Hello everyone, and welcome back to Featured Mod! It's time to take a small break from solving all those puzzles and delve into some SERIOUS business. Today, we're featuring one of the most ambitious Serious Sam campaigns out there: "Serious Sam Reborn" for Serious Sam 4, made by "Nonamewtff"

Embark on a thrilling new adventure as Sam Stone, which will take you through a vast array of environments, from eerie dark swamps and dense forests to searing lava caves, medieval dungeons, and forsaken towns. Your mission? To unearth the long-lost Sirian artifact and take down Mental once and for all. With a total of 10 levels to explore, this journey promises 5 to 6 hours of immersive gameplay.

Hunt for treasures and blast your way through hordes of enemies with some returning classic guns, now updated and loaded with new animations, such as the double uzis and the double-barrel shotgun. Additionally, dive into the excitement of trying out brand-new exclusive weapons like the powerful nitrogen gun, the Spencer rifle, or the Winchester! With an arsenal comprising five new guns, three returning classics, two secret weapons, and yes, even a banana!

Moreover, certain guns feature special alternative modes that utilize fire points collected during your adventures—these will blow your enemies' minds, quite literally speaking.

The mod doesn't incorporate the tree skill and dual-wielding mechanics introduced in Serious Sam 4. Instead, it provides increased movement speed, dash ability, quick weapon switch ability, and the return of serious power-ups!

And if that doesn't quench your thirst for action, venture into Serious Sam Reborn Survival! With three different levels, each playthrough offers a unique experience, thanks to the randomized weapon mechanic. Every time you begin, you're equipped with a different set of weapons, requiring strategic thinking to maximize your chances of survival and outlast the onslaught.


https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3028764632
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3028124628


⚪Hey "Nonamewtff", welcome to the basement, and congratulations on the amazing campaign you've made! Could you please introduce yourself to the readers and also share with us when you started modding for Serious Sam and when you began working on this huge campaign?

Hey, glad to be here. My name is Alex (yeah, I actually have a name), and I’ve been a huge Serious Sam fan since my childhood. I started modding just a couple of years ago (in April 2021, I guess?) right after the Editor came out. It all started pretty spontaneously; I just got an idea of a simple HUD redesign, and made a concept, but had absolutely no idea how to actually realize it, as I’d never touched the Editor before. So at that point, I decided to join the Discord server to ask if anyone could do it for me, but since no one was actually interested, I was like, "Fine, I’ll do it myself." That’s how I was forced to open the Editor for the first time. Back in the day, I couldn’t even imagine that it would all end up in two years of work.

⚪Wow! While playing the campaign, I could never have imagined it was made by someone who had only 2-3 years of experience with the editor. How difficult was it to learn the editor on your own, what were the biggest challenges, and what advice would you give to people who are just starting to use the editor?

The Editor may look scary at first, and it really scared the heck out of me as well, but if you really want to create something, if you have an idea - you will find ways to learn. Either by asking someone who is more experienced or by learning it on your own - you will get a result. It may be hard at the beginning, but when you get along with the tools, it will become satisfying when you see your ideas come true.

⚪What is your favorite part of Serious Sam Reborn that you feel proudest of, and is there a fun or interesting story from the development process that you can perhaps share with us?

Good question. I'm sure everyone will agree that the final level, especially the last arena where you have to fight sirens on the tiny platforms surrounded by lava, is the best part of Reborn, hehe. Okay, jokes aside, I think it’s not a secret that Reborn was highly inspired by SS2, NE, and Xbox. These are personally my favorites in the series, and I've always been a huge fan of that goofy art style of those games. I think it adds a ton of personality to the game and Sam as a character himself. It's quite unfortunate that it was abandoned in the recent titles. So, I decided to ‘fix’ this minor inconvenience, and the main goal of Reborn was to reimagine that old cartoony art style and see how it would fit into a modern Sam game. I feel like I pulled it off pretty well, so it’s safe to say that it is the main feature that I feel proudest of.

⚪You definitely managed to pull off the Serious Sam 2 and NE vibes in this campaign. I think this campaign creates a very interesting mix of Serious Sam 2 and Serious Sam 4. But... now that this campaign is behind you, are you working on something else? And if yes, can you please share some secret information about it with us?

