam VR: BFE with a 10% discount AND get an additional 40% off:
http://store.steampowered.com/bundle/2308/Serious_Sam_VR_Bundle/

Don't own a single Croteam's VR game? Well, nobody's perfect but there's a quick fix: all our VR games are available as neatly packaged and deeply discounted bundle:
http://store.steampowered.com/bundle/5145/CROTEAM_VR_Bundle/

HF & stay serious!

Serious Sam Fusion 2017 Update 328320 released
Here are the changes:

New Features:

New Feature -
Implemented dynamic flow control options that will allow users to enable/disable dynamic flow control feature. Dynamic Flow Control enables dynamic calculation of BPS for network, making connections more stable and multiplayer more smoother.

-Tutorial-

1. Client must go to Multiplayer Options and enable Dynamic Flow Control option
2. If server is not Dedicated Server, go to Multiplayer Options and enable Dynamic Flow Control
3. If server is Dedicated Server, cvar net_bEnableDynamicFlowControl needs to be set to "True" value.
4. Server can limit Client BPS with the variable "ser_iMaxClientBPS", that limits bandwidth used per client.

-------------------

New Feature -
Implemented multiplayer autodownload to modded mode. With this, Dedicated Servers for Modded Mode are now available!

-Tutorial-

0. The Modded Dedicated Server is a separate exe, that you can find in the Bin folder of your game installation; if you have the Dedicated Server Tool installed, of course.
1. Dedicated server can be started with command argument "+downloaded_mods mod1,mod2,etc.".
2. Starting server like this will cause it to download requested mods from Steam Workshop. Server will be paused while downloads are in progress. After download, server will add newly acquired mods and continue as normal.
3. In general, every Workshop mod that the Server player have and is Enabled in the game, all clients will download before they can join the modded server. This includes aesthetic mods (player skins, weapons skins, etc) too!
4. Doesn't work for custom GRO files placed in the Content folder, just Workshop items.

Known Bug, fixed in next patch: Sometimes when the Client downloads a needed mod used by the Host, then the Host immediately disables that mod then rehosts the server, the Client will be stuck in a "Client and server have incompatible mods" loop. Manually this can be fixed by the Client deleting the "DownloadedMods.txt" file located in:
[Steam Installation]/Serious Sam Fusion 2017/Temp/SteamWorkshop/

-------------------

Changes and Fixes:

Serious Sam 3 related:

- Some quality of life changes: You can now reload while sprinting, switch weapons while sprinting, and interrupt a reload with firing if you still have ammo. You can also enable click to aim with weapons that can be aimed. (Actually, this last one was in the previous patch as well, but nobody noticed.)
- Added new HUD icons for the SingleShotgun, MiniGun, Cannon weapons for SS3 (by Soulmyr, thanks!).
- Created missing SS3 version of the Yellow Yarek player model.
- Fixed jump animation not playing while moving in third person.
- Fixed the stuttering feeling in some weapons' Sprint animations in first person.
- Added missing sounds and music to SS3's menu.
- Slightly changed the Pistol weapon: Randomized recoil animation, added a small zoom to the aimed mode, changed sounds to TLH's version.
- Fixed a bug where C4 wouldn't do splash damage when it was attached to something.
- Adjusted Hard+ attacks for various enemies.
- Ammo HUD element now displays number of bullets in clip left and rest of the ammo right (original order).
- Weapons will no longer play sprint animation when view bobbing is disabled.
- Russian voice localization is now selectable.
- Fixed shed doors on the "Gathering of Gods" level.
- Removed unintended prediction from spiders' projectile attacks.
- Fixed sync problems with the EndGame cutscene.
- Fixed "The Doorman Should Wear A Suit" achievement.
- Various other fixes to levels.

Serious Sam HD related:

- Werebulls will no longer rotate faster towards player after hitting them.
- Demon fireballs are now destroyable by projectiles.
- Added missing DM params for weapons.
- Added missing ShottyTrouble versus map.
- Flamethrower won't start the barrel effect anymore when its being brought up and fire is pressed at the same time.
- Fixed bug with the final cutscene on the Great Pyramid level sometimes reverting to the Morph Room cutscene.
- Added missing destruction settings to SSHD player models.
- Fixed SS1 cameras, so that cutscenes end when they're supposed to.
- Puppets spawned by Mordekai's projectiles will no longer add to total number of kills in the level.

