Hello and welcome to the new episode of Featured Mod! For the first time in our series, we will be featuring a campaign for Siberian Mayhem!
Today’s mod is “City Of The Pyramids”- a one-level campaign made by Neiser!
The story is very simple- you’re taken to Ancient Egypt once again where Mental’s forces are running wild and it's up to you to save the planet by eradicating them!
“City Of The Pyramids” recreates Egypt in all its beauty and also takes elements from all four Serious Sam titles. For a moment it will make you forget that you are playing a community mod and not an official Serious Sam level!
So what are you waiting for? Go back to Egypt and save the planet!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2906728336
BASEMENT CHATS WITH YASEN
Hello everyone and welcome to the basement chat! Neiser is also here and we will have a small chat about him and his campaign “City of the Pyramids”!
⚪Hello Neiser, happy to have you here! Will you please introduce yourself to our readers? When have you become a part of the Serious Sam community and how did you start creating content for the game?
Hello everyone, I'm Neiser, pleasure. I'm a long-time Serious Sam player and I started making my first map around December of 2021 called "Assault on the Fortress" with the goal of creating a map that was more related to The Second Encounter. Throughout the process I learned a lot and enjoyed it, hence I decided to keep making maps.
⚪I'm actually really surprised to hear that you haven’t started creating content before 2021 because I was sure “City Of The Pyramids” was made by a modder with years of experience, and now you are telling me you are doing this for only 2 years. This is your third campaign map if I'm not mistaken. The first one is Assault of Fortress and the second one is Final Solstice which I really love and recommend. Which campaign turned out most difficult to create, and do you have a favorite work of yours?
Indeed I've only been creating maps for 2 years. In the process I remastered Assault on the Fortress taking all the feedback I got into account, then I created 2 levels for my Final Solstice campaign called Crescent Star (level 1) and The Grand Forest (level 2), and then I created City of the Pyramids for SM.
I would say The Grand Forest was the most difficult map to make. It took me 3 months to make and to make it I had to learn a lot more than I had learned before. However, The Grand Forest has my favorite gameplay out of all my maps. In terms of visuals, City of the Pyramids is my favorite (in no small part due to the amazing aesthetics of the SM survival map from which it is inspired).
⚪Quite the progress you’ve made for just two years. What are some tips or feedback you have received that helped you in your journey and you would love to share with the upcoming community mod creators?
It's a long long road to learn to make maps and even more to be able to create the type of maps that you want. However, having an open mind about learning whenever you hit a roadblock is a big help, and before you know it, you'll be capable of creating great maps. There are about a million things I could recommend to any new creators, but probably the main one that comes to mind is creating a map that is ultimately for you. If you make a map that you really want to make and love it, chances are it's a good map and people are also going to like it. I would also say to listen to feedback that people give, they tend to highlight what your map's weaknesses are. It also helped a lot to look at other mapmakers' maps to learn how they do things and look for answers in the Discord community when you get stuck. It's quite the journey but it's worth it to see the end result.
⚪What does the future hold for you? Do you have any plans for more Serious Sam content that you can share with the community?
I do! I most likely won't be making a new map due to time constraints, but despair not. I plan on doing collaborations with other awesome creators, such as Sulphuric_Glue, MattStarChief, and Struppi, where I'll be having a hand in the environment and level design. You'll probably learn more about my current project closer to the end of Spring from Struppi.
⚪That is awesome news! Wishing you all the best and I'm eager to see the results! Thank you for the interview. As a tradition, the stage is yours to say anything you wish to the community!
Thank you very much for having me! A big reason why I make maps is to get people inspired to make great-looking maps, and I hope I accomplished that. If I didn't, then I have failed, but don't tell me. I want to thank everyone who gave my maps a try and those who provided feedback, as it helped me get better. I hope to see some awesome content in the future from both old and new creators alike. Also, someone should make more maps with more of the survival maps' assets
Again, thank you for having me and I wish you and everyone the best!