Unfortunately, no other Sam-related projects are planned in the near future. It feels like I've realized everything I wanted and should move on to something else. (But maybe you can expect some small maps, like the recent Frost Coast that I made in ~3 days just to chill in the Editor, who knows.)

⚪The community will undoubtedly be eager for more from you in the future. Wishing you all the best in your endeavors, and a big thanks for joining us in the basement! It was a pleasure having you here. Feel free to share anything you'd like with the community for the finale!

Huge thanks to everyone who played, shared feedback, made videos or had any interest in my work, I really appreciate all the attention Reborn got. The worst thing that could’ve happen to the mod - is a lack of interest, but as long as people talk about it - I consider it as a success. Thanks again, and stay serious!

Hey everyone! As you have noticed we released a small, but notable update for Serious Sam 4. The update is focused on performance and game stability, new GPU support and most importantly the game now has a Steam Deck support.

Make sure to share your experience with the Steam Deck with us, and most importantly have fun!


Much love!
-Croteam

Hi everyone!
The next chapter in the adventures of Sam Stone is upon us, as Serious Sam visits Russia in Siberian Mayhem.

A joint effort between Croteam and powerful Timelock Studio, Siberian Mayhem is a stand-alone expansion to Serious Sam 4, cranking the action up to 11. Check it out and stay Seriously frosty!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1792250/Serious_Sam_Siberian_Mayhem/

Hi all!
More than any time before, I bet you didn’t see this one coming. While there was a lot of talk about the next big thing coming for SS4 within the Serious Sam community, nobody came even close to what we are revealing today.

Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem is a stand-alone expansion to Serious Sam 4, working just as well whether you’ve played SS4 or not. Siberian Mayhem cranks the action up to 11. It’s a hybrid experience ready to deliver explosive fun to fans of classics, and the latest installments to the series.

Siberian Mayhem is very important in another way. This game was designed, and its development has been led by some of the most talented members of the Serious Sam modding community, joined together under the banner of Timelock Studio. The team consists of well-respected names including DedKadath, Asdolg, YaNexus, UrbanDeHuman, FreekNik, MintFritter, NSKuber, and Ar2R-devil-PiNKy, who worked closely together with Croteam to deliver absolute Mayhem, and we can’t wait for everyone to experience it.

We’ll leave the story of how this all came to be for another day. Until then, check a look at the reveal trailer, wishlist, or pre-order, and get ready for the madness that arrives this month.

Much love from Croteam and Timelock Studio!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1792250/Serious_Sam_Siberian_Mayhem/

Hello, beautiful people.
It’s about time we put a spotlight on another one of the incredible mods for Serious Sam 4. This one has been around for some time now, and it’s been keeping our Russian community happy ever since it got introduced. We’re talking about, of course, the Russian Voiceover mod.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2432396803
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2432422410

The author behind this bad boy, Samson, has been a long-time fan, and an integral part of the Russian Serious Sam community. Some time ago, Samson touched our hearts with his video titled How Serious Sam made me a man, and we still think about that today.

As always, Samson visited Yasen’s basement and they had a chat. Read all about it below.

Much love from Croteam!


⚪ Samson, great to have you. As is the tradition in our basement chats, I have to ask you – when did you first get to experience Serious Sam and how did you become part of this awesome community?

Heya, really glad to be here. Appreciate the opportunity. Since the release of the original First Encounter. I was 4 or 5 years old back then. My pops showed this game to me and it was love at first sight. For many years I was a silent fan. Just a few years ago, I started my YouTube channel and at some point, I started to make videos about my favorite universe and character. My fellow Serious Sam fans really liked it, so since then almost all of my content is Serious Sam related.

⚪ You have not only been making content for youtube but you’ve also created very valuable content for the Serious Sam 4's workshop – the Russian voice-over project that you have created. Please share with us how this idea started, and how hard it was to manage such a large project?

It was hell. I’m telling you!