General:

- Fixed black blood bug.
- Fixed puppets speeding up on corners.
- Fixed enemy death fall sounds.
- Fixed third person camera position for Dive and Swim poses.
- Fixed mouse and keyboard configuration menu for split screen games.
- Added XAudio 2.8/2.9 in sound options.
- Serious Sam is now the default player model for multiplayer.
- Fixed bug that was causing muzzle flashes that are particle effects to be rendered in wrong position on screen when high FoV is used.
- Fixed an infinite view bug when going from spectating to playing.
- Fixed spectator camera jittering when network speed is low.
- Players will now always be able to see their own selected multiplayer character model, while everyone who doesn't have that character model will see them as default player model (properly colored).
- Fixed Custom Weapons not working at all for clients in Multiplayer.

Editor:

- Increased the maximum number of weapon types to 64 and maximum number of ammo types to 32.
- Ammo counter is now 4 digits.
- Added Script Source Editor, that allows to edit Lua scripts outside a loaded level.
- Script editor now supports basic colorization and hints.
- Locate entities by ID tool now also works in simulation editor.
- Script net members now support saving and loading.
- Scripts can now mark entity as changed using the CEntity::NetMarkChanged function.
- Enemies can be set on fire in SS3 by flamethrower type weapons now.
- SS3 game title now properly supports powerups.
- Added new flag for items when they're targeted by a script. Items targeted by script are always allowed.
- Updated animation import to create an animset if it doesn't exist instead of requesting user to do it manually.
- Added copy/paste envelopes tool. Tool copies content of selected envelopes (channels and keyframes), but for now ignores envelope params.
- Updated animation editor shortcuts; R - SetChannelFilterTool Shift+N - CreateAnimSetTool N - CreateAnimationTool Alt+R - TogglePlaybackRepeatTool
- The old "Generic Animator" system is replaced by Value Animators, which are more flexible, less error prone (no resource sharing hell), and controllable from scripts.

VR:

- Updated regular and advanced VR option menus with new options.
- Fixed crashing when weapon selection menu is activated at certain times.
- Fixed problem where player would not teleport jump if blink teleport was enabled.
- Added flat-friendly mode option in difficulty options menu.
- Implemented recoil bar for VR weapons in flat friendly mode.
- Power-up effects no longer affect the ammo counter or the sniper scope.


***WARNING! DUE TO CHANGES IN RENDERING CODE, ALL CUSTOM MAPS MUST BE RESAVED AND UPDATED ON THE WORKSHOP! THEY WILL HAVE GRAPHICAL ISSUES OTHERWISE***

Eleven months after entering the Early Access phase, SSVR: The Last Hope is now available as a full release, and it's even better, badder and more epic than we ever imagined!

Thanks to the huge support of the gaming community our VR baby duckling grew to be a beautiful, giant, armed-to-the teeth swan with flaming eyes, and we can't wait for everyone to jump in the final version. We also couldn't have done it with your support and feedback – thank you for being the best community and fans any developer could wish for!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/465240/

With today's epic final update The Last Hope introduces randomly generated gameplay, available on five existing and three new levels. This new gameplay option is split to three different modes – Arena, Endless Wave and Daily Challenge.

• Arena​ ​– Allows players to enjoy endless variety thanks to randomly generated waves of enemies that ensure every playthrough is completely different. Players are challenged with 8 arenas consisting of 4 waves, each playable on 20 difficulties. Beating an arena difficulty awards a weapon upgrade icon.
  
• Endless​ ​Wave​ ​–​ ​In this mode players will face an endless wave of enemies, trying to stay alive as long as possible, and get bragging rights over their peers via global leaderboards.
  
• Daily​ ​Challenge​ ​–​ ​Endless wave on the arena map of the day, where each day a new set of enemies is served so that everyone faces exactly the same challenge and competes against the rest of the world.
  

