If you haven't heard of Serious Sam, there must be something "seriously" wrong with you. . . Everyone has heard of the Croatian team that came out of nowhere last year with their game demo that just shocked the industry. When you think of great "Game Engines" you might think Quake 3, Unreal Tournament, Lithtech. . . Croteam is working hard to add their name to that list. From the ultra slick look of their upcoming game, they'll be in high demand.

I bugged Petar into sitting in the Hot Seat here at Hypothermia and answering a handful of annoying questions. . . and he was good enough to oblige. What a guy ;^)  

1.) First things first. . . . Who are you, and what do you do???

My name is Petar Ivancek, and I am a skinner/concept artist at Croteam.

2.) How did you become involved with Croteam and the Serious Sam project.

Well, as much as it is hard to believe, Croteam was right before me all the time,  its just I never paid any attention. Anyways, I was browsing Blue's News when I noticed a small article about Serious Sam. I heard something about that game on Polycounts forums, and just by sheer curiosity, I wanted to know more about it. Under Developer it said - Croteam. I never heard of them before, but this "cro" part made me think: "Jeez, that can't be a Croatian team, can it?" It turned out to be, and I contacted Roman (our CEO) immediately to wish them all the luck in the world. Incidentally, Roman and I exchanged a few e-mails, where I expressed a wish to maybe work with them. He agreed, and that was it. I finally made it into a games industry, but more important, to one of the best and most friendly teams I know.

3.) Tell me about the game engine your using. It is already being compared to all the "big daddy" engines out there Q3, UT, LithTech.

I'm not really a competent person to ask that question, but from my own point of view, I think our engine is a VERY good piece of code, and it even surpasses "tha big ones" in some aspects. <cough>brightlylitopenareaswithloadsofmonsters <cough>. Also, we did an awesome coop support, which can give you hours of fun with your friends.

4.) Speaking of, what type of licensing are you guys looking at. . . .what has the interest in licensing the Serious Engine been like. 

I can't talk about that matter because it has to do with our business policy. However, Derek Smart announced that he is already working on his next game, which is powered by Serious Engine, so there you have it.

5.) Playing the game, it definitely has a fantastic feel to it. . . oftentimes called "Doom-like" or compared to Doom. What's that like. . . has it been an advantage of disadvantage??

It has definitely been an advantage because, everyone played Doom, and everyone knows what Doom stands for. That way we got more coverage and more people got interested in Serious Sam. I think we fulfilled their expectations.

6.) Being the Concept / Skin artist, you a responsible for bringing the enemies and monsters to life. . . . . what resources do you draw on to create certain looks?? Where do the ideas come from??

You have to realize that I am not the only one who is responsible. We work as a team, and everyone gives an opinion on how the character should look like. You should think of me as a person who draws teams ideas. After that our modelers and animators, Admir and Tomislav, give real life to characters. I just make them more appealing with skins.

As for inspiration, I get the ideas from everything around me, but mostly from the team. Dinko (2nd 2D artist) also did a fair share of the skins, so we can discuss and get ideas from each other. 

 ( Admir Elezovic modeled and animated this bad MoFo Beast ;^)

7.) People you most admire in the industry.

Well, loads of them. But, most important ones, who affected my work are Chris Metzen (Blizzard), Paul Steed (Wild Tangent), loads of artists from Lucas, Amazing Studios and Neo, and last but definitely not the least, Kenneth Scott.

8.) You've been around the "community" for a long time, your site at 3Dpallete has a lot of concept work, skinning. Advice to the amateur skinners like myself?? ( see attached picture )

Actually I haven't been around for that long (2 years or so), but I worked alot with game art, trying to improve. The skin you sent me, is, I must say, a VERY good piece of work. Too bad you didn't send me an actual TGA file, I would love to see how you handled the shadows and abdominal area. As for advice, I really don't know. Get familiar with all aspects of game art, from sketches to animation, and you'll understand the problem better. If you know how to model, your skins will look better bcoz you understand the geometry. And I recommend drawing the traditional way.

9.)Favorite drink??

Mineral water and coke.

10.) Babe of  choice?? Everyone has one. . . no holding out.

Dunno. Too many beautiful women on this planet to just pick one.

11.) Speaking of Babes and Digital art. . . you have quite a section of "fantasy" style artwork. . . did you ever pursue that "side" of you're your artistic ability, professionally other than skinning?

Well, I always wanted to make games, so my work always leaned in that direction. However, I did a fair amount of digital artworks, design and conceptual artwork. But nothing was so satisfying as skins and character modeling.

12.) Hey, recently there has been a little "Grumbling" over the choice to release Serious Sam with only 20 or so levels as opposed to the original number ( over 40 ). . . so we can expect mission - add-on - bonus packs soon after  the game ships then **ahem** right??

That will be discussed after Serious Sam is released and I can't say anything more =).

13.) A favorite question of mine. . . what kinda car do you drive?? Any plans for a Soopa Car after you make billions off the extremely successful Serious Sam franchise and licensing??

This is the most gruesome answer for me....I don't have a car. I'm only 22, man, what do you want =)) I never had a proper job till now.

I try not to think about the success Serious Sam could have, as it distracts me from my work. But, you bet your sweet a** I would love to drive something fast.

14.) Looking at the industry right now, what do you see on the near horizon??? ( broad question left to your discretion )

Don't know really. The consoles took a fair share of the market, Internet is becoming a more interesting field, but there will definitely always be a desire for Single Player Games.

15.) Favorite music??

Huh, that's a tough one. I like everything, from Dire Straits to Slipknot.

16.) Since you and me have been friends for years ;^) please tell my readers a little something about you that they may not know.

I tend to suffocate the HD with PSD files, and I have no sense of order, so my skins can sometimes be found in /music folder. People hate me because of that =)

And I didn't torch that barn. Really.

It was pretty funny, during the interview, I learned that Petar's nickname is derPunkt, being the typical "Ignorant American" type. . . I assumed "derPunkt" meant something like "The Punk". . heh. Petar was kind enough to point out to me that it means "The Point" or "A Dot" in German. . . . oops, I'm a dumbass. Be sure to check out the Official Croteam Site for more info

If you haven't had the change to play the DEMO. . . you really need to, you will be hooked on the action and wowed by the graphics.... Click the picture to download the demo.

A big Thanks goes out to Petar for taking the time to do this interview. 

 I am going to hand out a handful of this bad-ass shooter when it ships. . . so head over to the contest page and get try to win yourself a copy of this awesome game. . .