A couple of weeks back we have officially announced the Croteam Incubator initiative and now it’s finally time to announce that I Hate Running Backwards is the first incubator game to be released this month, on Tuesday, May 22.

This crazy shoot-em-down game features destructible, randomly generated environments, a fancy level-up system and random drops of health, power-ups, and weapons that compliment each of the star characters unique main weapons. Want to use a deadly farting donkey? No problem! Ass Blaster has you covered! Want to move the ground and raise walls? Seismic Disruptor is your friend. Best of all? You get to dual wield these babies! That’s right, you can fire special and main weapons at the same damn time! Add to that the exciting couch co-op multiplayer mode, where you get to curse at your friend for not saving your ass or grabbing that ammo crate that you needed so badly, and you’ve got yourself a serious party.

The game will get a simultaneous release on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with the Nintendo Switch version coming later this summer.

What is the story behind the making of this adrenaline rush of a game?

To answer this question we need to travel back, way back, to the 2016 edition of the Reboot Develop conference that was being held in Split, Croatia. Binx Interactive, a small indie team from Zagreb, was attending the conference showcasing their iOS game called Monster Loops.

But, besides that project, the team had another mobile game, a working prototype actually,  and they approached our very own Damjan Mravunac to ask for his feedback. Safe to say, things escalated quickly.

After some friendly back-and-forth communication via email, Binx Interactive and Croteam agreed to work together and produce a fresh game worthy of the Serious Sam name and legacy – a game they decided to name after a one-liner from Croteam’s legendary series.

As Binx Interactive likes to say, I Hate Running Backwards is the world’s first shoot-em-down. IHRB puts players in a situation where they are constantly running backward, with the camera panning upwards, and destroying endless waves of enemies that are coming at them all the time. But as Optimus Prime would put it – there’s more than meets the eye!

What started as a Serious Sam spin-off, eventually turned into an all-star crossover that now includes characters from many other games. Characters like The Bullet (Enter the Gungeon), Richard (Hotline Miami), Rambro (Broforce), Crystal (Nuclear Throne) and Lo Wang  (Shadow Warrior) have joined Sam and the gang in fighting endless waves of monsters.

So there’s that. What are you waiting for? The game is not going to wishlist itself.