Serious Sam Fusion 2017 Update 313521 released
Here are the changes:


Serious Sam 3 related:

- Serious Difficulty Rebalance, which includes:

- Adjusted the Hard+ attacks of several enemies.
- Added new Hard+ attacks to several enemies.
- There should be now a lot more enemies on Serious difficulty, restored old spawns and even some new battles throughout the game.
- Ammo Refill crates no longer appear on Serious difficulty, with the exception of a few C4 crates needed for level progression.

- The Explosive weapon had wrong sound scheme set up in its first person animations, causing some of its sounds to never play. Fixed.
- Some weapon pickup sounds were muffled due to wrong set up. Fixed.
- Changed water surfaces of SS3 DLC levels. They should look better and not have projectiles explode on them.
- Fixed cutscene camera not stopping for clients in multiplayer.
- Adjusted the Technopolip destruction effects and sounds.
- Fixed Axe weapon's third person animations not playing properly.
- Created a Netricsa message for the final boss of the Jewel of the Nile DLC. You get it when the boss is spawned and it hints at its weakness.
- Players will now drop their weapons on death in versus mode.
- Changed the auto select priority of weapons so whenever any weapon depletes, they won't all switch to the cannon.
- Sam shouldn't get cramps in his arm when showing the Sirian Bracelet anymore, so he will likely put his arm down all the time from now on.
- Player is now not allowed to climb ladders if they are too high to be reached.
- As often requested, made the level end of Silent Riddler user triggerable.
- Fixed Cave Daemons climbing destroyed columns.

General:

- Many various fixes to all levels in all games.
- Player will now only respawn when gibbed if it's versus mode.
- Fixed moving models (elevators and platforms) not retaining their collision after loading a saved game. (This hopefully fixes the final boss fight in TFE VR as well.)
- Fixed Russian locale for SamHD. Also, subtitles will no longer be force-loaded from the English localization, unless the subtitles are missing in the currently set locale.
- Fixed enemies appearing invisible when loading a saved game that was saved while the enemies were in mid-spawn.
- Removed pickup score from all items across all games.
- Removed the unintended shoot prediction from all Walker enemies across all games.
- When changing games in cooperative mode, the weapons inventory should be reset now, no longer causing the too many weapons error.
- Added new post processing effect for Heat Damage areas on some SSHD levels.
- Excessive saving will now always penalize your score, even after loading a save.
- Fixed SSHD Netricsa messages not working on custom levels.

Editor:

- Added DisableDespawn() script event to Puppet and Spawner entities.

VR:

- Fixed randomly teleporting to the desert and getting stuck on the Dunes level.
- If flat friendly mode is used, the last selected weapon for an opposite hand will be reset, so not getting dual weapons when not allowed.

Known bugs:

- The credits sequence desyncs at the end of Guardian of Time. We are working on a solution for this, hopefully will be ready for next patch.
- There are some shadow problems on the Under the Iron Cloud level. We noticed this when the patch was already built, but it will be fixed for next patch.

Croteam has partnered with independent developer Crackshell (Hammerwatch) to unleash Serious Sam’s Bogus Detour, a retro-styled take on the legendary first-person shooter series!

https://youtu.be/59HyLq2jkhI

Serious Sam’s Bogus Detour launches with up to 20% off the standard price for a limited time as fans that own any Serious Sam game or Crackshell’s Hammerwatch will receive 10% off in additional to the standard 10% off launch discount. The debut of Serious Sam’s Bogus Detour hits alongside a massive Serious Sam franchise sale on Steam with up to 90% off all other games in the beloved series http://store.steampowered.com/sale/serious-sam/].



Serious Sam’s Bogus Detour is an all-new action-adventure in the legendary Serious Sam saga from Hammerwatch developer Crackshell. Battle through beautiful Mediterranean locales, dangerous biological weapons labs and even high-tech moon bases as a one-man wrecking crew or in four-player online cooperative for maximum chaos! Dominate the chaotic 12-player Survival and Versus modes or make your own mods, modes, and even total conversions with the included game editor. Serious Sam’s Bogus Detour is the biggest little Serious Sam game ever made!



The Serious Sam series began as the prototypical indie game with developer Croteam existing as a group of childhood friends working on a groundbreaking tech demo in a garage. The series has gone on to sell millions of copies and recently branched into virtual reality with a collection of Serious Sam VR games. Serious Sam’s Bogus Detour is a return to these indie roots and a continuation of the Serious Sam Indie Series that includes Vlambeer’s Serious Sam: The Random Encounter and Mommy’s Best Games’ Serious Sam Double D.

