Croatian game studio Croteam first came to the attention of the world in 2001 with Serious Sam: The First Encounter, a goofy, guns-blazing shooter that dispensed with the frippery in favor of over-the-top horde-slaying mayhem. After that came Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, Serious Sam 2, a couple of hi-def remakes and Serious Sam 3: BFE . You might be thinking that it's something of a one-trick pony and I'd be inclined to agree (although it's an awfully good trick, so I'm okay with that), yet here it is with The Talos Principle , a "philosophical first-person puzzle game" written by the guys who did FTL and The Infinite Ocean .

It's an unexpected development, but that's a big part of why I'm so interested in it. While The Talos Principle is a "Croteam game," Tom Jubert and Jonas Kyratzes are clearly the driving force creatively; after all, solving an "increasingly difficult series of complex puzzles woven into a metaphysical parable about intelligence and meaning in an inevitably doomed world" doesn't strike me as the kind of thing that's likely to emerge unaided from the studio that previously gave us "No Cover. All Man."

The Talos Principle will place more than 120 "immersive puzzles" in your path, set within "digital recreations of humanity's ruins." But rather than a conventional game character, you'll apparently play as an advanced AI that may or may not be all that remains of humanity's lost civilization. It's all rather vague, to be honest, but any game that demands I "unveil my significance at the behest of my creators" is one I want to know more about.

Barring unforeseen developments, The Talos Principle is coming this fall.