Actually, I was just invited as Sam's voice in this project by some friends. So here I am, happy as a child, ready to do some magic with my microphone, and that’s when I get some bad news. The original team had to close this project for some Serious reasons. Wasn't pretty, losing all that fun I could have and leave so many Russian folk without a dub. So I figured that I have to do something that I’ve never done before. That was scary as hell, I made myself some promises and really was afraid to fail. Accidentally, when I was in search of voices, I bumped into some awesome folk from Mechanics VoiceOver. These guys already did tons of some good Russian Dubs, so I was really lucky to meet them. Giant shout out to them!

They helped me find all other voices that the project was missing. After that, we started a funding campaign and holy cow. We had received the amount of money we needed just in one night. Can you believe that? I felt kinda proud but also really scared again. After this, it was all about pushing the project forward, directing the actors, etc. Oh, and at the same time, I had to make sure I don’t forget to play my part and try my best to make it good. So yeah, it was Hell, but of the good kind.

It was worth it, and I’m happy with the outcome, cause Russian folk seem to like it.

⚪ I was not aware of the fact that you got the whole funding in just a day until recently and I have to admit my jaw dropped when I heard that. Our Russian fans kick some serious ass!

You managed to get some really talented and famous Russian voice actors on this project like Boris Repetur and Petr Glanc who voiced the Russian version of the new Apex Legends character Seer! But most importantly, you managed to get Damjan Mravunac to do a countdown in Russian for the survival game mode! Now tell me how that happened, and how would you rate Damjan's Russian?

I don't even remember how I got the idea, but I figured that if you'll have some professionals in the project, who may give it some Serious weight. Of course, we had no money to pay them for big roles, so I figured they might do some small roles just for the sake of love and appreciation for the people. That they did. It felt so awesome to have these guys in the project, but it was nothing compared to having a main Man from Croteam himself. Been a fan of this beast as long as I am Sam’s. So, when he gladly accepted to help I figured that the life I'm living is pretty much going in the right direction. How would I rate his Russian? 10 out of 10, my man! The little accent makes it even sexier!

⚪ Damjan makes everything sexier! But this interview is not about him, it’s about you, so what’s next for Samson within the Serious Sam community?

Well, I have some ideas for videos. Haven't done them in a while. One of them will be addressed to Croteam. That would be something like "Croteam, watch this video 2" if you have seen the first one. I’m just going to collect some thoughts from the community about what the next game may be (well just as the first one) and hope that our lords shall listen. I also have projects with a capital P ahead, though they are mostly for Russians. I just made a little mod for SS4 with my fellow Serious Sam Russian YouTuber Mr.Ogurchick. Cinematic Music. It adds Damjan’s tracks to cutscenes where there are none. I am not going anywhere. Serious Sam is truly a BIG part of my life, so whatever I do, it will be something Serious Sam related.

⚪ I wish you good luck with all those projects and I'm sure everyone at Croteam will watch the video with great interest! Big thank you for joining us in today's basement chat. Finally, the scene is all yours to share whatever you wish with the community or simply do a shout-out. See you in the next basement chat everyone.

A giant shout-out to you for having me here, to Mechanics VoiceOver for great voices and helping Russian Dub to live, to Croteam for making great games, Damjan for making great music and being a great man. Thank you John J Dick for being a great man, and giving me some advice in voice acting, Asdolg for technical support in Russian Dub, all voice actors in Rus Dub for their talent and passion, and thank you to all Serious Sam Fans for making this great community that I truly love. We all must stay together and do great things with this world. Just be sure to take some inspiration from Sam Stone. And remember: STAY SERIOUS!

Hi, beautiful Serious Sam fandom. We’re back yet again with a featured mod, and this one will definitely take you back. Today, we are talking about Thebes - Karnak (Demo), a beautifully made Karnak demo adaptation that awakened so many memories at Croteam, that we just couldn’t stop playing it.

Thebes - Karnak (Demo) is just as fun as we remember the original thing, with elements of SS4 gameplay intertwined with the original formula, making for something truly spectacular. Make sure to give it a go, and share some love with Cyborg.SeriousSite. It’s well deserved after this masterpiece.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2485371036

This feature would be nothing without a new entry in the Basements Chats with Yasen series, so make sure to read below, and find out all the behind-the-scenes bits and pieces surrounding this mod.


Welcome to the new episode of the basement chat! Today we will present to you another basement victim. And the victim’s name is Cyborg!

