DUKE NUKEM FOREVER

'''Duke Nukem Forever''' ('''DNF''') is a first-person shooter video game being developed by 3D Realms, and is the next game in the ''Duke Nukem'' series. It is infamous for its protracted development schedule, which began in April 1997. The game has been hindered by several internal rewrites, as well as engine technology restarts.
''Forever'' stars its eponymous character, Duke Nukem, and is the fourth game of the main series. Like its predecessor, ''Duke Nukem 3D'', ''Forever'' is a first-person shooter and is being directed by George Broussard, one of the creators of the original ''Duke Nukem'' game.

Contents

Plot

Development history

Change to Unreal engine

Conflict with Take-Two

Physics engine switch

2005 and beyond

Reception

Future Games

References

External links

Plot

The plot of ''Forever'' has been presented through released footage and screenshots. 3D Realms released trailers at the 1998 and 2001 E3 conventions and screenshots between those years. However, as ''Forever'' has gone through extensive changes since its last trailer, the plot still remains unclear as of 2007.
The status of several secondary characters also remains unclear. In the November 1997 issue of ''PC Gamer'', Scott Miller stated that Doctor Proton, Duke's original nemesis, would return. It is unknown if Doctor Proton is still in the game. In the 1998 trailer, Duke was paired up with a female sidekick named Bombshell, but she did not appear in the trailer released in 2001.
The 2001 trailer shows an alien invasion in Las Vegas. It features Duke fighting with several weapons (most prominently a rifle), his Gold Desert Eagle, his RPG, and the shrinking gun. Duke fights the aliens in many areas: a mine, some rural areas, the streets of Las Vegas, on water, indoor areas, etc.^[1]
As of 2007, the 3D Realms website states that "the screenshots and videos that were there have been removed as they no longer represent the game's current look and feel."

Development history

''Duke Nukem Forever'' was officially announced on April 28, 1997 along with the purchase of a license to use the Quake II engine^[2][3] and the intention of releasing the game no later than mid-1998.^[4] The game engine is important as it provides the underlying technologies and simplifies development.
Original prototype work on the game had begun as early as January. In August and September, the first screenshots of ''Forever'' were released in ''PC Gamer''. In its November issue, Scott Miller restated that the intended release date was 1998. However, 3D Realms did not get the Quake II engine code until November 1997, and the earlier screenshots were simply mock-ups with the Quake engine that the team had made in their spare time.^[5] 3D Realms unveiled the first video footage of ''Forever'' using the Quake II engine at the 1998 E3 conference.^[6]

Change to Unreal engine

In June 1998, the 3D Realms team switched to Epic's Unreal Engine.^[7] Fans were concerned because switching game engines requires more development time and further delays the release of the game. Broussard said that the transition from the Quake to the Unreal engine would take from "a month to 6 weeks" and that the game would not be significantly delayed. He also reassured gamers that the items unveiled in the May 1998 E3 demo would carry over on the Epic engine. He also said that ''Forever'' would be released in 1999.⁷
In 1999, 3D Realms announced that they had upgraded to the newer version of the Unreal Engine. In December, they released a second batch of screenshots that showcased ''Forever'' on the Unreal engine for the first time.^[8] In December, 3D Realms released a Christmas card that suggested that ''Forever'' would be released in 2000.^[9]
In early December 2000, publisher Gathering of Developers announced that they had acquired the publishing rights for ''Forever''.^[10] Shortly afterwards, 3D Realms released another Christmas card that suggested that ''Forever'' would be released in 2001.^[11]
At the May 2001 E3, 3D Realms released a second video that showed a couple of minutes of in-game footage¹, which notably showed the player moving in a very large city in a non-linear way, and a certain level of interactivity (the player buys a sandwich from a vending machine and pushing the keypads). In August, Gathering closed down and Take-Two Interactive took over the publishing rights for ''Forever''.^[12]
In 2002, after hiring several new programmers, the team completely rewrote the renderer and other game engine modules, beginning work on a new generation of game content. Broussard estimated that around 95% of the previous level design work was scrapped in the process. He also later stated that they were never less than two years away from shipping with the UT based version of the game. The engine, which now contains parts of an early version of Unreal Engine 2.0 (the team branched off from the engine in 2001) supports such features as pixel shading, normal mapping and high dynamic range based lighting.^[13][14]
Broussard has stated several times that the only parts of the Unreal engine that are still part of their code base are UnrealScript, the networking code, and the UnrealEd. Everything else (except Meqon, the physics engine) has been written from scratch by 3D Realms. The principal technical reason given by Broussard for the extensive delays was the unstable tech base. Once it was stabilized, 3D Realms expanded their team considerably, from 22 to 31 members.

