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Dev talks: What went wrong with Duke Nukem Forever [dishonesty, consoles, budget]

I'd be bitter if I wasted years on DNF, but this statement is incomprehensible. Suddenly I feel better that he's gone.

Agreed. No matter what you went through, that's just a douchy thing to say.

Why does anyone want anything done with this IP? It's fucking gross and tasteless. It always has been, but it was fun in the 90s as a pre-teen/young teen to hear dumb lines with swears and see pixelated boobs.

I always viewed Duke as sort of a parody character poking fun at 80s/90s action heroes and the "tastelessness" was done ironically. Maybe I'm being naive, I don't know.
 
Thats most likely for Bombshell who was set to appear in older versions of DNF.

http://www.duke4.net/images/conceptart/1.jpg

Check out the original1998 trailer that would have used the Quake II engine, you can see Bombshell running around near the end of the video:

jiXilOx.jpg


She was originally going to be voiced by Lani Minella, from what I remember.


Actually, it hasn't. Back in the distant past (1991 - 1993) there were some fantastic PC platformers starring Duke. Seemingly most people either don't remember a time before Duke 3D or just prefer not to acknowledge it.


Duke Nukem 3D was the third game in the series and DNF was the forth. The first two games were 2D platformers.

Duke Nukem
Duke Nukem 2
Duke Nukem 3D
Duke Nukem 4Ever (Forever)
 
Guys, this game was announced in 1997 and switched engines multiple times. Consoles did not kill this game. George Broussard killed it with his incompetent management.

He spent twelve years developing DNF and in the end even that wasn't enough. If Gearbox hadn't taken over and released it, it would still be vaporware.

Yeah.

Any game that takes forever to make is mismanagement, plain and simple. It wasn't "oops, now we need to spend five years developing for the next gen".
 
Duke Nukem 3D was the third game in the series and DNF was the forth. The first two games were 2D platformers.

Duke Nukem
Duke Nukem 2
Duke Nukem 3D
Duke Nukem 4Ever (Forever)

Don't forget the Manhattan Project, which I thought was a decent (though not great) 2D platformer.
 

s_mirage

Member
TBH in retrospect it seems like the game was always going to be shitty, the only variable being graphics.

I don't know, but I do wonder when the rot set in. Post 2001 it almost sounds as if the team were just given free reign to create stuff without any sort of ultimate direction or leadership. Was that always the case or did the situation just deteriorate over time? Unless I missed it the quote does not say whether that developer was there from the start or not, and he seems to be talking about the later years.
 
Agreed. No matter what you went through, that's just a douchy thing to say.

I always viewed Duke as sort of a parody character poking fun at 80s/90s action heroes and the "tastelessness" was done ironically. Maybe I'm being naive, I don't know.

I'd call it more of an homage, but you're spot on. His best lines were all references and direct quotes of cheesy 80s action heroes, like "I came to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and I'm all outta gum" which is a paraphrasing of Rowdy Roddy Piper in They Live.

Duke 3d was also really inventive for the time. So many weapons, so much over the top action, so many environments, incredible level design... Nobody wanted to believe it was all a fluke, but Forever just reinforced the cliché that lightning never strikes twice.
 

eshwaaz

Member
Its worth noting that Interceptors (devs of the recent ROTT reboot) next game "Project Ascender" is all but confirmied to be a Duke game.They posted some photos of their studio on facebook (since removed) and you could see Duke concept art on the walls.

http://i.imgur.com/7tU0K8y.jpg

They've also hired Dukes voice actor John St John and have posted stuff about their next game having bicep retainers.
Ugh. Not interested. I thought the ROTT reboot was really poor. Shadow Warrior was better in every way, IMO.
 

G-Fex

Member
Damn that's really sad to read.

I however bought DNF and the DLC out of morbid curiousity. Can't wait to play it.
 
TBH in retrospect it seems like the game was always going to be shitty, the only variable being graphics.
To me the 1998 and to a certain extent the 2001 contain a fair number of things that would have been impressive and unique at the time. They seem to have the basis for a worthy sequel to one of the most influential FPSes of the 90s.