⚪ Hello Cyborg, glad to have you here with us. I know you are a long-time member of the serious sam community and a core member of serioussite.ru, will you please share with us your journey of how and when did you decide to be an active part of the Serious Sam community?

Good day. This happened in 2011. Then I got a Serious Sam Classics TSE disc, which was previously lost. I remember watching how my father played TFE. How he walked around Hatshepsut, visited the Tomb of Ramses, which frightened me with its atmosphere and soundtrack, memorable Karnak, and The Great Pyramid with Ugh-Zan Boss. Feeling nostalgic, I registered on SeriousSite.ru, and since then, I have become part of this Serious community.

⚪ I really liked how you’ve adapted the Karnak map. It felt really fresh playing this level in Serious Sam 4 with all the new game elements which it provides. What inspired you to do Karnak as an adaptation, and why not some other level?

This is an interesting question. I remember how my father once let me play TFE by myself, and for some reason, I often liked to replay the Karnak Demo level. Moreover, when I got a disc with TSE, after a short period of time, I bought TFE and replayed the entire game. It was a great experience which was also expanded by the desire to create something. At that time, I noticed we had the Serious Editor in the bin folder, which opened the world of modding for me.

I think this is the reason. With this level, I have many memories. This level has become, for me, one of the iconic elements associated with the series.

⚪ That sounds like a really good reason to me! Can we expect more classic level adaptations from you in the nearest future and if not, what else can we expect from you as a modder?

Maybe. This is not the first time that I have received a question about whether the whole campaign will be ported to the realities of the SS4 engine. I fear it can be a kind of "white piracy" of the game because its assets are reused from the previous parts of the series. One level is one thing, but transferring the entire game is not easy work and I should make sure that I will get a positive attitude towards it from Croteam and get enough good support from people!

So yes, it is possible, but not at any time soon. I and my beloved girl Thanadrax returned to our frozen big project for Fusion, so there will be more content from us, for sure.

⚪ Thank you for this answer, I'm really looking forward to what you have in store for us!
Mentioning Thanadrax, who is another community modder, you two have made a lot of collaborations together. Which one was the most fun to work on and which one would you recommend to the community to try out and why?

I think "[Gamemode] T&C Co-Op" for Serious Sam Fusion is a great project. It was born out of our desire to bring something new to the existing one. We had a lot of fun coming up with elite and boss versions of standard enemies. It was fun to come up with various modifiers and features that would radically change the gameplay in already existing official and community maps. So, if you haven't tried this mod, I advise you to play it. You will not regret it!

⚪ I did try it, and it's indeed a pretty refreshing mod to play. I would like to thank you for joining us in the basement for this interview Cyborg, I hope you had fun being here. For the finale, the stage is all yours! Take the time to share whatever you want with the community or give a shout-out to anyone you would like to.

Thanks for the interview and thanks to everyone who supported me in my mod-making path!
I will say finally, to the Fans of the game, do not quarrel in vain, and make sure to always support each other! Our community is not that large, especially the part that creates mods. Unity is the strength that gives life to the community and the game!

___

Are you making mods yourself? We'd love to take a look and share it for everyone else to see. 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

Hey, what’s up? It’s been a while since we did one of these, and in the meantime, the Serious Sam 4 workshop has become absolutely humongous. With more than 200 mods, there’s a little something for everyone, and we don’t see it slowing down any time soon. That may be why we have decided to switch it up a bit in this feature article.

Most of the time, we like to focus on mods that either convert our games or turn them into something else, providing players with new experiences. This time, however, the featured mod lets you customize your guns to a whole new level. The NSKuber's Resource Manager mod has been a part of the workshop since day one, and it's been helping players and modders to obtain and configure stats of certain resources in the game (weapons, upgrades, and gadgets), both default ones by Croteam and custom ones created by other modders, in Singleplayer and Multiplayer.
If you are creating a Serious Sam 4 mod right now or thinking about trying your hand at it – make sure to check out the link below. You’ll need it.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2432507197

Things don’t end here. Our boy Yasen is still locked in the basement, and NSKuber came to visit. Being an integral part of the Serious Sam modding community for years, Kuber is a fascinating guy with some cool stories about how it all started, so scroll down and read all about them in the latest edition of Basement Chats with Yasen.

