How Serious Sam's Demo Saved the Game From Extinction | War Stories | Ars Technica 

So THAT'S why Sam hates crates!

"Give gamers a chance to try before they buy" Right? Right?! Nowadays there's barely any demo being released and yet they expect us to preorder and fully trust them.

"How Serious Sam's *lack of crates* saved the game from extinction".

No crates, 10/10.

Still remember when I bought the first Serious Sam, I couldn't believe how much fun that game (and next chapters) gave me. Thank you for sharing this interview

You wanna know how cool Croteam is? I bought the original serious Sam bundle on steam, which didn't have all the games yet. When they added all the rest of the games to steam, they were added for free. I didn't have to repurchase like some bundles do.

My favourite thing when watching "making of" documentaries and interviews is whenever they go "We wanted/needed X, but couldn't afford it or it didn't exist...so we had to use, I dunno, bread delivery boxes or make it ourselves." And the end result is always great. Less is more. Every movie or game that had to find ways to work around it's limitations made for better experiences because they had to get creative with it. Creativity is what makes art, art. Not money or names.

As a guy in his early 20's that just missed all this 90's to early 2000's pc gaming, this series is like... a goldmine. So interesting!

Guess that is why Sam says "I Hate Crates" in the second encounter lol.

"we invented" "we invented" wow these guys are amazing. They didnt have something so they just made it. hes so casual about it too lmao.

I didn't get into Serious Sam until I found the HD re-release on Steam sale for a few dollars. So I missed all this history, but even so I really like these games. While the trend in modern titles is to "aim higher" with complex story and RPG elements and whatever, Sam makes no apologies and sticks to his guns.

i love serious sam! :D

"Whaaaa, stupid headless freaks!" I loved the game!

When I was a little kid and did not have my own money to buy the Serious Sam FE and SE games from stores, I used to play the Demo for the Serious Sam SE, over and over again. It was the map where you had to collect two golden jaguars and place them on some device on a small pyramid in the middle of the map which would open a door in another pyramid, where you eventually find a skull and you get a cutscene with Serious Sam saying "To be or not to be, that is a serious question". This demo is tattooed on my heart and will stay with me forever. Wonderful games SS:FE and SS:SE are, of course later on in my life when I got a job I could buy these games, they worth every penny.

Amazing demo back in the day, especially that Temple of Effects where you could check all the models with different visual effects from tech used in the game. The complete game was amazing too, very smooth and with an options menu that still puts many modern titles to shame. Also I like how Croteam cares a lot about optimization: low end hardware first, then scaling up to the powerful stuff. Serious Sam 4 is going to be amazing if they keep using the same design philosophy, and I can't wait to play it.

Who would have ever guessed that it was Serious Sam that needed saving?

Its interesting how he said that they wanted more enemies than other games, like 10x more. Now look at the Serious Sam 4 Planet Badass (amazing name love it) trailer, its like 1000x more! Croteam is 100% my favourite game development company.

Both 1st n 2nd encounters were my childhood.

Ahhh Karnak, what sweet memories and the countless times we played through this gorgeous level. It definitely sold myself and all my friends on buying the full game

One of my favorite games in my life.

Oh my god, suddenly all the crate jokes make so much more sense...

I love this company...

I played the demo with friends... a lot.... i think it is crazy how ars did a video on a simple demo of a cult clsssic game i put many hours into. High volume rock music and serious sam with your friend.... good times, you get in the zone, so to speak.

Prva prava igra u kojoj sam istinski uzivao kao klinac, svaka cast! Pozdrav iz Srbije!

TALOS - the most underrated fps puzzle game in history.

God, Erik Wolpaw was a cool guy from in the past to the present. So glad SS was able to come to fruition, and along with other Croteam games.

Hearing that they started out with a wolfenstein 3d spin off, and DN3D, Doom and Quake came out well before the game launched, gives insight on how long it took to develop this game

What's really cool is: Old Man Murray is still up. You can go there and read the first Interview (from 2000) and the second interview from 2001.

this is why i love croteam. they still know the importance of demos.

All SS games are good..i wish this franchise was so not underrated. More people should support croteam thought...

They built a clone of Wolfenstein's engine and then simply "added" a vertical camera after seeing Duke Nukem? That must have taken so much rewriting. He made it sound so easy lol

what a great interview! i remember playing that demo so much in my childhood! you guys did an amazing job from your garage!

Being a game developer I am very biased, but I find these stories fascinating! They deserve to go viral.

My first game on my first PC. Thank You!

2:03 Oh man, Diamond Multimedia video cards; that brings back memories!

Awesome video. One of my favorite games of all time. I was about 11 years old and played The Second Encounter with my uncle for hours every night

I'm really loving these War Stories series and I really hope you make more of them! Subscribed :)!

