Development was further complicated when the first 3D accelerators were released, forcing Croteam to develop for hardware rendering over software. As they were creating their own, both Duke Nukem 3D (which added up-and-down freelook) and Quake (a fully 3D rendered environment) were released, requiring Croteam to incorporate these features into their engine for their game to be competitive. At the time Croteam was making Serious Sam, licensing other engines was costly (upwards of US$1 million), so they made their own from scratch, following the feature set of the first Doom engine, which simulated 3D spaces in 2D, and did not include up or down targeting. All three were published by Global Star Software.Ĭroteam created a proprietary engine for use in both Serious Sam: The First Encounter and Serious Sam: The Second Encounter.

Several spin-offs were developed by other developers, such as a Palm OS conversion of The First Encounter by InterActive Vision, Serious Sam: Next Encounter (on GameCube and PlayStation 2) by Climax Solent, and Serious Sam Advance (on Game Boy Advance) by Climax London. The first game, Serious Sam: The First Encounter, was released for Microsoft Windows in March 2001. The series follows the advances of mercenary Sam 'Serious' Stone against Mental, an extraterrestrial overlord who attempts to destroy humanity at various points in time. It consists predominantly of first-person shooters.

Serious Sam is a video game series created and primarily developed by Croteam.

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