___


Welcome to the basement chat, everyone. Today's basement dweller is one of the most talented modders for Serious Sam - NSkuber. Kuber has been making life easier for the modding community for years, and I’m happy to finally have him in my dungeon.

⚪ Hi Kuber, glad to have you in my basement today! You are a very well-known guy in the community. You have an extraordinary list of mods and maps in your portfolio, but how did it all start? Did everything start with the creation of the Portal turret player model for Serious Sam 3: BFE?

Yes, it did. It all started with me joining a couple of 7Smoke events back in January of 2016. By then, everyone in the group had their "own" (or just preferred) player model and I felt like having something for myself. So, with the help of Noam's guide, I managed to weigh and import the turret from the Portal as a playable model. Why the turret, you may ask? Well, I never had any sort of special online "identity". People have favorite characters, set avatars on forums, etc. I didn't have any of that. So I had zero ideas about who to make as my player model. But my Steam avatar was set to the generic Portal Turret many years ago for some reason (I am not even sure I set that myself), so that's where the idea came from.

⚪ What a nice origin story! Today we are highlighting the resource manager, but you have a huge list of memorable mods that are worth being their own official game modes. For example, Manhunt – my favorite mod out there. I remember everyone going crazy about it. And then there are mods like Protect the president, Mental gladiator fights, and of course your Diablo 2 campaign. Which mod of yours you hold dear to your heart and why?

It's Diablo II Act I, actually! And this campaign (Into the Sanctuary') is one of my most memorable works. It was my first mapping experience (if we're being honest, it's the last, too), my first ever large project (which I spent several months on), and the project in which I first dipped my toes into advanced scripting. After finishing it, I briefly started to work on Act II, but then I got sucked into pure scripting mods. First, a few cool ideas for the original BFE, then Fusion came out with a whole bunch of new great scripting toys, so that project got abandoned. Making maps/enemies with animations/etc takes a lot of time, and I felt like making scripting mods was a way more effective use of my time.
Man, there are so many other mods, all of which have some kind of memory attached to them... But I'll try to keep it short.

Another really huge part of my modding life would be the Overwatch weapon pack. I remember how it started with me trying to port the Overwatch Orisa's weapon into Sam cause I recently started playing the game and was high on it. I spent a lot of time on it and it worked pretty well, so I did one more weapon, and another one, and another after that. The next thing I remember is, I am in this continuous process of porting one more weapon every day, spending 5-10 hours in SED. A year later, I went back to the mod and added VR support, along with a few new weapons. And after another year I went on and added some heroes' abilities to the new pack. Each time I returned to it, I was way more skilled than the last, and it was satisfying to bring better and better quality ports each time.

Serious RPG game mode for Fusion was also a pretty large undertaking at the time. This was another project heavily inspired by Diablo II. I love progression systems so I decided to make one in Sam, and I'm super happy with how it turned out.

⚪ Indeed, so many good mods that people should give a try if they still haven't! But If I'm not wrong, so far, the Resource Manager is the only mod that you ported from previous Serious Sam titles to Serious Sam 4. Do you have any plans of bringing other existing mods to Serious Sam 4? And if so, what are the ones we can expect to see?

Lazy Interviewer! There are quite a few other SS4 mods which I brought over from older games, most notably PIKD-4000. The monster spawning gun, which has roots back in the original SS3:BFE. I have plans for SS4 mods, of course, but I must warn readers that that's what they are right now - plans, with indefinite due dates and a possibility of never becoming a reality. I have plenty of other work to do currently, so SS4 modding has, sadly for it, dropped down my priority list, though I have hopes I'll return to it one day. As for which mods I was planning to bring over, I wanted to add some of my popular game modes from Fusion into SS4 - namely, Shopping Encounter, which adds an interesting layer of replayability to any map or campaign, and the Serious RPG, with a number of new mechanics/features to improve the experience. But, once again, I shall remind the reader not to expect anything from me in the nearest future.

⚪ Okay okay, my bad three mods instead of one! You better return that man-hunt mod... or else.

But we don't have Versus maps to play it on.

