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RIP Duke Nukem Forever. 3D Realms to close

Skiptastic said:
Man, I wish I had Mama Robotnik's skills:

Joey Pants: If you have anything terribly important to say to Duke Nukem Forever, I suggest you say it now.
Gamers: Oh no, please don't.
DNF: Not like this....not like this...*faints*
*BANKRUPT*

i dont think Mama Robotnik's humor would be appropriate at a time like this.

maybe in a couple weeks, when the tenth memorial thread pops up.
 
Well, I guess Duke Nukem and this day will live Forever in infamy.

I do hope someone buys the IP or Take-Two gives it to someone to finish. Like many people here I was going to buy it day one regardless.

Such a sad day...
 
I'd say it's almost a certainty that someone will pick up the IP - probably one of Take Two's devs, given that they'd be unlikely to relinquish the publishing rights. Hey, who's up for a Ken Levine developed Duke game?

Actually, as a bonus, I'd imagine we'll get a clear picture of where the game is up to over the next few weeks.
 
Does 3D Realms no longer hold the Max Payne IP? I know the Alan Wake guys make it but I seem to remember the 3DR logos stamped all over those games...
 
They always said they would start the media blitz around 6 months orso before release. I guess they weren't even close to being done with the game. They had some serious management problems.
 
alistairw said:
I'd say it's almost a certainty that someone will pick up the IP - probably one of Take Two's devs, given that they'd be unlikely to relinquish the publishing rights. Hey, who's up for a Ken Levine developed Duke game?
Let him do X-Com first.

And I want a Rockstar Duke. Like the sound of that Rockstar Duke Nukem.
 
Xdrive05 said:
Does 3D Realms no longer hold the Max Payne IP? I know the Alan Wake guys make it but I seem to remember the 3DR logos stamped all over those games...
Sold it to Rockstar after the first one came out, hence why Rockstar Vancouver is developing Max Payne 3.
 
In the end I could not think of a better fate for all of these clowns and Duke Nukem in general.

The company's inability to produce a game that people were begging for over the past 12 years is flat out pathetic. A company like this does not deserve to exist. There are a hundred development studios who could have handled this IP faithfully, produced a competent game, and made a ton of money. The fact that George and company spent the past 12 years playing WoW while posting on Shacknews is proof that this guy is getting exactly what he deserves.

Time has passed Duke as a character by anyway. Duke Nukem represented an era of gaming that has not been relevant in a long time. I am glad that this thing was put out of its misery so we can finally stop hearing about it.

Good riddance.
 
Xdrive05 said:
Does 3D Realms no longer hold the Max Payne IP? I know the Alan Wake guys make it but I seem to remember the 3DR logos stamped all over those games...
3DR sold the Max Payne IP to TTWO. TTWO has a Rockstar studio working on a Max Payne 3 game.
 
The king is dead.

Long live the king.

(Hopefully they'll sell the Duke IP and currently developed assets to someone like Starbreeze so the project may actually see an end..)
 
Whoever buys The Duke needs to rebrand him as a hipster douche, along the lines of this:

2rxh1sg.jpg


"Time to Gentrify BABY!"

I'd buy it day one.
 
So WTF were they doing for the past 12 years?

Seriously was this like a case of Daikatana where the time was spent doing coke and hot chicks.
 
FirstInHell said:
Time has passed Duke as a character by anyway. Duke Nukem represented an era of gaming that has not been relevant in a long time. I am glad that this thing was put out of its misery so we can finally stop hearing about it.
I think this is going a little far. Humor is always relevant.
Zyzyxxz said:
So WTF were they doing for the past 12 years?

Seriously was this like a case of Daikatana where the time was spent doing coke and hot chicks.
I guess the difference here is that daikatana actually saw a release so it's got one up on duke. I remember back in the day people joking Duke Nukem Forever would be the next daikatana, I never thought they would be right.
 
Zyzyxxz said:
So WTF were they doing for the past 12 years?