Serious Sam Fusion 2017 Update 310488 released!

IMPORTANT: With this update, Serious Sam 3: BFE is added to Fusion. Note that there is no VR version of it, as there are still some VR features specific to SS3 that are not implemented yet. The VR version of SS3 will be released at a later date.

Also please note that the SS3 Fusion download will become available gradually during the day as we are adding it to various packages that people have bought the game through. Possible hiccups are expected and please let us know if something is broken (there probably will be).

However, unlike with Serious Sam HD for Fusion, multiple smaller and bigger changes were made to the game, according to the feedback that we have received since the release of the original Serious Sam 3: BFE.

The largest changes include:

- Changes made to the levels and enemies to fix a so called "churn" with the overall gameplay; where the game seemed to annoying or monotone. Due to these changes, mainly on Normal difficulty, some battles were changed, some enemies no longer spawn, and some enemy stats have been changed. In general, the game should be less annoying and difficult to play on Normal.
- Enemies that had a perfect immunity to non-explosive weapons, like the Khnum and the Technopolip now have a 50% immunity to non-explosives instead.
- On the other hand, Hard and Serious difficulties have been made more difficult. Some enemy spawns that no longer appear on Normal will appear again. Several enemies also have additional attacks on Hard and Serious! (You'll "love" the kleer.)
- Many many smaller changes. Try to find them all!

As SS3 is a highly complex game, here can be a plethora of additional bugs that are not yet fixed. So consider this release as a beta. Thank you for understanding and for any potential help you can provide finding all these bugs!

Regular changes:

Gameplay:

- Fixed spawning enemies being invisible for a period of time when network ping is high.
- Added "Allow Power-Up Items" in Deathmatch gamemodes.
- Added abilty to override default behavior of the real time factor cheat. User is now able to define fixed, linear step for the cheat.
- Added a check for items that are not allowed by game options but should still be visible on sim start. This should only happen for SS games when items are not allowed but there is a trigger or a script referencing them in which case we think they are needed for level progression.
- Secret generic items are now allowed and visible even if custom difficulty that doesnt allow those items is used.
- Updated TSE invisibility powerup duration to 30 seconds, that's the value from the Classic.
- Added hud element icon for invisibility powerup.

Rendering:

- Fixed some smaller rendering problems in Vulkan.
- Fixed problem with Spot light's shadows being vertically flipped under Vulkan and OpenGL (and ES) gfx APIs.
- Fixed problem with wrong calculation of static lighting when object is in sector not influenced by distant light.

Serious Editor:

- Added Drop Down tool, which replaces separate Drop Down tools for World editor and Mesh editor.
- Improved view information in fly mode (hit Tab to show altitude above ground, ray hit distance etc).
- Fixing a crash inside Legged puppet save data when mechanism does not exist.
- Added different colors for selected and unselected entity names.
- Tool Help dialog: Added scrollbar.
- Script Source Edit control: Changed the color scheme to match the one from Visual Studio.
- Text Control: Fixed Ctrl+Up/Ctrl+Down not working.
- World Editor: Added an option to display names of entities in the world.
- Projectile launch velocity is now clamped to 300, as it is the maximum velocity supported by the physics.

Misc.:

- Added cvar prj_fCameraDistanceFactor that scales the desired distance for third person camera.
- Fixed incorrect player models in the menu list in SSHD.
- Fixed ragdolls playing an animation after loading a saved game.
- Dynamic music volume is now saved, so it will be properly restored after loading a save
- Some of the TSE Intro's scripts had wrong translation strings, that prevented them to be added to the localization files. Fixed.

Here are the changes:

Gameplay:
- You can now choose Mental difficulty if any of the games (TFE, TSE, BFE) are completed on Serious.
- Third person camera can now be placed directly behind player (instead of over the shoulder).
- Fixed cases where hitscan weapons were generating "fake hits" in detahmatch on higher pings.
- Gibbed players were not respawning automatically. Fixed.
- Long load progress bar (with "Continue" button) was sometimes shown for Quick loads. This should now work correctly.
- User is not able to activate serious bomb while another one is active.
- Removed SeriousBomb from GiveAllCheat in SeriousSamHD.
- Fixed Kukulkan moving up after reloading a save.
- Fixed a case where "Autoselect Weapon if New" didn't work.
- Fixed some moving platforms being positioned wrong after loading a saved game.