I don't know, but I do wonder when the rot set in. Post 2001 it almost sounds as if the team were just given free reign to create stuff without any sort of ultimate direction or leadership. Was that always the case or did the situation just deteriorate over time? Unless I missed it the quote does not say whether that developer was there from the start or not, and he seems to be talking about the later years.
Well, the game design in DNF seems very heavily rooted in the early-mid 2000s (think Half-Life 2), so to me that seems to be where the game started stagnating.
 

PaulloDEC

Member
Duke Nukem 3D was the third game in the series and DNF was the forth. The first two games were 2D platformers.

Duke Nukem
Duke Nukem 2
Duke Nukem 3D
Duke Nukem 4Ever (Forever)

Yup, fairly sure the original Duke Nukem was the first game I ever owned. We've got photos of a pint-sized me on some distant Christmas Day clutching a copy of it. Can't even imagine how many hours I sunk into it (and Duke Nukem 2) on our old 486.

It bugs me a little when people act as if the series started in 1996.
 
Don't forget the Manhattan Project, which I thought was a decent (though not great) 2D platformer.

Yeah, Manhattan Project wasn't too bad. There was also a 2D platformer on the GBC as well, which was loosely based on Duke Nukem 2.

What's actually interesting is that Duke Nukem Forever started out as a 2D platformer. It was going to be a throwback to the original sidescroller games. The FPS sequel to Duke Nukem 3D was just going to be called Duke Nukem 4. Apparently these were real WIP screenshots from the original Duke Nukem Forever platformer: circa 1995 or 1996:

DukeNukem-Scroller01.jpg

DukeNukem-Scroller04.jpg


3D Realms cancelled the game, but reused the name for the Duke Nukem 3D sequel. Though This early build of the Duke Nukem Forever platformer was reworked into a DOS game called Alien Rampage, which was released in 1996: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl3wThNVvVA
 
Wow, what a phenomenal reading experience. Just goes to show that sometimes you have to say something just to save a project even if it will hurt the creator. That and the fact that sometimes limiting something for the consoles is not a good idea.
 

Bluth54

Member
Yeah.

Any game that takes forever to make is mismanagement, plain and simple. It wasn't "oops, now we need to spend five years developing for the next gen".

Don't throw around blanket statements like that, Team Fortress 2 was in development for at least 9 years and it turned out great. It went through at least 3 versions that we know of, a realistic military style game, a Half Life universe version and the version they finally released.

In fact TF2 was often considered a joke or vaporware much like DNF until it finally came out.
 

RedAssedApe

Banned
makes me sad. Duke3d was up there with Quake and Doom at one point. to gamers who didn't grow up in that era its just a joke now :(
 

Rlan

Member
It's kind of weird now that the PSOne and Nintendo 64 specific titles are mostly forgotten.

Duke_Nukem_Zero_Hour_box.jpg


Duke_Nukem_-_Time_to_Kill_Coverart.png


Duke_Nukem_-_Land_of_the_Babes_Coverart.png


Had a bunch of fun with Zero Hour multiplayer.
 

antitrop

Member
makes me sad. Duke3d was up there with Quake and Doom at one point. to gamers who didn't grow up in that era its just a joke now :(

Thankfully I still have my fond memories of direct-dialing my friend's modem and spending endless hours DukeMatching. Forever couldn't take those away from me.
 

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
Don't throw around blanket statements like that, Team Fortress 2 was in development for at least 9 years and it turned out great. It went through at least 3 versions that we know of, a realistic military style game, a Half Life universe version and the version they finally released.

In fact TF2 was often considered a joke or vaporware much like DNF until it finally came out.

Fun fact: If Half-Life 3 doesn't release before October 3rd, 2015, it'll surpass TF2 as Valve's longest-gestating project.
 
Don't throw around blanket statements like that, Team Fortress 2 was in development for at least 9 years and it turned out great. It went through at least 3 versions that we know of, a realistic military style game, a Half Life universe version and the version they finally released.

In fact TF2 was often considered a joke or vaporware much like DNF until it finally came out.

Equating how Valve works to a majority of the industry is misguided.
 
