and designer Matko Šimecki, programmer Nikola Đurinec, and programmer and co-CEO Denis Mraović, as well as Luka Mihaldinec, who created promotional artwork. The team used the Unity game engine for I Hate Running Backwards. In 2017, Croteam arranged a publishing deal for the game with Devolver Digital, which had published several of Croteam's previous games, including Serious Sam titles. This partnership was announced with a trailer in August that year. Around this time, the project was named Serious Sam: I Hate Running Backwards, later shortened to I Hate Running Backwards. The name was taken from a quote issued by Sam "Serious" Stone after travelling long distances in reverse. Croteam and Devolver Digital lent Binx Interactive creative control in the development, only sometimes giving advice. In March 2018, Croteam announced that its business incubator programme would be known as Croteam Incubator, with I Hate Running Backwards to be the first release under that banner. A trailer announcing the release date was published in May 2018. The game was released for Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on 22 May 2018. A Linux version was postponed for additional testing before being released on 28 June 2018. A port for Nintendo Switch was initially scheduled for "late summer" 2018 and was released on 19 October. The developers also considered bringing the game to iOS. Following the initial release, Binx Interactive released multiple patches for I Hate Running Backwards. In February 2019, the team stated that the development had concluded so that Binx Interactive could focus on future projects. Reception I Hate Running Backwards was named among the best games exhibited at the PAX East trade show by GamesRadar+ in April 2018, a month prior to the game's release. Upon release, the game received "mixed or average reviews", according to the review aggregator website Metacritic, which calculated weighted average ratings of 71/100 for the personal computer release, 63/100 for the PlayStation 4 version, and 65/100 on Xbox One. Robert Purchese of Eurogamer described the game as a "fun and fast" arcade game, akin to his experience with Broforce. Peter Glagowski of Destructoid commended the simple control interface and fixed line of fire, which he found made the game more navigable. However, he and Julia Gomez of Nintendo World Report faulted the procedural generation, including inconsistent placements of collectables and enemies, for causing difficulty imbalances between runs. Furthermore, Glagowski lamented that the progress required to