⚪ That has been fixed by another modder who I will soon drag down to my basement, so have no worries. But enough talk about other mods, let's return to the highlighted resource manager mod. It is such a helpful mod, not only for the regular players but also for the modders in the community. How did it strike you to create it?

It all started with the release of Serious Sam Fusion 2017. If memory serves me right, the ability to create custom weapons was proudly announced by Croteam themselves, but then, how do people use custom weapons if they aren't pre-placed on some map? But wait, there are some new scripting functions added in Fusion that allow managing player's weapons and ammo...
The issue and the tools to solve it were lying on the surface, so I immediately started working on a solution.

The first version of CWM (Custom Weapons Management) saw light very quickly after the release of Fusion, but it was very far from what we have now in NRM - you had to configure it through the console! CWM for Fusion has received a huge number of updates since its initial release (checks workshop 102, to be precise), and transformed into a way more functional and user-friendly mod with a database of more than 500(!) weapon resources. But because it started so long ago from a rather simple mod which I was constantly building upon, it was also rather "messy" and hard-to-work-on internally.

The resource manager for SS4 was an opportunity to re-create the mod from scratch, on a new engine, so to speak. I also felt this is the one mod that I have to make as my duty for the SS community - it seems not many people in the Sam community are into advanced scripting yet. (There's a guide for scripting now, guys! Help yourselves!) I worked some extra to lift the weight of adding new resources to the database myself (which took quite a bit of my time for Fusion, if we sum it up, 500+ weapons). The mod took quite some time, but it paid off - the internal system itself is way easier to work with, upgrade and sustain now.

⚪ Thank you for the great answer! But tell me, what does the future hold for NSKuber?

I don't feel comfortable sharing my life plans with the general public (at least yet), but I hope that in a few months I will be able to get back and enjoy some more SS4 modding

⚪ Thank you for this interview Kuber, it's been a pleasure! For the finale, I give you the stage to say whatever you want to our dear readers.

Please make sure you have all required workshop items subscribed and enabled, all required DLCs installed and that you're launching a moddable version of the game.

⚪ And enumerate game files before the event starts if you are playing older Sam titles!
___
Are you making mods yourself? We'd love to take a look and share it for everyone else to see. 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

Hi everyone!
With its latest patch, Serious Sam 4 became ASUS Aura Ready. This means that owners of ASUS ROG peripherals can now enjoy amazing lighting effects based on what's happening on the screen at any given time during gameplay.

Effect list includes indicators of Sam getting hit, when his health is below 20%, as well as when he dies. We have also added the effects that show up once you clear an objective and a calming effect that will soothe your eyes during exploration.

ASUS Aura is turned off by default. To turn it on, from the main menu go to Options > Advanced Options, and there you will see a check-box for ASUS Aura Ready. Check it and you're good to go.

To use ASUS Aura, you'll need to have the latest Armoury Crate installed on your system. For more info, please check out this useful thread on the official ASUS ROG forums:
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?120213-Install-Armoury-Crate-amp-Enable-In-Game-Effects-for-Supported-Games&p=813225#post813225

Finally, our friends from ASUS made this cool showcase of the effects in action. Check it out.

How do you do, fellow kids? With so many amazing mods in the Serious Sam 4 Workshop, I would guess you’re doing great! And so are we.

We are less than a month removed from the launch of the Serious Editor, and the Workshop is already 150+ mods strong. The support our modding community has shown to the game has been unreal, but in all honesty, we knew you were amazing, so we expected it. In between of working on our next big thing, our team is checking out your amazing work, and enjoying it immensely, and while we have tried numerous cool mods in the last couple of weeks, we keep coming back to Dunes. That’s exactly why we decided to feature it in today’s post.

Dunes is an absolutely amazing mod that remakes one of the most iconic Serious Sam: The First Encounter maps, and adds a touch of Serious Sam 4 to it, along with some spicy additions courtesy of the powerful noam 2000. Noam has been living and breathing Serious Sam for years, so it’s no surprise that his mod managed to capture the emotion of the original game, and bring back many nice memories to many people, which is evident as soon as you play it and/or check out the comments section on the Dunes Workshop page.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2431956204

If you haven’t already, hit that subscribe button and go back in time, feel the sand between your toes, and the action on your trigger finger. It’s well worth it. While the mod is downloading, make sure to check out the latest edition of Basement Chats with Yasen, and find out what inspired Noam to take us back to where it all started.