Its worth noting that Interceptors (devs of the recent ROTT reboot) next game "Project Ascender" is all but confirmied to be a Duke game.They posted some photos of their studio on facebook (since removed) and you could see Duke concept art on the walls.

http://i.imgur.com/7tU0K8y.jpg

They've also hired Dukes voice actor John St John and have posted stuff about their next game having bicep retainers.

Well, that's disappointing. The new Rise of the Triad game largely missed the mark for me. I suppose it's better than a Gearbox developed Duke game, though.
 

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
I guess we cab chalk this up as consoles destroying Duke Nukem. Would have been better off as a PC exclusive

What? No. The nail in the coffin was that George never had a release date. The dev team/3D Realms of old never told him "no" and vice-versa to get a release date done.

It's only after seeing Prey sell well on consoles that, George (once again) got the "bright idea" to add more to Duke Forever, and this is what finally sobered him up from that "when its done" reality.

Rlan said:
It's kind of weird now that the PSOne and Nintendo 64 specific titles are mostly forgotten.

Time to Kill was mediocre and a third person shooter. Duke (since 3D) was the FPS series besides Doom/Quake at the time. Then Duke Forever started to go into Dev hell and Half-Life came out and then Quake 3 and then Call of Duty 4 and...

Really, the take away from here is that George can't take criticism for the "darling" he created that was "cutting edge" back in the day and didn't adapt to newer development practices. "When it's done" only cuts it when you have a clear goal, something George didn't have.

It's also something that makes me wonder if iD's own "when it's done" mantra harmed them in regards to engine licensing and the "tech demo" games they've released post Q3A to show their engine off to licencors.
 

Grayman

Member
It's also something that makes me wonder if iD's own "when it's done" mantra harmed them in regards to engine licensing and the "tech demo" games they've released post Q3A to show their engine off to licencors.
I think id's engine business was a side effect of having the best on market tech at times. There was not a lot of(any?) staff doing engine dev specifically for licensees or support. At some point before Unreal Engine 3 Epic had staffed up to license the engine as a main part of their business.

If id was doing games every 2 years before/post Q3 they may have gotten a few more customers in the transition period but eventually the more specialized firms would be in the positions they are in today.

In a way their not focusing and just handing people all the code worked out pretty good for gamers with gold source, RTCW, Jedi Outcast and more being great controlling games with good netcode. Licensing one of the big packages today doesn't automatically make a game best in class like id was doing then.
 

thetrin

Hail, peons, for I have come as ambassador from the great and bountiful Blueberry Butt Explosion
I'd be bitter if I wasted years on DNF, but this statement is incomprehensible. Suddenly I feel better that he's gone.

It sounds exceedingly bitter, but it also devalues all the hard work we all put into the job and industry we love.
 
It's interesting to think what kind of game this would have been if they simply run the course and continued development for it on the PC. Would it really have been that different? Would the levels be more expansive with more to do than they currently are? I would honestly watch a documentary or read a detailed book highlighting the game's development, from when it began as a promising project to when the first bits of woe began to become apparent.

I don't understand why things such as the level editor and having more than two weapons at once had to be removed, however. I hate this modern trend of only being able to carry two weapons at once, it's bullshit and simply makes gameplay less creative & fun. Especially a character like Duke who is prided on being a satire on masculinity and overzealousness, you'd think that this character would be able to have a ridiculous amount of firearms on him at once.
 

sleepykyo

Member
It always is.

So there should be consoles exclusives then right? Because, clearly, pc gamers don't want games constrained by console hardware.

Isn't this the occasional danger of leading on pc in regards to multi-plat games? Finding out later on that it can't be ported and the design is quickly butchered.
 

PnCIa

Member
Its worth noting that Interceptors (devs of the recent ROTT reboot) next game "Project Ascender" is all but confirmied to be a Duke game.They posted some photos of their studio on facebook (since removed) and you could see Duke concept art on the walls.

http://i.imgur.com/7tU0K8y.jpg

They've also hired Dukes voice actor John St John and have posted stuff about their next game having bicep retainers.