Seriously was this like a case of Daikatana where the time was spent doing coke and hot chicks.
Unless they were buying the cheap shit, they would have run out of money years ago if they were doing that. :\
 
here comes the dirty laundry...


http://duke.a-13.net/
"The 2001 trailer was 100% scripted cinematic, and not actual gameplay. They built specific demo maps just to record video from to make a trailer. Everything you see in that trailer was phony.

The typical work flow there went something like this:
Designer would be assigned a task (build a new map, rebuild an old map, polish a bit of a map, etc.). Designer would work on said task for two, three weeks, a month, all the while lower management would be looking over it and making sure it was going in a "good general direction." Designer would move on to another task. A month or two later upper management would finally look at the work and say, "It's all wrong, do it again." Rinse, repeat.

Entire maps would be done from the ground up, almost to beta quality, and then thrown out simply because no one would make decisions early on in the process. (Read up on Valve's 'orange box' method of design -- that's how you make games)


Another example of is the fact that there was one part of one map that was being worked on before I started working there. Nineteen months later and the same designer was still working on the same part of that same map... I'm not blaming the designer, it wasn't his fault.

I think the biggest problem that the company had in general is being self-funded. When you're a developer working directly with a publisher and you have milestones to meet it's a whole different ballgame. If you don't meet those milestones, you don't get any money. That right there will keep your project on schedule. If, however, you're funding it yourself, you don't really have anyone to answer to except yourself and you can quickly lose sight of just how much money is going out the door."
 
That explains the e-mail I got this afternoon -- I was curious as to what was going on.

E-mail that has probably already made it through the thread said:
Statement from Deep Silver and Apogee Software regarding the Duke Nukem

Deep Silver and Apogee Software are not affected by the situation at 3D Realms. Development on the Duke Nukem Trilogy is continuing as planned.
 
I think the biggest problem that the company had in general is being self-funded. When you're a developer working directly with a publisher and you have milestones to meet it's a whole different ballgame. If you don't meet those milestones, you don't get any money. That right there will keep your project on schedule. If, however, you're funding it yourself, you don't really have anyone to answer to except yourself and you can quickly lose sight of just how much money is going out the door."
I don't agree with this. I think the biggest problem was bad management. The bad management won't go away just because you're getting outside funding and have to answer to people. It probably just means your project will get axed that much sooner because you're not meeting milestones.

Management is supposed to keep track of where the money is going and how much you have left, right?

The company I work at is pretty much selffunded and we set our own milestones which we reach because we want to continue to exist as a company. We would risk losing clients if we didn't release new or update content.
 
3d.jpg


It's so sad to see the game go like this, 3D Realms was a HUGE part of my childhood. Thanks for the strippers guys.
 
ZombieSupaStar said:
here comes the dirty laundry...


http://duke.a-13.net/
"The 2001 trailer was 100% scripted cinematic, and not actual gameplay. They built specific demo maps just to record video from to make a trailer. Everything you see in that trailer was phony.

The typical work flow there went something like this:
Designer would be assigned a task (build a new map, rebuild an old map, polish a bit of a map, etc.). Designer would work on said task for two, three weeks, a month, all the while lower management would be looking over it and making sure it was going in a "good general direction." Designer would move on to another task. A month or two later upper management would finally look at the work and say, "It's all wrong, do it again." Rinse, repeat.

Entire maps would be done from the ground up, almost to beta quality, and then thrown out simply because no one would make decisions early on in the process. (Read up on Valve's 'orange box' method of design -- that's how you make games)

Another example of is the fact that there was one part of one map that was being worked on before I started working there. Nineteen months later and the same designer was still working on the same part of that same map... I'm not blaming the designer, it wasn't his fault.

I think the biggest problem that the company had in general is being self-funded. When you're a developer working directly with a publisher and you have milestones to meet it's a whole different ballgame. If you don't meet those milestones, you don't get any money. That right there will keep your project on schedule. If, however, you're funding it yourself, you don't really have anyone to answer to except yourself and you can quickly lose sight of just how much money is going out the door."

wow, didn't think the stories would come out this soon.

took a shot of cap'n in the Duke's honor nonetheless. might have another, just to numb the pain.
 
