One to four players traverse levels set in Egypt, Greece, and on the Moon, collecting weapons to be used against waves of enemies placed throughout the open areas.

Revealed in December 2014, Bogus Detour was developed by Crackshell after designer Jochum Skoglund added an Easter egg of an enemy from Serious Sam to the studio's previous game, Hammerwatch.

Bogus Detour received positive reviews, with critics praising the translation of the Serious Sam series to the twin-stick shooter genre, the graphics, and the music.

Crackshell, in conjunction with the cracker Voksi, subsequently created a free version of the game in March 2018 to be pirated to entice those players to purchase the original.

[1][4] Bogus Detour has multiple difficulty settings, as well as "switches" that allow altering specific gameplay elements, such as granting the character unlimited ammunition or disabling the heads-up display.

The team added the Beheaded Kamikaze, an enemy from the Serious Sam series, as an Easter egg to Temple of the Sun, a 2014 expansion for Hammerwatch.

Skoglund sent a screenshot of the in-development demo to Ribarić, who was fond of it and provided Crackshell with a contract to develop a full game based on it.

[10] He noted that the Serious Sam series had a lot of hardcore fans, especially "older gamers" in Eastern Europe, which made it pleasant to fill Bogus Detour with references to previous games.

[7] Skoglund thought it was fun to work on a third-party intellectual property (IP) and to have access to all Serious Sam and The Talos Principle assets, including audio, visuals and the Serious Engine.

[25] James Cunningham of Hardcore Gamer opined that the game was a "perfect" translation of the Serious Sam franchise to the twin-stick shooter genre.

[1] Similarly, Jose A. Rodríguez, writing for IGN's Spanish outlet, called it a "work of art" and cited satisfaction in gradually distributing enemies' remains on the levels' floors.

[3] Also noted positively were the difficulty, exploration rewards, and multiplayer, although Jacquier was disappointed by the scarcity of online players at the time of his review.

[2][3] Jacquier faced some irritation when tracking long distances over empty areas, especially due to Sam's initially slow pace.

The Bulgarian cracker Voksi, who was friendly with Crackshell and had tested the beta version of the game, approached the studio in March 2018 with the idea of creating a sanctioned build that could be pirated.

This version was distributed through Voksi's forum, Revolt, and prepared with a note asking the player to buy the game to support the developers, though otherwise not obstructing the gameplay.