phases. Defeating a boss unlocks a shortcut to the next level that can be accessed at the start of a run. After each boss and before the start of a run, the initial weapon loadout can be chosen, where later selection stages provide stronger weapons. Parts of the environment are destructible. The player chooses from one of several characters, some of whom were taken from the Serious Sam, Broforce, Hotline Miami, Enter the Gungeon, Nuclear Throne and Shadow Warrior franchises, including Serious Sams protagonist, Sam "Serious" Stone. The initial roster consists of three characters, while further are unlocked through in-game progress. All characters have varying weapon loadouts, health, and speed. I Hate Running Backwards can be played cooperatively with a second local player. In this mode, more enemies spawn and bosses have more health. If either player character dies, they respawn after 30 seconds if the other stays alive. Development and release I Hate Running Backwards was developed by Binx Interactive, an indie game studio based in Zagreb. When the studio was founded in 2014, its employees had little knowledge of game development and no funding, wherefore many worked second jobs at other local developers and provided quality assurance to other studios, which often made for 15-hour workdays. Binx Interactive initially created mobile games, of which some were cancelled due to a lack of resources. The studio's debut game was Monster Loops, which it co-developed with the Serbian studio Mad Head Games for iOS. In 2016, Binx Interactive travelled to the Reboot Develop conference in Split to exhibit Monster Loops. Some members of the studio approached Damjan Mravunac, the composer from Croteam, with a prototype of a mobile driving game. This prototype, created by two Binx Interactive employees in their free time, involved tapping the touchscreen to make a car turn, drift, and spin. Mravunac suggested several changes, which the team delivered three days later. Stemming from this encounter, Binx Interactive and Croteam communicated weekly and, after approximately a month, Croteam suggested that Binx Interactive build a game in the Serious Sam universe. Within a month, the team reworked the game with elements from the Serious Sam franchise and presented a prototype to Croteam, which greenlit the project. By November 2017, Binx Interactive consisted of six full-time employees and one part-time worker. Among them were chief executive officer (CEO) Bernard Bachrach, visual effects artist and designer Filip Kovač, 2D/3D artist