Croteam
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Croteam | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Type | |
| Founded | 1993 |
| Headquarters | Zagreb, Croatia |
| Industry | Computer and video games |
| Products | Serious Sam series |
| Website | http://www.croteam.com/ |
Croteam is a video game developer established in Zagreb, Croatia in 1993, initially as a "garage games" company. They only had six employees and four contractors for the development of Serious Sam in 2001.
Contents |
[edit] Company history
Their first game was Football Glory, a football game which was released for Amiga 500 and Amiga 1200 platforms in (1994) and then for PC and PC CD-ROM in (1995). The game scored high marks im Amiga magazines in UK and Germany with several "game of the month" awards.
In (1995) Croteam finished Five-A-Side soccer, an indoor soccer version of Football Glory for the Amiga 500 and Amiga 1200, but Amiga market was almost dead by that time, so no publisher was signed.
One year later, Save The Earth, a game for a television contest, was also developed.
A long hiatus followed, broken by the first title of the Serious Sam series (Serious Sam: The First Encounter) in 2001, followed by Serious Sam: The Second Encounter in 2002. Both Serious Sam games used Croteam's in-house Serious Engine and were popular titles.
In 2002 Serious Sam for the Xbox was released, which consisted of both Encounters with the additional bunch of movies, updated scores system, combos, multikills, auto-aiming and other console specific settings.
A sequel, Serious Sam II for both PC and Xbox was released on October 11, 2005 and features the updated Serious Engine 2.
[edit] Serious Sam Scores and Awards
In addition to its undoubted public and commercial success, the Serious Sam series has also garnered strong critical acclaim from media outlets across the globe.
The following is a selection of average review scores (data from Game Rankings - Game Rankings web site):
- Serious Sam: The First Encounter (PC) - Average Score: 84% (Based On 44 Media Outlets)
- Serious Sam: The Second Encounter (PC) - Average Score: 85% (Based On 29 Media Outlets)
Here are some memorable editorial awards for Serious Sam: The First Encounter:
- Game of the Year (PC) (2001) – GameSpot
- Best Action Game of 2001 – Game.EXE (Russia)
- Surprise of the Year (2001) – Action Vault
- Readers' Choice: Top Ten Boss Fights (Ugh-Zan III) - GameSpot
- Premier Awards 2001 for Best Enemy (Headless Kamikaze) – Computer Gaming World
- Outstanding Achievement in Technology (2001) – Action Vault
- Game of the Month (PC) (April 2001) – PC Gamer UK
- Best of 2001 Editor's Choice Award – Game Revolution
- Editor's Choice Award – IGN
- Editor's Choice – Game Zone
- Highly Reccomended – Games Domain
- Game of the Year Nominee 2001 – Game Zone
- Mindless Choice Award – Mindless Games
- Best Buy – Game Breaker
- Award of Excellence – The Gamers Temple
- Platinum Heart Award – Gamer's Pulse
[edit] In Development
Croteam is currently at work on Serious Sam 3 for PC and Xbox 360 platforms, the latest game in the series. Croteam is concurrently developing the Serious Engine 3 which will be used to power the aforementioned game on seventh generation consoles such as PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, as well as an as yet unnamed game which will be based arround modern day warfare.