Rendering:
- Updated Vulkan SDK to 1.0.49.0 version.
- Added workaround for wrong lens-flares' rendering on ATI GPUs under Vulkan.
- Fixed sniper scope rendering wrong in VR in some cases.
- Fixed visual issues with large polygons and omni and spot lights' shadows.
- The duration for "Unlimited" benchmarking was 10 minutes in fact. Fixed.
- Fixed visual issue with detail normal-map attenuation not working in ambient light in some situations.
- Fixed problem with Zoom shader not working correctly in single-pass VR rendering mode sometimes.

Modding:
- ForceFields can now be deactivated using SS1Triggers.
- Added ability to change puppet's alignment.
- Fixed non-moddable game crashing on boot if a mod with custom CommandTable scripts was installed.
- Fixed the issue with editor crashing when creating new world while there are custom game titles in content.
- Netricsa should now be able to use non-official models.

Serious Editor:
- Model editor: added an option to display and select attachments without models
- HyperLabelControl now allows one to copy selected text into the clipboard by pressing Ctrl+C keyboard shortcut.
- Fixed various problems with paint to texture tool:
- rendering of preview texture didn't respect z-buffer,
- blending in RGB channels mode now works correctly
- RGB channels mode no longer blends thru alpha channel even if texture has one.
- Resource Browser: Made the quick search input field white
- Fixed a crash when accessing invalid mesh layer element.
- Tree Grid control: Previous search text is now restored when user hits Ctr+F for the second time
- Model Editor Default tool: Implemented lasso selection for attachments
- Model Editor: Implemented attachments stretching using PRS guide (Ctrl+Shift+LMB)
- Text Control: Replaced bookmark symbols with icons
- Model Editor: Added an option to display orientations of attachments
- Skeleton Editor: Added "Copy selected bone names" command to the context menu of bone selector
- Added Tool Help command to "Help" menu in the main application toolbar

Misc:
- A few more fixes in formatting and visual appearance of the text chat window.
- More detailed logging of the cases when crashreporter is not able to contact the reporting server.

Here are the changes...

Gameplay:
- Fixed enemies playing idle sounds instead of footstep sounds on every walk cycle.
- Ammo cannot be picked if there is already a maximum amount in the inventory.
- Fixed some non-spawning enemies on LotB.
- Double colt was playing mirrored animations in some cases. Fixed.
- For some reason, the Highlander Reptiloids spawned a small, green blood decal when killed, instead of the big red puddle as they did in SSHD (and their regular reptiloids do). Fixed.
- Pillars in the Khnum boss' room in LotB can be destroyed by the boss again.
- Fixed some items disappearing after load game in rare cases.

Multiplayer:
- Fixed enemies prefering the first player in the list in coop in some rare cases.
- Fixed multiplayer desync issues if vr_fVRWeaponPitchAdjustment used on clients.

Menus:
- Serious Sam games now have the Benchmark menu, just like Talos did.
- Moved graphics API selector to the top of gfx options.
- Enabled resolution and view mode options for VR games.
- Moved the refresh button in Join Game menu so it doesn't overlap the game list.
- Fixed wrong description of number of lives in Standard coop in some places.
- Fixed netricsa hud element being visible in game modes which do not support netricsa.
- Many various fixes in usability and readability in chat console, both for flat and VR.

Graphics:
- Updated GPU performance table for autoadjustments.
- Fixed bug with flickering on burning objects under OpenGL/ES. (Also fixed player appearing effect!)
- Fixed various cases where flamethrower flames didn't appear on some objects.