Conflict with Take-Two

On May 20, 2003, Jeffrey Lapin, then CEO of Take Two, told reporters that the game would not be out by the end of 2003.^[15] In response, George Broussard commented on Shacknews, saying that "Take Two needs to STFU imo" — Internet parlance for "Take Two needs to shut the fuck up, in my opinion."^[16] Later in the year, on December 18 2003, Jeffrey Lapin said that 3D Realms had told him that ''Duke Nukem Forever'' was expected to be finished by the end of 2004, or the beginning of 2005.¹²
On September 9 2004, GameSpot reported that ''Duke Nukem Forever'' had switched to the ''Doom 3'' engine.^[17] Many gaming news sites mailed George Broussard, asking him to confirm or deny the rumor. After receiving no answer from him, they published the rumor as fact, ending the article with "Attempts to contact 3D Realms for comment were unsuccessful as of press time." Later that day, George Broussard explicitly denied the rumor and explained that he was not able to answer the emails because he was working elsewhere in the building.¹⁷
On March 20, 2007, Scott Miller explained in an interview with YouGamers that they were still using the Unreal Engine, although what is probably a heavily modified version.^[18]

Physics engine switch

On September 14, 2004, 3D Realms announced that they had replaced the Karma physics engine with one designed by Meqon. Several sites have speculated that ''Forever'' will be using the latest generation of this technology, which was designed for next-gen consoles.^[19]

2005 and beyond

Rumors in April 2005 suggested that the game would appear at 2005 E3, along with 3D Realms' previously cancelled ''Prey''. While ''Prey'' did make an appearance, the rumors of ''Forever'''s appearance turned out to be false.^[20]
In February 2006, Broussard gave an interview and updated the status on ''Forever''. He reported that everything was together and in full production, and that the guns, creatures, and everything else had been finished. Broussard said that the development team was tweaking and polishing the game and putting it all together.^[21] In April, Broussard demonstrated samples of the game, including an early level, a vehicle sequence, and a few test rooms.^[22]
In June, in a filing with the SEC, Take-Two revealed that they had renegotiated the deal and will receive $4.25 million instead of $6 million upon the release of the game.^[23] The filing also revealed that Take-Two was offering a $US 500,000 bonus if ''Forever'' was commercially released by December 31, 2006.^[24] However, Broussard denied the rumors that ''Forever'' would be released, saying that 3D Realms never cared for or asked for the bonus. He stated that he would "never ship a game early...for 500K."^[25]
On August 30, 2006, Shacknews reported that several key employees had left 3D Realms.^[26] They speculated that the departures would lead to further delays for ''Forever''. However, 3D Realms strongly denied these claims, stating that the employees had left over a number of months and that the game was still moving ahead.^[27]
On January 25, 2007 and May 22, 2007, George Broussard posted two Gamasutra job ads with small (200x125 pixel) screenshots of Duke Nukem holding two guns and an enemy (mutated pig). Broussard later confirmed that these were real in-game screenshots^[28][29].
In June 2007, Game Informer, released two new screenshots, one of which appears to be a previously unseen shot of an in-game level, the other revealing a new monster in the game. ^[30]

Reception

''Wired News'' has awarded ''Duke Nukem Forever'' its Vaporware Awards several times. It placed in second in 2000 and topped the list in 2001 and 2002.^[31][32][33] ''Wired News'' created the Vaporware Lifetime Achievement Award exclusively for ''Forever'' and awarded it in 2003. George Broussard accepted the award, simply stating, "We're undeniably late and we know it."^[34] In 2004, the game was not on Wired's list, saying that they had given ''Forever'' the Lifetime Achievement Award to get it off of the list.^[35] However, upon readers' demands, ''Wired'' changed its mind, and ''Forever'' won first place in both 2005 and 2006.^[36][37]
''Forever'' has drawn a number of jokes related to its development time line. Gamers have substituted several names in place of ''Forever'', calling it "ForNever", "Forever Delayed", "Never", "Whenever", "If Ever", "(Is) Taking Forever" and "Neverever".³¹³³³⁵ In the April 24 2006 edition of ''FoxTrot'', Jason Fox compiles a list of reasons why to get a PC. One of the reasons was to "play ''Duke Nukem Forever'' someday."^[38]
When the GameSpy editors compiled a list of the "Top 25 Dumbest Moments in Gaming History" in June 2003, ''Duke Nukem Forever'' placed #18.^[39]
The development timeline of this game is also spoofed by VG Cats; in a high-school classroom setting, when asked if there would yet again be a delay in his homework by the robotic teacher, a teenage version of Duke replies, "It'll be done when it's done!"^[40]

Future Games

On March 21 2006, 3D Realms CEO Scott Miller stated that when ''Forever'' was finished, 3D Realms would begin work on a sequel.^[41]

