I’ve been asked several times by people on Twitter what I think about Duke Nukem Forever having an actual due date; that the game might actually come out.
Well, I think it’s awesome for several reasons. First, because I’ve been a huge Duke fan since Duke Nukem 3D. I absolutely loved that game. My memories of playing DN3D are as awesome as my memories playing Dark Forces, Outlaws, Jedi Knight, and Ghost Recon. Secondly, I’ve been friends for years with Randy Pitchford, the man who bought the Duke IP from 3D Realms; to carry the torch as it were. I’m really proud of Randy for doing that – Duke is a great character that deserves another major release, and I’m interested to see what directions Gearbox will take Duke in the future.
I visited 3D Realms in May 2000, right after shipping Daikatana. I went over to check out the latest on DNF. George Broussard showed me the game, and it was seriously awesome. Granted, I was seeing the best stuff they had available at the time, but what I saw was really great. I was excited to play the game. Alas, development of the game went through many changes, and not having a dedicated producer early on took its toll. When I heard 3D Realms had halted development of the game, I was half surprised, and half not. It had been 12 years, and that’s an incredibly long time to be in development – I mean, it’s really incomprehensible. I can’t fathom what it must feel like working on a game that long, then not releasing it, especially if you were there at the start of development.
But now we can all breathe a sigh of relief, those of us who kept the excitement at bay for so long. The Duke Nukem Forever development team that continued creating the game, even after being laid off, without being paid, for the pure love of the game, deserve an epic amount of applause and attention. These guys are the heroes. And I’m still excited to play DNF.
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I have been waiting a long time for Duke Nukem Forever..it seemed like forever but now its a reality!!!
People working on it free was like Joey (Liaw) supporting Anachronox on the side…a hero to be sure!
I cannot wait to get my hands on this game and Get Some!
Yes, I cant wait!
Do you know if its getting built up from nothing? OR are gearbox using assets developed by 3dr?
Also what do you feel about Duke being able to hold only 2 guns at a time (And presumably his pistol & mighty foot)?
I think as long as the weapons feel meaty, The humour is in the same style but fresh one liners and The level design is believable (Okay, I know Duke3d went in to space, but the first episode had very memorable and believable levels The opening one with the cinema, the red light one where he aint afraid of no quake, The death row prison one and the faultines one spring to mind as feeling like real world environments.
Im not sure about music most games now have context changing mood music. I use to listen to midis from dos games all the time Ive even got a collection of high end isa sound cards so they sound great. So I would like individual songs rather than music that blends depending on what your doing. But I think looping tracks is dead.
Also I dont know about stand alone levels or levels that blend together. Stand alone levels have been dead for ages but the one thing I miss from games like quake2,unreal, daikatana, half life etc are prominent stat screens saying well done you have found all the secrets in this area and kiled every enemy.
But ultimately no matter how excellent it is and I truly believe it will be. It will always be seen in a negative light just because it took so long and people have already formed negative opinions about the game long ago.
> Do you know if its getting built up from nothing?
> OR are gearbox using assets developed by 3dr?
To quote Tramell Isaac, former 3Drealms art director:
“85% of the work you see coming out of PAX is from our group at 3dr. 10% Triptych (the last 10% is the hardest ask any game developer) Which leaves 5% for the guys at Gearbox (with help from Triptych).”
source: http://talkinrealatyou.blogspot.com/2010/09/ride-continues.html
It sure is great news! I’m hoping there will be an old-school FFA-deathmatch game in there as well as an awesome single player experience!
I am really looking forward to DNF coming out from 12+ years of development – I just need to have the final release in my hands before I can start believing it!
I come from Denmark and I remember a game shop having set a release date for DNF at around Christmas back in 1999, so naturally I wished this game for Christmas. My mom got me DN3D instead, which I bought back in 1996, where it was released
Naturally, I was disappointed at 3D Realms at that time. But like most gamers out there, I did not predict such a looong development time for the game. What a shame. But now I begin to keep my hopes up!
Great to see that you too appreciate this title, John! I remember watching a clip on youtube a few weeks back, where you stated that DN3D is your second favorite game – it is also on my top five of FPS games (of course I don’t know how long ago that interview with you was conducted
)
me2!
I was in line to see this Saturday morning of PAX before the door opened (on account of scaring up a press pass) and within 5 minutes of the doors opening to the public the line was estimated at 300 people long, about a 3 hour wait.
I’m not sure if any game can be good enough to justify 13 years of development, but it’ll have an impact.
Always bet on Duke.
It’s great news that finally DNF is finally going to be released!. Hope it doesn’t take too much of my old and modest CPU.
Happy (belated) birthday John. How’s life?