Croteam has released the source code to its Serious Engine v1.10, and I think those head-carrying dudes from Serious Sam 2 up there should be a little happier about it. As it was the engine used to make the first two Serious Sams, it means they're about to appear in a load more games and mods.
The Serious Sam/Talos Principle developer has put the source code up on GitHub here, and while it's a tad more complicated to set up than Unity or Unreal or what have you, it should be worth it if you have a Serious Sam-like game or mod idea in you, or you just like messing about with game engines. Croteam reckons the Serious Engine is pretty easy to use, anyway.
"Historically, this version of Serious Engine is very important for Croteam and for me personally," says Croteam’s Vyacheslav Nikitenko, who prepared the engine for this new release. "I created several mods for Serious Sam back in the day, before even starting the work on the source code, and it was a great tool for learning.
"And it’s even better today! Obviously, Serious Engine v1.10 won’t produce top-notch graphics, but the source code is very well commented, easy to modify, and there are lots of user generated mods out there. This version has everything you need to build your own game – or just experiment.
"If you’re looking to get started, just download the files from GitHub and head over to SeriousZone, it has a great community and lots of tutorials."
Thanks, Blue's News!
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Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.