Trivia / Serious Sam: The First Encounter

• Development Gag:
  • Sam's first (and final design) was actually rejected by the community during the development of TFE due to being "too silly". A second, more realistic design was revealed in early screenshots, but it gathered a lot of negative feedback from the fans. This second design would later become the multiplayer character "Hilarious Harry".
  • Two more weapons were cut from the final game alongside the pipebombs: the Lava Rocks Gun (which had the same damage and firing output as the Laser Gun) and the Ghostbuster Gun. Both weapons were given to Ugh-Zan in the final game. The Ghostbuster Gun would later be included in Serious Sam Classic Renovation.
  • The Beheaded Rocketeers originally had a buzzsaw for a head in the alpha version. While they appear headless in the original game, the idea was repurposed in the HD remake.
• Refitted for Sequel:
  • This game game was intended to be far larger in scope with Egypt only being a fraction of the game. Sam was also planned to go to various element-themed planets and Sirius, with the game ending with a final fight against Mental. Time and budget limitations forced Croteam to trim their ambitious concept with all post-Egypt being cut out of the final game. The idea was later revisited in Serious Sam II, only without the elemental planets and Mental itself.
  • There are models, among the game's files, for the Beam Gun, Napalm Gun, and TSE's Flamethrower and Sniper Rifle in base TFE. The Flamethrower, Sniper Rifle and Chainsaw were set to appear in this game, but appeared in Serious Sam: The Second Encounter. As for the Beam Gun and the Napalm Gun, they were re-implemented in the patch v2.90 for Serious Sam II.
  • Croteam once planned to include Duke Nukem 3D-like pipebombs in this game, which were nothing more than the grenade launcher ammo thrown separately from the actual grenade launcher weapon. The concept eventually made its actual debut first in Serious Sam II, which had hand grenades and the Grenade Launcher, and then in Serious Sam 3: BFE as the C4 explosives.
  • Ugh-Zan III had a much different design and role in the game: as said before, he was originally called "the Devil", an enemy inspired by the Hell Knight/Baron of Hell from the Doom franchise. Instead of being a gigantic alien, he was a demonic four armed monster with three heads (a goat skull, a demon head and a human skull) and one Kleer leg. He was originally going to attack Sam with a minigun, his claw, a shield and a fire rod. While the final game's Ugh-Zan III looks different from this mold, the idea of a Baron of Hell/Hell Knight enemy was implemented in Serious Sam 3: BFE's Khnum, itself based on Croteam's idea of how the monster should look in a pitch to id Software for what eventually became Doom (2016).
  • The Air Elemental enemy was repurposed into the Kukulkán, the Wind God boss from The Second Encounter. He's even referred in the files as "Wind Elemental."
  • The first three levels from the alpha build, the City of Theba, were remade from scratch several years later as part of the "Legend of the Beast" DLC for Serious Sam: The Second Encounter HD.
  • One of the most well known cut enemies from the first game is the Fish Man, an underwater enemy that was originally going to attack Sam and steal his ammo. Despite being one of the few enemies who remained from the alpha build, the Fish Man was eventually scrapped from the final game, despite having an updated model inside the game's files. Its model was used as basis for the multiplayer character "Gary the Thief" in Serious Sam II, while its sounds were given to the Reeban Electro Fish in the final game. Not only that, but an enemy based on the Fish Man eventually made its way into Serious Sam The Next Encounter.
  • The cannon originally had a secondary fire in the form of the Nuke Ball, which worked exactly the same as the Nuke from Shadow Warrior (1997), with the only difference being the Nuke Ball having a short cooldown period before detonating, killing and damaging both enemies and players within its blast radius. The idea would later resurface in Serious Sam 4 with the introduction of the Mini-Nuke gadget, only without causing any harm to the player.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Serious Sam started its development in 1996 as "In the Flesh", a 2.5D first person shooter inspired by Doom where the player would traverse nightmarish levels before going to hell, but with a very lighthearted tone. It would feature colored lighting support, environmental effects like fog and haze, destructible environments and the ability to remove the limbs from the enemies. Despite the change in storyline and tone, most of the enemies that were originally planned to appear in the game (the Beheaded enemies, the Harpies and Ugh-Zan III, which was originally called "the Devil") would later become mainstays in the franchise.
  • Mental was originally going to be a Brain in a Jar instead of the unseen warlord that he is today. Not only that, but the models of the Croteam Heads were actually a prototype of his original model before the game was retooled, as they're referred as "Mental" in the files. They even contain two unused animations: one for floating inside something (possibly the jar) and one for jumping out of it.
  • Kleers were originally going to be mummified remains reanimated by Mental instead of an alien race.
  • Gnaars once had the ability to throw projectiles at the player.
  • The Lava Golems weren't the only Elemental enemies planned for the first game. Air, Water, Stone and Ice Elementals were planned to appear at one point, but they ended up being scrapped in the final game.
  • The Minor Biomechanoids were originally gray, until they eventually switched their main color to green. However, due to Sam's Laser Gun firing green lasers, their color changed to the blue they use nowadays. Not only that, but they were going to feature an additional kick attack at one point.
  • The original boxart for the Xbox version had Sam punching a Cucurbito's head off, however Gotham Games found the boxart "too violent". It was replaced with the same one used for Serious Sam Gold.
  • The knife once had a secondary stabbing attack, but it was cut for unknown reasons.

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