References

1. IGN Staff. "Duke Nukem Forever". IGN. June 1, 2001. Accessed January 27, 2007.
2. Broussard, George. "3D Realms Licenses id Software's 'Quake II' Engine for `Duke Nukem Forever'". Planet Duke. April 28, 1997.
3. "The Official Duke Nukem Forever FAQ". Planet Duke. Last updated January 8, 2005.
4. "Duke does Quake - The Big Question Answered - Why?" 3D Realms through archive.org. Retrieved May 10, 2007.
5. "The Fall Of Duke Nukem". Eurogamer. May 30, 2003.
6. "DNF from E3past". Kotaku. March 22, 2006.
7. "Duke Nukem Forever Switches to Unreal Engine". 3D Realms. June 15, 1998.
8. ''Duke Nukem Forever'' screenshot gallery
9. 1999 3D Realms Christmas Card - Page 2. 3D Realms. Retrieved August 7, 2006.
10. "Duke Nukem Turns His Life Over to g.o.d.". 3D Realms. December 4, 2000.
11. 2000 3D Realms Christmas Card - Page 3. 3D Realms. Retrieved August 7, 2006.
12. Thorsen, Tor. "No Duke Nukem Forever 'til 2005?". December 18, 2003. GameSpot. Retrieved January 31, 2007.
13. "Duke Nukem Forever Bits". Voodoo Extreme. April 13, 2004.
14. "DNF Engine Status". Duke4.de. January 14, 2004.
15. Varanini, Giancarlo. "Take-Two reveals new games in lineup". GameSpot. May 29, 2003.
16. Morris, Chris. "Duke Nukem vs. Take Two". CNN Money. June 11, 2003.
17. Thorsen, Tor. "3D Realms denies Duke Nukem Forever using Doom 3 engine". GameSpot. September 10, 2004.
18. "Scott Miller interview at YouGamers"
19. "GDC: Duke Nukem Forever physics surpass Half-Life 2". Gameindustry.biz. September 3, 2005.
20. McNamara, Tom. "E3 2005: Duke Nukem Forever Not Here". IGN. May 19, 2005.
21. George Broussard Interview from 1UP.com. January 31, 2006. 1UP.com. Retrieved August 7, 2006.
22. Carless, Simon. "Broussard Updates Duke Nukem Forever Status". Gamesutra. April 12, 2006
23. Form 10-Q: Take-Two Interactive Software. Quarterly report ending April 30, 2006. Retrieved August 7, 2006.
24. Thorsen, Tor. "Take-Two stock tanks, Duke Nukem Forever due by Dec. 31?". June 9, 2006. GameSpot.
25. Thorson, Tor. "Broussard: We won't rush Duke Nukem Forever". June 13, 2006. GameSpot.
26. Remo, Chris. "3D Realms Sees Major Employee Departures, Fate of DNF in Question?". Shacknews. August 30, 2006.
27. Thorson, Tor. "Staff shift stirs 3D Realms". GameSpot. August 31, 2006.
28. "Duke Nukem Forever resurfaces" Sinclair, Brendan
29. " Programmer ad" Broussard, George
30. New DNF Screenshot in Game Informer
31. Kahney, Leander. "Vaporware 2000: Missing Inaction". December 27, 2000. Wired News.
32. Manjoo, Farhad. "Vaporware 2001: Empty Promises". January 7, 2002. Wired News.
33. Kahney, Leander. "Vaporware 2002: Tech Up in Smoke?". ''Wired News''. January 3, 2003.
34. Vaporware Team Null. "Vaporware: Nuke 'Em if Ya Got 'Em". Wired News. January 20, 2004.
35. Kahney, Leander. "Vaporware Phantom Haunts Us All". January 7, 2005. Wired News.
36. Kahney, Leander. "Vaporware: Better Late Than Never". Wired News. February 6, 2006.
37. Calore, Michael. "Vaporware '06: Return of the King". Wired News. December 27, 2006.
38. 3D Realms News: Duke Nukem Forever Someday. April 24, 2006.
39. "Never Bet on the Duke". Top 25 Dumbest Moments in Gaming History. GameSpy. June 10, 2003.
40. "Muppet Babies". VG Cats. 2006. Retrieved August 10, 2007.
41. 3D Realms Interview

External links

★ Official Site

★ ''Duke Nukem Forever'' at GameSpot

★ Duke4.net, a ''Duke Nukem Forever'' fansite

★ PlanetDuke, a ''Duke Nukem'' fansite

★ duke.a-13.net, a list of events that have occurred since the announcement of ''Duke Nukem Forever''

★ Duke Nukem Forever E3 1998 Trailer

★ Duke Nukem Forever E3 2001 Trailer