Serious Sam 2 Interview

[privateer]

We are very excited to have had the chance to fire off some questions regarding GameMecca's most anticipated game, Serious Sam 2. Goran Zoricic, programmer with Croteam, was kind enough to shed some light on the upcoming sequel after a sucessful showing at last week's GDC.

 

GM: Is there an official name besides just "Serious Sam 2"?

 

No, not yet, we're using "Serious Sam 2" in-house. There are some ideas, but nothing final.

 

GM: What type of system requirements are being targeted?

 

For the best performance, we will require hardware with full shader support. CPU-wise, we'll do our best to be able to run on mainstream hardware.

 

GM: What is the status of development and when are you planning the release?

 

The engine is fully functional, however we still need to optimize and tune some parts of it to bring it to top-notch state. We'll also be adding some more features, but all mission-critical stuff is done. There is still work to do on entity scripts. We're planning the 2004 release, but no official date has been set.

 

GM: What is the story and where will Sam 2 take place?

 

There will be seven episodes, with different setting each (native alien planets surrounding Mental's base on Planet Sirius), ending with some Serious (*hint*) butt-kicking.

 

GM: What type of game modes will be in Sam 2 for both offline/online play?

 

We will definitely have Cooperative play, as Coop was one of Serious Sam's main points.

 

GM: Will the overall look and feel more closely resemble the PC version or XBox version?

 

It will be a mix of both. Perhaps a bit more cartoony, like the XBox version was. We'll keep the all-out, fast paced action with beautiful environments, heaps of colorful monsters and lots of wacky humor that distinguished Serious Sam from other games.

 

GM: How much of the code is being developed from scratch? (*hint, hint* netcode)

 

Well, i can hardly think of any part of the code that wasn't improved, reorganized and/or rewritten completely, from the basic stuff such as math or string handling, to high-level stuff. Yes, that includes the network too. In fact, we used some very sharp instruments to remove the old networking from the engine and implemented a totally new network subsystem that's much more robust and resistant to lower bandwidth and bad network conditions. Also, there is a completely new scripting language for entities, compiled by our own compiler. That means that Visual C++ is no longer required to create mods or create new weapons, monsters or items.

 

GM: Will any mods ship with the game in the same way Warped shipped with SE?

 

There are no plans to do so at the moment, but we're leaving all options open.

 

GM: Are there any plans to ship mod tools with the game?

 

Yes, the new version of the Serious Editor will ship with the game and will contain all features necessary for mod development - entity and macro script editing, model editing, world editing... Naturally, we also support use of externally created content (Lightwave for now).

 

GM: How many levels/maps are being planned for both offline/online play?

 

Some 30 levels for single player/cooperative, the rest is yet undetermined.

 

GM: What new features can we look forward to?

 

My personal opinion that the greatest fun factor impact will be the vehicles. There will be several kinds - the bike you could see in the demo, a snowmobile, and more (all in due time ).

 

GM: How detailed will the server options be for Sam 2? Will features like powerups and certain weapons be able to be triggered on/off?

 

It's not clearly defined yet, but it looks like we'll implement some kind of basic/advanced server options system to make it simple to use for beginner users, and still provide the advanced user with better control of game settings.

 

GM: Is hit detection based on a hitbox or will it be polygon specific?

 

We will implement hit locations (head, arm, leg...) for bigger nasties, while the smaller ones will have just one hitbox for their bodies. This is due to the arcade nature of the game, and the sheer number of enemies you're up against.

 

GM: Will Sam 2 have an autodownload map feature for multiplayer?

 

It most probably will. We would very much like to include that feature, but we're still concerned about some security issues regarding autodownload and execution of custom script code. We want to make sure that it won't be possible for downloadable content to contain any kind of malicious code.

 

GM: What kind of new skins/weapons/powerups are being included? What is being kept from previous Sam versions?

 

Well, almost everything is new. We've also kept a few of the best enemies and weapons from the first and second encounter, but those have been remodeled and repainted as well, to look even better and to take advantage of everything the latest hardware has to offer.

 

GM: What's next after Sam 2? Will the Sam franchise continue or does Croteam want to branch out into different games/genres?

 

Serious Sam 3, off course. But, Seriously, it's really too early to say at this point. We're concentrating on finishing Serious Sam 2 and making it as good as we possibly can.

 

GM: Is there anything else you want to tell the fans?

 

Yes: we're very happy to have such a community!

 

Thanks to Goran for taking the time out to answer these questions. Feel free to discuss Sam 2 along with any other gaming topics at our forums. Nearly half a million posts and growing!

 

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