Gaming studio ANIQ, the first company of the Entrepreneurial Incubator PISMO, is launching the development of its own project “SHROT” - an old school retro shooter (so-called boomer shooter). SHROT does not attempt to reinvent the genre. There are no political messages, unnecessary details, or “woke” content. The message is clear – “come home from work, turn on the game, kill aliens, and relax.”
From B2B studio to own production
Known as a B2B game development studio with over one hundred delivered projects for clients from around the world, ANIQ is now moving into its own production. As Dominik Cvetkovski, the studio director and producer, explains: “From the beginning, I thought it was great to work for clients, safe money as they say, but after a while, you feel like you are holding back your own team and its full potential. You have top-notch people, but you are constantly working on projects within someone else's framework. So we started exploring the market and discovered a demand for such a project.”
Bloger 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 by none other than Bloger Krule – a recognizable face of the local internet scene. He will take on the role of narrating the main character, as well as being a screenwriter, adding an extra dose of authenticity and local charm. “When I was contacted by ANIQ about lending my voice to a character in the game, at first I thought it was a prank by HULJIB (Croatian Association of Lazy People and Idlers), but after the phone call, I came to two conclusions. The first – this is not a prank. The second – so what now? Now, besides being a consumer of video games, I will somehow also be a part of one. Is the feeling strange? – Yes. How will it feel when the game SHROT is released and I hear myself from the screen? The best part is that all around me are young people full of specific knowledge and skills from which something can also be learned.”
SHROT is not conceived as an indie experiment, but as a serious market product
When you tell someone you're making a game called SHROT, they first laugh. But then, when you show them the gameplay, the visuals, they raise their eyebrows because SHROT is not garbage, but a full-blooded shooter with a name you remember. To make it clearer, SHROT is actually an acronym for Shoot, Hit, Reload, Overkill, Terminate. You know right away what you're in for. Inspired by DOOM, L4D2, Wolfenstein, Duke Nukem, but mostly by the local Serious Sam. SHROT doesn't try to "reinvent the wheel." The goal? Start the game, move linearly through the story, pass through arenas, and kill as many alien monsters as possible. Simple and without philosophy. No political messages, no irrelevant details, no woke content. Just pure gameplay, unfiltered humor, and action.
“You won’t know the sexual orientation of the main character, nor which political faction they belong to, because who cares? The goal is to come home from work, turn on the game, kill aliens, and relax.”, Dominik Cvetkovski also emphasizes.
Envisioned as a trilogy, with planned sequels that will follow the same approach. Part of the strategy is also involving the community in the development process. Through the Discord server and social media, everyone interested will be able to participate in the game's development, suggest names for characters and enemies, comment on weapon designs and mechanics, and actively participate in testing. Developer blogs are planned every two weeks, along with frequent releases of visuals and teaser materials. “We don’t just want an audience, we want a community. SHROT is not just ours; we want it to be your game as well.”, the ANIQ team states.
The role of art director for the game has been taken on by Igor Puškarić, one of 20 Sketchfab masters and a world-renowned digital content artist: “The creative role in the SHROT project is among the freest experiences in my professional career. All my successes and generally my public presence in the design world are precisely due to my private projects. Namely, all of them were created under such conditions of free artistic expression, without heavy restrictions in their development. With the current team at ANIQ, I have been given the opportunity and support to elevate all of this to a much higher and even more professional level.”
What do they think and who are the investors?
Instead of institutional funds and publishing houses, ANIQ has consciously chosen the path through a network of 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 technology projects, recognized the potential in SHROT: “I can definitely say that SHROT is one of the investments from which I expect my early retirement. I have been collaborating with Dominik and the ANIQ team for a long time, and I am thrilled to be part of yet another local team that will achieve success on the global 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 also awaiting the 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 created using motion capture, one of the technologies PISMO powered by A1. The game almost completely eliminates cutscenes to maintain the continuity of action and dynamics. The expected release is in the second quarter of 2026, and everything suggests that this title, developed from the heart of the Croatian gaming scene, will bring something new, authentic, and loud – just the way the local development team knows how to do it.
