Serious Sam goes indie

For the upcoming Serious Sam 3: BFE, Croteam is entrusting its signature franchise to Austin, Texas-based developer Devolver Digital, the same outfit that handled the recent HD remakes of Sam's first two adventures. That isn't the full extent of the Croatia-based studio's outsourcing, as Croteam and Devolver today jointly announced the Serious Sam Indie Series, three stand-alone games allowing independent developers to offer their own takes on the first-person shooter series.

The indie teams participating include Mommy's Best Games (Grapple Buggy and Weapon of Choice), Be-Rad Entertainment (Lame Castle), and Vlambeer (Super Crate Box, Radical Fishing). Mommy's Best Games will be making Serious Sam: Double D, a side-scrolling two-dimensional shooter for PCs and consoles. Be-Rad will continue to explore the auto-running genre of mobile phone games with Serious Sam: Kamikaze Attack, which has players guide one of the series' ever-sprinting, headless, bomb-handed grunts to his appointed target by dodging obstacles.

Finally, Vlambeer is adapting Sam into a "seriously frantic" turn-based role-playing game with Serious Sam: The Random Encounter. The game will feature fast-paced fights pitting Sam and his party against hordes of Mental's minions. No platforms were announced, but Vlambeer's previous games debuted on the PC.

The Serious Sam Indie Series games are set to launch in the months preceding this summer's launch of Serious Sam 3.