Duke Nukem Forever Update

Gamasutra reports on an update to one of the longest running jokes in the games industry, Duke Nukem Forever. The title, already ten years in development, may (possibly) see release this decade. From the blurb: "3DR's George Broussard also demonstrated world interactivity that includes Duke standing in front of a computer and emailing the player, if he provides his email address for the game. But, according to the piece, Broussard was bashful, overall, about showing off the game, commenting: 'The problem is that when we show it, people are going to be like, Yeah, whatever. Honestly, at this point we just want to finish it.'"

Nothing for you to see here, move along

[Bogtha]

But, according to the piece, Broussard was bashful, overall, about showing off the game, commenting: 'The problem is that when we show it, people are going to be like, Yeah, whatever. Honestly, at this point we just want to finish it.'"

Sounds to me like Broussard has finally realised that endless rewrites and engine changes were a mistake, and that at some point you have to accept limitations and ship the product. Now that he has realised this, I expect DNF will actually be released in the near future.

What /I'm/ waitng for..

[Lord Bitman]

I can't wait 'till this is delayed because they need to take some violence and sexual content out instead of because "it doesnt exist"

Re:What Went Wrong?

[AKAImBatman]

The game has undergone at least one complete change to its game engine during the course of development. Originally utilizing id Software's Quake II engine, the 3D Realms team switched in 1998 to Epic's Unreal engine 1.0 [6], forcing a revision of all previous work except for the game's textures, which were later replaced anyway.

It's worse than that, actually. From a PC Gamer article I read back in the 90's, DNF started with the Quake I engine, then moved to the Quake II engine. They thought it would be an easy transition until they realized that the higher resolution of the Q2 engine meant that they needed to add more detail to all their models. By the time they got to the Unreal engine, everyone was already starting to wonder if it was going to ship.

So in short, they've been picking up and throwing away their work for a long time now.

Wow. 10 years for....

[bobwoodard]

... a test level, a vehicle sequence and a few test rooms????

Re:Relevant?

[ScrewMaster]

Well, just for old time's sake try this [edgenetwork.org], if you still have your original game disc handy to get the .GRP file from. Phenomenal Duke 3D port (he's working on Shadow Warrior now) and the network support is now UDP-based, rather than IPX like the original, and works great over broadband. It's remarkable playing Duke Nukem 3D at 1600x1200 resolution with shading and a lot of other modern OpenGL effects, not to mention several other players. Runs flawlessly in Win2K and XP ... haven't tried it under Wine yet. I guess the developer is a good friend of Ken Silverman, author of the original Build engine. Whoever he is, he's one sharp cookie.

Oh please

[thepotoo]

There is more viral marketing behind this game than you could possibly imagine. This game is a fucking legend. Every 10-year-old on AOL knows that when DNF is released, hell will freeze over, Elvis will return, and Linux will gain 100% marketshare.

Because of this, the instant it's released, a million people will rush to buy the game just because of the hype.

It may be that a week later, the game will turn out to be shitty, and no one will care, but I'm predicting that the game will at least cover its development costs within that first week.

Old gameplay tropes

[Benzido]

One of the interesting things about this is that, in the 10 years since this was announced, the FPS genre has been and gone. After Duke3d, there has been quake, quake2, quake3, doom3, etc etc. The poor critical reception of doom3 is an indication that old gameplay tropes won't fly anymore. It is easy to forget sometimes, but games have developed radically in a lot of ways other than graphically.

It's a reasonable educated guess that a 10-year-old game design will be received very poorly. It's kind of like if you spent a hundred years developing a missile defence system.

Considering what this game has been through...

[wjcofkc]

It would be a nice surprise if it turned out to be one hell of a game. Then again I haven't been a gamer since quake 1 and quake world over a modem... those were the days The fact that it started with the quake 1 engine really adds perspective:

http://www.gamepro.com/computer/pc/games/previews/ images/50334-1-2.jpg [gamepro.com]

Then upgraded to the quake 2 engine:

http://games.cnews.ru/trophy/screens/duke-nukem-fo rever/aai.jpg [cnews.ru]

Not sure what engine this is from 2001: http://www.gamenavigator.ru/pub/gallery/news/news2 005100605.jpg [gamenavigator.ru] 2001

If you are out of the loop like me:

http://www.planetduke.com/duke4/faq/ [planetduke.com]

I can't find a single current screenshot on the web and am very curious. Anyone got a lead on that?

I'd buy a copy

[Jerry Smith]

I probably won't have the supported HW, so playing it is not really an option. But picture this: 40 years from now, I'll sit in my rocking chair with a grandson on my knee, and I'll show him the box, and I'll mutter something like "Good things come to those who wait" or "'Forever' can take some time".

Please let me dream!