I remember playing Serious Sam 2 and finding two aliens having sex in a bush, and a miniature football stadium.

Seconds to Crate (STC) should never have been abandoned as a metric! Also, khm , - GO TEAM CRO!!!!

Thanks that brought back a lot of memories from the days of the SS Tests and Demo. So much anticipation for the game release. I still have about a million screenshots. I'll never forget having my 'They never learn' one-liner accepted in to the game and being credited 🤜

Wow, that was great to watch. I first came across SS on a computer magazine disc and it blew me away, it ran so smooth and had huge outdoor levels. ...and the sounds!

Yes! I love this series, I'm so happy you continued it!!!

Used to love playing Serious Sam when I was young as, such a fun game, have them all on steam now too. such a fun game, that last mission/ending was so much fun! Cheers for this upload Ars Tech, so many great videos and its straight to the point :D

Serious Sam 1 and 2 were fabulous, I was mesmerised by them !

Igra za sva vremena.Posle ove igre vise nisam bio samo obican igrac.Imam sve delove i nadam se novom sto pre :D Svaka cast CROTEAM

This is so true, infact, I remember this demo copy coming with many computer related magazines,feautured on many tech forum and tbh i even remember buying a limited edition? which stopped me playing the game halfway through! but it saved these guy, and now i got the whole franchise bundle in steam for really good price.

30 publishers and only 2 answer with no.

Serious Sam was Amazing for the Day. The Clip plane was unbelievably long. You could see across valleys. The game was colorful, (the standard was brown, grey, more brown). Then animations were original a over the top fun. You guys kicked butt!

The Talos Principle was also an amazing game by these guys

thank you sharing your experience making your game Davor Hunski. i found the whole story very interesting. i learned alot!

That story about the first review is amazing. Well done.

This game was and still is fun. I remember hunting for the demo after reading the OMM review.

Thank you so much for the work you put in. Love it all

I attended a speech he gave on my faculty, you should hear what croteam did with even more ancient tech, Football Glory In essence a clone of Sensible Soccer, Football Glory was a more laid back, and at points, a much more comical approach: apart from several new features such as overhead and heel kicks, it included several seemingly unrelated animations (including female streakers and hooligans with assorted police officers chasing them, toilet paper and firecrackers thrown to the field by the audience after a goal, and cartoon-like talking bubbles after a referee decision, after which the player was allowed to chase the referee), and various other little amusing touches, such as the snow-ridden field having a snowman as a corner flag and icicles hanging down from the crossbar.

I was about 12 years old when I got second encounter on PC. Finding the big head development team Easter egg blew my mind. Still the most satisfying secrets in the business.. see that palm tree like 3km away? Guaranteed secret.. see that wonky coloured brick? Hit it.. secret. Just fantastic

I had that Serious Sam demo back in the day too. It's the only reason I ever heard of the series at first. Good times, even though my old computer could barely handle running it, lol.

Serious Sam First and Second Encounter are Masterpieces!

I will forget the first time i saw Serious Sam, i was only 15 years olds at my first Lan party, the dude next to me was playing it on a 21inch Trinitron monitor running some crazy graphic card at the time, I couldn't believe my eyes and watched him play for hours. I was instantly sold from that point on-wards and couldn't wait to upgrade my PC so i could play it at a decent FPS. Thank you for the countless hours of CO-OP play with friends. Amazing video, so happy you and your team stuck at it when most would have failed !

I love this series. I really admire these guys. Keep it up.

Serious Sam still its one of my favorite games, and I did know it for your demo. I Think that you made a very positive choise releasing a demo of that quality and quantity of detail. I own the titles in Steam, and gifted my little brother the package. You guys understand that we gamers are people, you care for us, and we'll keep supporting you.

man staying up late as hell as a kid drinking soda playing serious sam multiplayer coop. So so good. one of the first and best fps coop experiences.

Croteam guys are real legends here in Croatia. Really enjoyed playing Serious Sam so many years ago, the engine was brilliant at the time.

I played serious sam as kid and I remember thinking what a cool game, graphics were really cool and overall atmosphere were great, with ancient buildings and heavy metal music in background, such a great times!

great video about the history of serious sam! love that!

8:20 it's OK to say brilliant. Because it is. 😊

Thank you, Mr Hunski, and all of Croteam for pouring all your heart and soul into these great games. Serious Sam 2 was one of my childhood favourites, I particularly enjoyed the humor!

I love Croteam's games

I remember getting a demo disc like that back in the day with a magazine. Lots of memories.

Thank you for building this awesome childhood memory :)

2:20 I love that he still rocks a 90's style keyboard to this day. 😋

Very cool. I hope they make more videos like this.