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Welcome to the basement chat everyone! Today I'm sitting here in my little comfy basement with a community veteran and friend whom I've known for almost 10 years now – Noam2000!

⚪ Welcome Noam, please make yourself at home, and before we jump to talk about Dunes- please share with us your story with the Serious Sam community. How did everything start with you and the serious editor?

Hey, thanks for having me on! Serious Sam has been part of my life for about as long as I can remember, and even before I officially joined the community I still used to lurk around to snatch mods and cool custom maps. I joined at a fairly young age of 11, originally just for some help in regards to broken achievements in BFE, but somehow I got sucked into being part of the community when I felt I'm among people who share the same passion as I do.

As for the editor, it's pretty easy - the community was always very modding-focused, and I always enjoyed mods and custom maps. It was actually Pan, the person previously interviewed on here, who pushed me to start modding. When he started pumping out a bunch of tutorials, that sparked the lightbulb in me - "Hey, I wanna try this!" He was also extremely helpful and patient with me, not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed. From there, I just kept playing around with it and tripping a lot on the way until I got where I am today.

⚪ For 10 years in the community, you have released plenty of custom content for the people out there to have fun with. Which mod are you most proud of and why?

That's a good question - for most of my modding career, I was mostly messing around and just doing the things I felt like making or felt like would be fun to play. If I had to pick though, the Tennis 2018 projects (Blue, Red) are the ones I sunk the most time into, with trying to manage a large group of modders and working overtime to polish the campaign and give it that unique "new game" feeling.

Other honorable mentions would be I Hate Running Backwards for Fusion, which I worked on in collaboration with Binx Interactive to promote their shoot 'em down game of the same name, some of my Fusion campaign maps like Vortex Island and Ashenite 13, and of course, everyone's favorite, Serious Horsam, though "proud" is very much stretching it on that one.

⚪ Ah, Horsam... You may not be proud of it, but I’m very proud of you for that one. Now, let's fast forward to 2021 – Serious Sam 4 has launched, and you get your hands on the latest Serious Editor. Your first project for it is a Dunes port, which currently holds first place on the most subscribed workshop mods list with double the numbers of the second-placed mod. Why did you decide to create this Dunes port and were you surprised by how popular the mod has become?

Funnily enough, Dunes came to be just a few days before the editor's public release – since I'm mostly busy these days developing my indie title, I haven't had the time to sink deeply into mods, so I was mostly experimenting and learning about the new SED (as well as of course testing it). Dunes came to be part of the process when I wanted to see how possible it would be to port another map. It was both simple enough and iconic enough to be the perfect candidate.

I was definitely surprised by the reception. I mean, I didn't even want to release it at first. I debated with friends whether I should, out of fear that people would complain it's a port and not something original. Finally, I thought it would make for a nice entry-point mod for the workshop, and I'm glad people are enjoying it. How can you not enjoy some Dunes?

⚪ From modding to game development? Sounds exciting! A little birdie told me your upcoming game was inspired by a mod of yours for Serious Sam Fusion. Can you please share with us a bit more about the game you are creating and when did you decide that it’s time for you to go to the next level and start developing your own game?

MicroWorks is a fast-paced party game where you and a bunch of your friends are lumped together and compete against each other to complete "microgames" - tiny tasks with equally tiny amounts of time to complete. It's a concept that I personally adore and one that's been prominent in game mods, but never had its potential tapped into, which felt to me like the right direction to go in.

Around the time I was done with Tennis was also when I was fresh out of high school and needed to start thinking about a career path. I knew without a doubt that making games is where my passion lies, and my modding history left me with a lot of experience. Modding and actual game development are two completely different beasts though, and I felt I needed to conquer the next stage to prove my abilities

⚪ I wish you all the best in that endeavor and I hope you will still find time to create something with our Serious Editor every now and then. I do have something else to throw at you before I let you go. Is there a message you wish to relay to the community or something you want to end this interview with?