Editor/modding:
- Added Generic Script tool. This allows creating new Editor tools from Lua!
- It is now possible to easily change the difficulty in editor: instead of going through the simulation start params and clicking the difficutly, you can just set the gam_gdEditorDifficultyOverride cvar to desired difficulty (or none = 0 if you want to disable that).
- Deletion of animation envelope will now also delete its animation tracks.
- Animation clips/tracks from unselected envelopes are now dimmed in animation track editor.
- Skeleton editor: Added movable splitter between LOD and bone lists
- Animation editor: Added "Create channel" shortcut to Envelope list context menu
- Skeleton editor: Added one more movable splitter to the bottom panel
- Animation editor: Added one more movable splitter to the bottom panel
- Script Source Edit control: Added command to set cursor to a variable pointing at selected entity (Shift+F2)
- Text control: Fixed long strings not fitting the screen.
- Text control: Added automatic scrolling for left/right cursor movement using arrow buttons.
- Animation Editor: Fixed wrong order of animations when using Shift+Up/Down with no filter string
- Added ability to assign parent for the static sound entity form the script.
- Optimized saving non-world resource files from within the context of a world document.
- Starting a simulation on a world with a game title for which game title info doesnt exist should not crash the editor anymore. It will just refuse to run the simulation.
- Fixed several various small precision bugs with respect to how probe lights and prebaked lightmaps are generated.
- Meta Pointer control: Dialog for selecting targets now always shows all available targets
- Animation editor: When animations are changed using Shift+Up/Down, the currently selected envelope remains selected if possible.
- Script Source Edit control: Shift+F2/Ctrl+Shift+F2 to cycle variables (forward/backward) pointing at selected entity
- Created scriptable support for adding any kind of postprocessing layers to player view. Layers have some ID and can be added, modified or removed on demand.
- Interpolator Editor tool: Added shortcut (Tab)
- Copy Attachment Names tool: Added shortcut (Ctrl+Shift+C)
- Added mask texture to Zoom shader which specifies (in red channel!) how much zoom to apply at each given texel.

Build 301625 for Serious Sam Fusion 2017 is released! Here are the changes:

General:
- Fixed crash due to inability to create Player Puppet entity on some configurations.
- Jump height is no longer frame-rate dependent even when sliding along walls.
- Fixed crash when loading a save with dynamically spawned SS1 rotating cannons.
- Fixed broken lava elementals when loading a save that was saved during their spawn animation.
- Improved the look of the meteors that fall on the final level in TSE.
- Fixed secret invisibility item on Corridor of Death being launched too strong, ending outside the level.
- Starting the game with +level now works with level paths in local OS format (backslashes and all).
- Fixed sorting order of workshop files. They now override regular game gro files because they are sorted correctly.
- Fixed problem with crumbs casting shadows even when theirs rendering was disabled.
- Fixed some lighting artefacts happening in specific places.
- Fixed some GLSL shader compiling errors on OSX platform.
- Various stability and performance improvements in Vulkan.
- Misc optimizations in model instancing.
- Small optimization in rendering of dynamically spawned enemies.

VR specific:
- Fixed weird acceleration if VR player moved around playspace while the game is paused.
- Added flat-friendly mode in multiplayer servers.

Editor:
- Fixed performance issue in script source editing for large scripts.
- Various improvements on GenericWeapon system. Still not guaranteed to be perfect, but it is very close to the old weapons system in functionality.
- Gradient control: Added dialog for editing keyframes
- Edit control: Ident suggestion list now reacts on Ctrl+Enter instead of just Enter
- Meta Tree control: Enabled highlighting of modified values by default
- Script Source Edit control: Added context menu item for selecting script's targets
- Script Source Edit control: Added drop-down menu for assigning variables
- Select Chain Entities tool: Script entity is no longer selected
- World Editor default tool: The "D" shortcut now always assigns a custom coordinate system when any entity is selected. To disable custom coordiante system, hit "D" when nothing is selected.

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Build 299537 for Serious Sam Fusion 2017 is released!

- Players now drop weapons in multiplayer.
- Fixed enemies shooting at floor while the player is crouching.
- Serious Bomb ammo is now depleted even with the infinite ammo option enabled.
- Workshop files are now loaded on OSX and Linux.
- Added background to the newsfeed to make the text more readable.
- Added rcts_strAcceptFilter in addition to rcts_bLocalMode for configuring telnet server access permissions.
- Many gameplay/level fixes. (Too many to list.)
- Various Vulkan fixes.
- (VR) Fixed crash bug that occurs when dying with weapon selection open.
- (VR) Fixed licenses for Serious 8 models.