I still remember trying out the demo back in middle school and was blown away I wanted the game but wasn’t able to get it since I was to young to buy it

Still one of my favorite games to this day. I can't wait for Planet Badass

I salute you and your team.you made my childhood.

Excellent documentary about this beautiful game 👌👌

I remember playing this with all my school buddies in Lans at my house. All with beige CRT monitors. Great days - thanks!

Epic game. There was nothing like it back then (even today). The sheer size of the battles, humorous secrets, and creative level design was so amazing. Countless hours and many sleep overs were spent playing serious sam with my friends & brother (THANK YOU SPLIT-SCREEN). I can't wait to share the experience with my brother in-law.

one of the best first person shooters with lots of big dynamic open worlds, an with probable the best easter eggs and secrects any game ever made

Interesting interview, thanks!

One of my favourite gaming experiences of all time. Really enjoyed it.

One of the best games ever!!!

I think every developer should give a nice vertical slice, especially on PC to games we want to buy. You guys are doing the right thing.

Played this demo for many hours and then even more in a full version and SS2. Probably the only game back then that had a lan co-op. Makes me want to play this game again.

Great video !

demos were the best way to test a game in late 90's/early 2000s. There was limited internet and having discs with the PC magazines was the way to find new titles.

Ohh man.. yeah it was pentium 2 processor ha. I remember 3dfx too.. i had p2 350mhz, 192mb ram, voodoo 3 3000 - 16MB graphics(must have), on windows 98 second edition. This guys is a true pioneer in the video... i would bet fortnite and playerunknown creators got a lot of ideas from this man and his teams work here...like an unknown pioneer of today's gaming industry!

really cool. I remember being attracted to the 2nd version because reviews mentioned aspects of the engine and graphics that were somewhat cutting edge at the time like hdr. I was learning graphic programming and had high end gpu that could enable hdr so I got the game. cool company and cool to hear the backstory. i have nothing but respect for the developers.

I can still close my eyes, and remember every second of that demo. It was the only game that I had back then and I used to finish it twice a day.

Very interesting interview !!! :D I really like croteam and the Serious Sam games !!! Always excited for new stuff from them !!! :D Puno pozdravi !!! :D

I didn't play Serious Sam very much but my late father was really into it back in its day. It always reminds me of him :)

I remember playing the demo. I sent feedback, it was a great demo. I got a response from the devs. I think they even wanted me to get more involved. I'm kind of bummed I didn't respond, but such is life.

As per usual, I was late to the party, I got this game in 2019 for pete's sakes, but I can tell you that TFE and TSE were an absolute blast, and a real staple of PC gaming. Very well made video!

This game was my childhood and I still play all the new ones.

I wish more games sent out demos! I played the Orcs Must Die! demo for like 5 minutes and immediately bought it.

One of my all time favorite series. In fact, it was the first ever PC game I begged my parents to get when I was a wee boy. I initially saw gameplay of the game on a trailer from a demo disc in an old school PC magazine. Nobody in my family understood English, with me knowing a handful of words, so my parents had no idea what the darn thing was called and didn't really care tbh. I then one day went to an internet cafe with my cousin and saw that they had the game. I played it and adored every second of it. Then the all mighty Second Encounter came out and a friend of mine happened to have it. He sadly wasn't the one who had it installed on his PC so he couldn't give me the CDs, however we played it till death on his lil rig, along with many other classic shooters and RTS games. An year later, I got the demo of Second Encounter from a demo disc and played it like crazy. Another year or two passed and my good ol' cousin got the game and installed it on my family PC. Boyyy did my mom hate the game, but hell, I finally had Serious Sam!!! I've waited 3 years but I'm finally blasting hordes of monsters at my leisure, oh man it was great. I was the happiest 10 year old at that moment. This takes me back.

I love Serious Sam! The whole ambience of the Egypt theme just worked so well. The experience was quite a thrill. I remember the biggest thing was like oh... a thousand freakin enemies attacking.

I remember running the demo on my p3 machine and being amazed by how good it looked, felt and ran. By giving out the first level of the game for free, they applied the following principle in entrepreneurship (and in life): You have to give first, in order to receive. Big "thank you!" to those people for not giving up all those years and being an inspiration to others. Well deserved success.

This guy knows what's up. He may have a cases of confirmation bias but it's something I 100% support. Demos are crazy important. Don't just ship us a free-to-play beta for a week or two. Let us get familiar with the game on our own time regardless of the month or year.

Serious sam was the first game I've ever played and i was completely blown away by this medium. At that time this game was crysis barely any computer could run it. It was truly incredible and made me the person I am today.

too awesome! I got the demo back in the day from one of my friends who used to rave about it during class, he brought it in one day and I borrowed it. Never returned it back haha such an awesome game, never got to play the full version till years later