Thanks again for having me on! I've been waiting a long time for the editor to come out, and I can't wait to see the stuff people pump out. Serious Sam 4 is one of my most favorite in the series, and I'm sure the modding scene is only going to get stronger from it.

Thank you for taking the time, Noam. This was a great chat.

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Are you making mods yourself? We'd love to take a look and share it for everyone else to see. 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

What is up, everyone? That’s not an actual question. Jeez.

As you can see in the announcement section, today has been a very busy day for us. In celebration of the Serious Sam 20th anniversary, we have released a brand new Serious Sam 4 update bringing forward official support for modding, and sure enough, some mods have already been released which calls for a Feature, amirite?

The first featured Serious Sam 4 mod is 7Smoke Racing by our beloved Pan. For those not familiar, Pan made a similar racing mod back in 2014, for Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter. However, the limitations of that game meant the mod couldn't do quite as much as he’d hoped at first. Now, with help from NSKuber, everything is great in the world, and we have ourselves another cool Serious Sam racing game.

7Smoke Racing delivers a ton of features including 3 Grand Prix Cups and 2 Meme Cups, along with 20 Race Tracks and 9 Gold Rush Arenas. The mod supports up to 16 players, and what’s best, you and your friends can choose between a number of Serious Sam 4 characters including, but not limited to, Damjan Mravunac himself. How cool is that?!

That was also not an actual question.

Check out the mod on the Workshop, and make sure to download it ASAP. A little birdie told me Pan is planning for some cool events to take place in the weeks to come. Before you do that, check a look at another Basement Chat with Yasen where our community boi asks the difficult questions about inspiration, challenges, and goals. Check out the full interview below.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2432582356&searchtext=

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⚪ Hey Pan, glad to have you with us! Can you share with us when you became part of the Serious Sam community, and when did you start creating mods for the Sam games?

Hey, glad to be here. Is this a new office? Wow. I don't quite remember when I became a member of the Serious Sam community, all I know is that I've been playing the games since TFE came out in 2001. I started creating mods when the editor came out for the HD Games, where Viper45 helped me learn the ins and outs of the tools. Then Finzy helped me improve further. I started out with shitty player models and then some VS levels!

⚪ What inspired you to go and say – "Hey, I want to make a kart mod for Serious Sam" – a game that is known for anything but that?

When it comes to modding, some people like to push the game’s mechanics as far as they can. Some want to perfect what's already there. I like to experiment with what alternative things you can do with a mod. I love total conversions in other games that give you a whole new experience in a game or try something completely new. Originally the karts in HD were made for a Halo map, but I repurposed them for racing after being inspired by the concept of having a new experience in HD. Why not bring my favorite game genre into my fav shooter, you know?

⚪ Since this is one of the first mods made with the new Editor, I think a majority of mod creators in the community are curious, how far do the improvements of the new editor go, and did those improvements make your life easier when working on this mod?

Well, it hasn't crashed on me once except for reasons of my own mistakes, so that's nice! The new terrain creation system has made it easier than ever to create nice-looking backgrounds or playable areas in the game, that's for sure. I think people will have a lot of fun with that. The in-depth tools available for the Vehicles themselves is insane. The amount of customization options and intricate details that you can adjust is amazing and intimidating. The removal of signatures on items is nice, allows working with items from game to game much easier. The tools aren't hugely different from Fusion’s editor, but the terrain and vehicle tools are really nice, I like those.

⚪ What tips would you give to someone that is just starting with the editor or thinking about starting?

There are great videos on youtube from 7Smoke and other creators as well as written guides on Steam. The biggest piece of advice I can offer is: don't be afraid to fiddle around and experiment with it. There's always people around to help you out in the CT Discord and other community servers but I find that feeling around the editor yourself first is greatly rewarding.

⚪ That’s about as much as I had to ask, but I would like to thank you for coming all the way to our office basement. I really appreciate you taking the time. As a closing word, can you share your future modding plans?

Thank you for having me! I think my next idea is to look at creating a sequel to Dogfight and see if I can't make flying vehicles in Sam plus a fun campaign for it!

⚪ Woah. Can’t wait to see where the tools take you next!

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Are you making mods yourself? We'd love to take a look and share it for everyone else to see. 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