ZombieSupaStar said:
here comes the dirty laundry...


http://duke.a-13.net/
Figured posting this would be useful, it's an image of what one of those orange box maps look like (this be Nova Prospekt, sometime during HL2's development):
http://i43.tinypic.com/2uix1zl.jpg

So yea, doesn't require graphics assets to create, and would be fairly easy to crank out in a short space of time to test out gameplay and playability. Hearing that they were polishing levels up to beta (apparently with textures and everything) before the bosses even saw them, oy, sounds like they were creating a disaster for themselves.
 
Dead Man Typing said:
I bought Duke 3D on Live Arcade, surely that should've kept the studio open for another year.

why don't we all just donate five bucks to 3DRealms? that should keep them open until they release the next trailer.
 
Danthrax said:
why don't we all just donate five bucks to 3DRealms? that should keep them open until they release the next trailer.
Knowing their arrogance the trailer would be released in 2029.

Honestly, I think this is a good thing. Maybe the talent that was working their can put their work and effort into a product that will see the light of day.
 
Fox318 said:
Knowing their arrogance the trailer would be released in 2029.

Honestly, I think this is a good thing. Maybe the talent that was working their can put their work and effort into a product that will see the light of day.

Yeah, ironically, the death of 3D Realms would probably make DNF come out more quickly than it would have.
 
White Man said:
Yeah, ironically, the death of 3D Realms would probably make DNF come out more quickly than it would have.
And to be completely honest, Duke is a bargain bin game. The only reason it gets so much press is due to the 3dRelms refusing to release any information.

Maybe if they had release more than 3 pictures and a teaser in their development of this game then maybe they would have received more funding. Maybe 2k can use the money to fund studios and independent developers who don't want to pretend like its 1996 and who actually care about releasing a product.

I'm glad they are closing down actually. They acted like they were the gods of gaming development for years. We've heard all of the lines, its coming when its coming blah blah blah. They treated fans and the video game industry in general like crap.

Think of all of the quality studios that didn't get the support that 3dRelms did...
 
I also wonder if it would be different if they had released footage to create a buzz. The game was playable to an extent. Jace Hall apparently played the game and thought it was awesome.

Also I'm really surprised that the 2001 trailer was all scripted.
 
Nocebo said:
I also wonder if it would be different if they had released footage. The game was playable to an extent. Jace Hall apparently played the game and thought it was awesome.

But look how long it took them to even do that.

Its a little hard to be sad for a dev team when they haven't done anything in years.

Source Mod Teams had better efficiency than 3dRealms...
 
I once joked at the 3DR forums that duke wont hit until 2004. People laughed at me.



too bad though, Duke was my teen years. I never forget the duke LAN sessions at high school :(
 
Fox318 said:
But look how long it took them to even do that.

Its a little hard to be sad for a dev team when they haven't done anything in years.
It sounds like it was out of the dev team's hands though. It sounds like management was poor since they somehow managed to keep a designer working on the same section of map for 19 months, they had them redo entire maps that were basically finished.
Management should be in control of who works on what for how long. If someone is slacking he gets fired and replaced with someone who does finish their job. But when you're a self funded company I think it's pretty hard to get rid of management.
 
xaqdds.jpg


Nocebo said:
It sounds like it was out of the dev team's hands though. It sounds like management was poor since they somehow managed to keep a designer working on the same section of map for 19 months, they had them redo entire maps that were basically finished.
Management should be in control of who works on what for how long. If someone is slacking he gets fired and replaced with someone who does finish their job. But when you're a self funded company I think it's pretty hard to get rid of management.

Who the fuck lets their business, and their organization get so out of hand?

There is a problem when the first statement about the closing is this

"It's not a marketing thing. It's true. I have nothing further to say at this time."
 
Botolf said:
Figured posting this would be useful, it's an image of what one of those orange box maps look like (this be Nova Prospekt, sometime during HL2's development):
http://i43.tinypic.com/2uix1zl.jpg

So yea, doesn't require graphics assets to create, and would be fairly easy to crank out in a short space of time to test out gameplay and playability. Hearing that they were polishing levels up to beta (apparently with textures and everything) before the bosses even saw them, oy, sounds like they were creating a disaster for themselves.

Very cool. Thanks for posting that - I'd never seen it.
 
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