Gaming studio ANIQ, the first company of the Entrepreneurial Incubator PISMO, is starting the development of its own project "SHROT" - an old school retro shooter (so-called boomer shooter). SHROT is not trying to reinvent the genre. There are no political messages, unnecessary details and "woke" content. The message is clear - "come home from work, turn on the game, kill aliens and relax."
From B2B studies to own production
Known as a B2B game development studio with more than one hundred delivered projects for clients from all over the world, ANIQ is now moving into its own production. As he explains Dominik Cvetkovski, studio director and producer: "From the beginning, I think it's great to work for clients, safe money, so to speak, but after a while you feel that you're holding back your own team and its full potential. You have top people, but you're constantly doing projects within other people's frameworks. So we started researching the market and discovered the demand for this kind of project."
Blogger Krule lends his voice to the main character
The main protagonist of the game is a truck driver in a dystopian, futuristic America, and his voice is lent, no less than Blogger Krule – a recognizable face of the domestic internet scene. It is he who will have the role of the narration of the main character, as well as the screenwriter, adding an additional dose of authenticity and local charm. "When I was contacted by ANIQ about lending a voice to a character from a game, at first I thought I was being pranked by HULJIB (Croatian association of idlers and idlers), but after the phone conversation I came to 2 conclusions. First - this is not a prank. Others - what now? Now, in addition to being a consumer of video games, I will now be a part of one in a way. Does it feel weird? - It is. What will it be like when the game SHROT comes out on the market and I hear myself on the screen. Best of all, all around me are young people full of specific knowledge and skills from which something can be learned."
SHROT is not intended as an indie experiment, but as a serious market product
When you tell someone you're making a game called SHROT, they first laugh. And then, when you show him the gameplay, the visuals, he raises his eyebrows because SHROT is not trash, but a full-blooded shooter with a name you remember. To make everything clearer, SHROT is actually an acronym for Shoot, Hit, Reload, Overkill, Terminate. You know what you're up to right away. Inspired DOOM, L4D2, Wolfenstein, Duke Nukem, but mostly domestic Serious Sam. SHROT doesn't try "invent hot water". Goal? Start the game, move linearly through the story, pass arenas and kill as many alien monsters as possible. Simple and without philosophy. There are no political messages, no irrelevant details, nothing woke up content. Just pure gameplay, no filtered humor and action.
"You won't know what sexual orientation the main character is, nor what political current he belongs to, because who cares? The goal is to come home from work, turn on the game, kill aliens and relax.", Dominik Cvetkovski also points out.
Conceived as a trilogy, with sequels planned to follow the same approach. Part of the strategy is the inclusion of the community in the development process. Through Discord server and social networks, everyone interested will be able to participate in the development of the game, propose names of characters and enemies, comment on the design of weapons and mechanics, and actively participate in testing. Developer blogs are planned every two weeks, with frequent publication of visuals and teaser material. "We don't just want an audience, we want a community. SHROT is not just our game, we want it to be your game too.", they say from the ANIQ team.
He assumed the role of art director of the game Igor Puškarić, one of the 20 Sketchfab masters and a world-renowned digital content artist: "The creative role in the SHROT project is among the most freeing experiences in my professional career. All my successes and general public presence in the world of design are precisely the merit of my private projects. Namely, all of them were created under these conditions of free artistic expression, without heavy restrictions on their development. With the current team at ANIQ, I got the opportunity and support to raise it all together to a much greater and even more professional level."
What do they think and who are the investors?
Instead of institutional funds and publishing houses, ANIQ consciously chose way through network private investors. Currently there are about twenty of them, mostly clients of the company and friends, among whom is Kristijan Škarica, a leading startup mentor and business developer. Kristijan, who has extensive experience in managing technological projects, recognized the potential in SHROT: "I can definitely say that SHROT is one of the investments that I made I expect my early retirement. I have been working with Dominik and the ANIQ team for a long time, and I am delighted to be part of another local team that will achieve success on the world gaming scene."
When will we be able to play SHROT?
SHROT will be available on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox, and the development team is expecting and Switch 2 development kit, which could open the door to another platform. The entire development consists of 14 team members and external collaborators, and all animations are made using motion capture, one of the technologies LETTER powered by A1. The game almost completely eliminates cutscenes to maintain continuity of action and dynamics. The expected exit is in the second quarter of 2026, and everything points to the fact that this title, developed from the heart of the Croatian gaming scene to bring something new, authentic and loud - just the way the domestic development team knows how to do it.