What they are working on can´t be worse than DNF. They actually started by creating a modernized version of Duke3d in Unreal Engine 3 but were shut down by Gearbox.
Probably because they saw that their work was a lot better than what they had with DNF. Pitchford believes himself to be a Duke fan yet he fucking sucks at judging a Duke title.
Yeah it´s all business but apparently (going by the devs post) Gearbox didn´t do much to improve the game after buying it.
 

PaulloDEC

Member
Its worth noting that Interceptors (devs of the recent ROTT reboot) next game "Project Ascender" is all but confirmied to be a Duke game.They posted some photos of their studio on facebook (since removed) and you could see Duke concept art on the walls.

http://i.imgur.com/7tU0K8y.jpg

They've also hired Dukes voice actor John St John and have posted stuff about their next game having bicep retainers.

I've just been watching Interceptor's new office tour video on Youtube, and while they black-bar the art pinboard when it's on-screen, you catch a glimpse in a poster reflection:

jbjwM9Yq0GzHjv.jpg


I've flipped the snippet from Facebook to be "reflected" and it looks like they're the same thing. The guy doing the tour says that the board "has a lot of art from our next game".

EDIT: Also interesting to note that back on the 28th of November, Frederik Schreiber (the CEO at Interceptor) posted the following on the Duke4.net forums:

Frederik Schreiber said:
I'm also personally tired of Pigcops, Turd Jokes, and a Goofy Duke Nukem.
I would love to see a Duke Nukem game, taken in a completely new direction. A way more serious and "Badass" Duke, with an epic plot. Something that really brings back Duke as an Action Hero.

That reminds me of how tired I am of strippers, babes etc. in Duke Nukem games, which only degrades Duke's intelligence even more (there is nothing wrong with Duke Liking strippers and babes, but it shouldn't be the main plot of a game). Give us a Duke game without strippers, a great sinister villain than can break Duke (Think Bane from DK:Rising), a slightly older, and way more badass/gritty Duke, and a galactic plotline that can be taken seriously, and I'm Sold!
 

Krilekk

Banned
They went out a year early. Nowadays they could just kickstart their existing project to completion. Or release an alpha version.
 

Ahasverus

Member
I could sense the dread reading those lines. What a sad, twisted story, it's incredible such a simple thing went SO WRONG.
May there never be another Duke Nukem Forever again.
 

AHA-Lambda

Member
Whats the last game that was in develeopement hell between different company's and turned out ok?

Genuinely curious as i cant think of one..
I guess south park comes to mind as it looks pretty good, but that wasn't even in develeopement hell for very long compared to most.

bishock infinite?

edit: oh shit just noticed why this was bumped. Don't think I want another game from Interceptor after how crap RotT was.
 
I guess we cab chalk this up as consoles destroying Duke Nukem. Would have been better off as a PC exclusive

If you read the whole thing you'd realize that is a grossly innacurate statement. The game was already destroyed long before the decision to release on consoles was made. The decision to release on consoles just served to further damage what was already a broken product for the vast majority of its life cycle.

Consoles don't destroy games. Poor development, miscommunication, lack of direction, poor QC, and starting off with an ancient engine and trying to shoe-horn it into (what was back then) modern hardware destroys games.

Sheesh...

Edit: Didn't realize the thread was bumped from weeks ago... carry on folks, nothing to see here.
 

GuardianE

Santa May Claus
Originally Posted by Frederik Schreiber

I'm also personally tired of Pigcops, Turd Jokes, and a Goofy Duke Nukem.
I would love to see a Duke Nukem game, taken in a completely new direction. A way more serious and "Badass" Duke, with an epic plot. Something that really brings back Duke as an Action Hero.

That reminds me of how tired I am of strippers, babes etc. in Duke Nukem games, which only degrades Duke's intelligence even more (there is nothing wrong with Duke Liking strippers and babes, but it shouldn't be the main plot of a game). Give us a Duke game without strippers, a great sinister villain than can break Duke (Think Bane from DK:Rising), a slightly older, and way more badass/gritty Duke, and a galactic plotline that can be taken seriously, and I'm Sold!

This sounds dumb.
 
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