How Duke Nukem Forever development ran all outta gum...

Duke is just a linear run and gun shooter. Did they not have the resources, talent, or could they just not be bothered? I dont see any other reason why it shouldn't be with us now. I dont understand this 'perfection' they were striving for. Perfection technically? Well there's been nothing technically groundbreaking in shooters since Crysis over 2 years ago. Absolutely zero competition since then. I would've thought any time since then would be the perfect opportunity to get something out.
 
I can't believe they went to Take Two with a copy of the game in 2009! I thought it was dead years ago. :p

It's quite interesting to see that it was actually being developed all these years.
 
Wow. I do tend to despise publishers for rushing poor little developers, usually into releasing buggy games too early, but you can really see where they're coming from here.
 
now he did it wrong , he should have made dnf on quake 2 engine ,then make squeal with unreal engine , and make another squeal on unreal 3 engine. and they would have been still in business even if the games would not be mindblowing like first one .
 
Good read. Just a shame he threw the toys of of the pram when he was so close to the end. If that game would have been put out it would have been a massive success, even if the gfx weren't up to the standard of todays latest games.

I hope Take two do win the rights and bring the game out, or a new game. you cant just make your fans wait 12 years and give them nothing.

I just hope they put the effort in and don't just try and make a quick buck using the brand. Like that crappy 3rd person Duke Nukem game that came out on PS1.
 
psychas said:
now he did it wrong , he should have made dnf on quake 2 engine ,then make squeal with unreal engine , and make another squeal on unreal 3 engine. and they would have been still in business even if the games would not be mindblowing like first one .
Click to expand...

Which is exactly why you need someone to head up a project with a sensible business outlook as well as a passion for games, not someone who just keeps wanting more and more features and to update everything already done whenever he plays a new game by someone else.
 
Mark A said:
I just hope they put the effort in and don't just try and make a quick buck using the brand. Like that crappy 3rd person Duke Nukem game that came out on PS1.
Click to expand...

If I recall, 2 Duke Nukem 3rd person shooters were released on the PS1 but I don't think they were done by 3D Realms although I could be wrong there. Also one or two side scrolling games were released on the PC during the time from Duke Nukem 3D until now.
 
Smit said:
Also one or two side scrolling games were released on the PC during the time from Duke Nukem 3D until now.
Click to expand...

I remember them, they were great. Although when i played them all I had played before were Commador 64 games. I thought they must have been made before DN3D, didn't realise they were made after.

EDIT: After googling, they're not the ones i meant. Ive never seen these before.
 
Last edited:
Smit said:
If I recall, 2 Duke Nukem 3rd person shooters were released on the PS1 but I don't think they were done by 3D Realms although I could be wrong there.
Click to expand...

edit: they were developed by n-Space, published by 3drealms. There was also DN: zero hour, developed by eurocom.

dont forget Duke begins, that's going to be developed by Gearbox.That might still save the franchise
 
Last edited:
Not sure why people are saying its a shame it was so close to being finished, it wasn't. They took a copy of the game, they didn't claim it was a finished or almost finished game.

They wanted $6million more to complete it, and they'd paid for the engine, their building, most of their main costs. $6million for 35 staff, if they averaged $100k a year, thats almost two full years of the team working, most of the team wouldn't be on that much and the big paid people, which would be Broussard and Miller would likely not be taking a wage during that time. Realistically they were asking for cash for two years more developement, and $2.5million was clearly not enough, which would have been basically a years wages at least. It was no where near done, 2 years developing a game, entire half decent games can be made in that kind of time.


He's a muppet basically, as others suggested he should have simply finished up what he had on the Q2 engine and released a game, made $50mil, ploughed more money into a unreal 3rd game, another $80, then used the Crytek engine to make the 4th game to rake in another $100mil. He threw away 3 games worth of stuff without releasing it, starting almost from scratch every time.

Never had a problem with publishers pushing games into being released, firstly its a good thing, secondly all those small companies being bullied by big bad EA and the likes, they wouldn't be able to afford to make the game without being advanced large sums of cash by the likes of EA in the first place. If EA lose money and see no return on their investments they stop investing in small studio's and helping them fund their games, which is bad for everyone. Doesn't make me love EA for making utter crap sports games, but those games make a killing and enable them to help fund other games I do like so I don't see the harm.
 
drunkenmaster said:
Not sure why people are saying its a shame it was so close to being finished, it wasn't. They took a copy of the game, they didn't claim it was a finished or almost finished game.

They wanted $6million more to complete it, and they'd paid for the engine, their building, most of their main costs. $6million for 35 staff, if they averaged $100k a year, thats almost two full years of the team working, most of the team wouldn't be on that much and the big paid people, which would be Broussard and Miller would likely not be taking a wage during that time. Realistically they were asking for cash for two years more developement, and $2.5million was clearly not enough, which would have been basically a years wages at least.
Click to expand...

Your right up to that point, then your into the realms of speculation.

3DR should have realeased '04 ish. But its the tale of the perfectionist.

This really should be sent over to Gabe @ Valve. Let him know that perfection can kill a quality game (HL2 : Eps3)
 
So they were close to a finished product until they saw what Valve and Id were working on (HL2/D3) and supposedly scrapped it and restarted, but I wonder why they didnt do the same for Duke3D which was released just before the giant leap in gaming that was Quake?
 
Nice article.

In many ways it is very sad. You can almost feel the excitement of the whole team when the first game came out (which I will admit, I have never played) and the slow disillusionment as the development went on and on with nothing to show for it can almost be felt. As pointed out, we could have had 12 games if Broussard had just gone with what they had and not striven for 'perfection'.

It is an excellent example of why there are managers and publishers with their deadlines. There have been many complaints (on many different forums) about publishers forcing a game to be published when it is not ready, but without the deadlines you get this mess. Yes in some cases the bean counters get in the way, but they also allow a game to be published in the first place, I know as a programmer it is always tempting to add just one extra feature to the program.
 
skullman said:
So they were close to a finished product until they saw what Valve and Id were working on (HL2/D3) and supposedly scrapped it and restarted, but I wonder why they didnt do the same for Duke3D which was released just before the giant leap in gaming that was Quake?
Click to expand...

Well by close, we're still talking a years worth of finishing up each time they scrapped it.

With Quake and Duke3D, first of all, they had commited to finishing, secondly, it was their first 'big' title, there wasn't the instilled attitude of having been the best yet and lastly, I reckon they just plain never saw Quake coming.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom