What really happened to Duke Nukem Forever? Wired has the tale.

cloudeagle

Wired wrote:

On the last day, they gathered for a group photo. They were videogame programmers, artists, level builders, artificial-intelligence experts. Their team was — finally — giving up, declaring defeat, and disbanding. So they headed down to the lobby of their building in Garland, Texas, to smile for the camera. They arranged themselves on top of their logo: a 10-foot-wide nuclear-radiation sign, inlaid in the marble floor.

To videogame fans, that logo is instantly recognizable. It’s the insignia of Duke Nukem 3D, a computer game that revolutionized shoot-’em-up virtual violence in 1996. Featuring a swaggering, steroidal, wisecracking hero, Duke Nukem 3D became one of the top-selling videogames ever, making its creators very wealthy and leaving fans absolutely delirious for a sequel. The team quickly began work on that sequel, Duke Nukem Forever, and it became one of the most hotly anticipated games of all time.

It was never completed. Screenshots and video snippets would leak out every few years, each time whipping fans into a lather — and each time, the game would recede from view. Normally, videogames take two to four years to build; five years is considered worryingly long. But the Duke Nukem Forever team worked for 12 years straight. As one patient fan pointed out, when development on Duke Nukem Forever started, most computers were still using Windows 95, Pixar had made only one movie — Toy Story — and Xbox did not yet exist.

On May 6, 2009, everything ended. Drained of funds after so many years of work, the game’s developer, 3D Realms, told its employees to collect their stuff and put it in boxes. The next week, the company was sued for millions by its publisher for failing to finish the sequel.

Pretty much everyone here has pointed and laughed at Duke Nukem Forever at some point. The longest development period of any game ever, endlessly hyped, yet it never actually came out.

So what happened? Furthermore, how did 3D Realms manage to hold on for so long without a game?

Wired's got the full story for you online. It's a fascinating read, but if you're short on time, here's the main points.

1. 3D Realms was flush with cash from the original Duke Nukem, its expansions, and Build engine licenses.
2. The development team was only 18 people through 2006, which conserved cash and slowed development.
3. George Broussard, co-owner of 3D Realms and head of DNF, would often see something new, say "holy shit this needs to be in DNF," and throw out the previous work.
4. Wired suspects Broussard was also paralyzed by his previous success, and didn't want to release DNF until it was unattainably perfect.

It turns out the team reorganized by 2007 and actually became serious about shipping a game, but burned through money quicker as a result and fell short of the finish line.

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/fail_duke_nukem/

Stormwatcher

The article doesn't have any really NEW info, but it's a very good collection of all known facts.

slacktron

They make it sound like 3d Realms was here to Chew Bubblegum and Develop a Sequel.

Sadly, the money ran out before the gum did.



EDIT: another discussion of why Duke Nukem was poised to fail (it hadn't at the time of this podcast -- two years ago), is what I consider possibly the best episode of the Brodeo here. Worth a listen, if you're into the video game podcast thing. Amusingly, one of the editors mentions how he'd like to write an article exactly like the one Wired did.

The Wolfman

I really love reading these stories of games and developers caving in on themselves. It's like the video game equivilant of a car crash. Tragic on one hand, but you still can't look away, and you might even take a little glee in it if you find out they really deserved it.

First John Romero and Ion Storm with Daikatana.
Then Bill Roper and Flagship Studios with Hellgate.
Now George Broussard and 3DRelms with Duke Nukem Forever.

Facinating stuff.

MechMantis

The Wolfman wrote: »

Then Bill Roper and Flagship Studios with Hellgate.

Man Hellgate wasn't Daikatana-bad, it was just looked at through rose colored glasses, tinted by Diablo 2.

Complaints like "MAN I DIDN'T HAVE TO DO X IN DIABLO 2" were commonplace. Replace X with things like "inventory tetris".

There was inventory tetris in Diablo 2. People just forgot about it.

I'll admit, it had it's fair share of problems. The visuals weren't very inspired at all. Some things didn't make much sense IE: "My rifle only shoots bullets out to 15 meters?!" It was kinda repetitive (but that's part of the territory in a dungeon crawler.) But overall, the game worked.

Most of the time. There were some pretty nasty bugs, but they weren't very terribly serious later on. However by that time it's fate had been sealed, due to aforementioned complaining.

But please, don't put Hellgate in with Daikatana and DNF. It doesn't deserve it.

Santa Claustrophobia

True... If anything, at least it was released. It sucked, but it was released. And unlike Daikatana, you could sense there was something more, just underneath, if you put some time into it. They never got around to putting anything there, but hey, it held promise. Then they went out of business for pissing away too much money and not delivering on enough workable content.

So yeah, nothing like those other two.

MechMantis

Santa Claustrophobia wrote: »

True... If anything, at least it was released. It sucked, but it was released. And unlike Daikatana, you could sense there was something more, just underneath, if you put some time into it. They never got around to putting anything there, but hey, it held promise. Then they went out of business for pissing away too much money and not delivering on enough workable content.

So yeah, nothing like those other two.

AND from what I heard the content they DID release (Stonehenge or what have you) was really cool. If only the entire game had been like that.

Stormwatcher

Those guys failed precisely because they didn't have an EA or Ubisoft or Activision breathing down their necks. And they believed their own hype. It's just like Guns 'n' Roses. "I'm too great a genius to be managed". Sure, those big publishers may fuck up, like not giving KotOR 2 enough time, or they might make way too many sequels, but they make games happen most of the time.

I mean, games aren't like indie comics.

Brainiac 8

I read this earlier today. It's interesting.

Broussard really is what killed 3d Realms. His insesant need to have the latest and greatest tech for the game did them in.

Santa Claustrophobia

3. George Broussard, co-owner of 3D Realms and head of DNF, would often see something new, say "holy shit this needs to be in DNF," and throw out the previous work.

Really, this is all that needs to be said on the matter. This wasn't new news. When you scrap your work repeatedly just to add some shiny new thing, you're not going to get anywhere.

Brainiac 8

That's it, really. It's not like he saw something that was rather easy to work into the existing tech. Everytime he wanted something new, it required all their previous work to get thrown out.

Starting from scratch every couple years...or less, it's no wonder most of his team left eventually.

cloudeagle

Behold the need for actually good management and reasonable expectations on game projects.

Brainiac 8

What I wonder, is with their reputation and the reputation of DNF, how he was able to talk so many people into joining his team for that big final push that finally did the game in.


Will wonders never cease?

Santa Claustrophobia

How did the Phantom receive funding? Some people are just stupidly gullible.

Brainiac 8

Very good point. O_o

slacktron

Plus, wasn't Hellgate refreshingly free of swagger?
I mean, none of the developers were threatening to make a bitch of anyone who bought the game, right?

Although 3dRealms became a running punchline, they didn't inspire hate.

Seems like the closest "oh please, fail!" companies right now are Epic and Silicon Knights, both because of the public perception of their leads. But they're producing and moving product, so good for them. Maybe their next games will be great.

Hell, Flagship turned into Runic, so hope springs eternal.

Stormwatcher

slacktron wrote: »

Plus, wasn't Hellgate refreshingly free of swagger?
I mean, none of the developers were threatening to make a bitch of anyone who bought the game, right?

Although 3dRealms became a running punchline, they didn't inspire hate.

Seems like the closest "oh please, fail!" companies right now are Epic and Silicon Knights, both because of the public perception of their leads. But they're producing and moving product, so good for them. Maybe their next games will be great.

Hell, Flagship turned into Runic, so hope springs eternal.

And it really seems they learned the lesson.

Brainiac 8

I honestly feel bad for the men and women that lost their jobs, and after years of work, have nothing but internet jokes to show for it. They had horrible leadership hands down.

I really hope they can get another company to pick them up, since I'm sure many of them are quite talented at their jobs, but now have no proof of that.

cloudeagle

Despite the perpetual development, what videos 3D Realms did release looked spiffy. And developers could take it as a matter of pride that they were part of the team that, after well over a decade, made DNF an awesome reality. So I can understand how they got more workers on board.

Forar

MechMantis wrote: »

Complaints like "MAN I DIDN'T HAVE TO DO X IN DIABLO 2" were commonplace. Replace X with things like "inventory tetris".

There was inventory tetris in Diablo 2. People just forgot about it.

I was pretty damned active in a couple of the Hellgate threads, and I don't recall anyone saying they didn't have to do inventory tetris in D2.

A very common complaint, however, was that Flagship should've known better than to include X (example: inventory tetris) as a mechanic that only detracted from the pacing of the game. Or worse, the fact that you could "disenchant" items right from your backpack (hooray!) but that it required a confirmation, even for the "vendor trash" stuff, which added to the things which broke the flow/pacing of the game.

Hellgate was not the horrific Cthulian horror (repetition intended) that some on the Internet Hyperbole Brigade wish to proclaim it was, but it was mediocre at best, especially when you consider the pedigree of some of the people who worked on it (especially when that pedigree was used/mentioned in press releases to drum up hype). Truth be told, the only mechanic I feel they did right was to have loot dropped in multiplayer games be player specific, eliminating the mad dash to snatch up items from kills, especially bosses.

But, I digress, this has gone way off topic.

Thanks for linking the article. I can't view it from work, but I'll definitely want to read it from home at some point.

corin7

MechMantis wrote: »

Santa Claustrophobia wrote: »

True... If anything, at least it was released. It sucked, but it was released. And unlike Daikatana, you could sense there was something more, just underneath, if you put some time into it. They never got around to putting anything there, but hey, it held promise. Then they went out of business for pissing away too much money and not delivering on enough workable content.

So yeah, nothing like those other two.

AND from what I heard the content they DID release (Stonehenge or what have you) was really cool. If only the entire game had been like that.

Stone Henge was absolutely awesome. There was good stuff in the main game as well. Their tiered business model coupled with the bugs killed that game though. They should have released it without a sub and then charged $10 for Stone Henge, then $10 for Abyss Chronicles etc... Roper was used to having Blizzard money for his projects so it came out pretty unpolished. I still love Hellgate to little tiny pieces though. It was a flawed gem but still a gem.

UncleSporky

To be honest I still love "inventory tetris," assuming you have enough room that it isn't really bothersome and that the game gives you plenty of indication as to what stuff you should probably not bother to carry around.

Things like stacking together individual piles of gold in Diablo 1? Bad design decision. But 2 and presumably Hellgate didn't do that bad of a job.

DarkPrimus

It's too bad Broussard couldn't accept the fact that no game is perfect and just shipped something, because I'm sure that several times they had an actually decent game.

Love the Olly Moss illustrations.

tbloxham

Forar wrote: »

MechMantis wrote: »

Complaints like "MAN I DIDN'T HAVE TO DO X IN DIABLO 2" were commonplace. Replace X with things like "inventory tetris".

There was inventory tetris in Diablo 2. People just forgot about it.

I was pretty damned active in a couple of the Hellgate threads, and I don't recall anyone saying they didn't have to do inventory tetris in D2.

A very common complaint, however, was that Flagship should've known better than to include X (example: inventory tetris) as a mechanic that only detracted from the pacing of the game. Or worse, the fact that you could "disenchant" items right from your backpack (hooray!) but that it required a confirmation, even for the "vendor trash" stuff, which added to the things which broke the flow/pacing of the game.

Hellgate was not the horrific Cthulian horror (repetition intended) that some on the Internet Hyperbole Brigade wish to proclaim it was, but it was mediocre at best, especially when you consider the pedigree of some of the people who worked on it (especially when that pedigree was used/mentioned in press releases to drum up hype). Truth be told, the only mechanic I feel they did right was to have loot dropped in multiplayer games be player specific, eliminating the mad dash to snatch up items from kills, especially bosses.

But, I digress, this has gone way off topic.

Thanks for linking the article. I can't view it from work, but I'll definitely want to read it from home at some point.

Hellgate was actually pretty awesome, it was just unfortunately wrapped un in a variety of bad design decisions which made the game near intolerable.

If only there had been a "This situation is not funny at all, stop making jokes" button

Undead Scottsman

Hellgate had 3 main flaws.

1. It was released unfinished. It was very buggy, unbalanced and generally lacking polish in every area. The actual story components were extremely poor and the game looked bland as all hell. The game needed like 3-6 months of additional work, at the very least.
2. The developers kept treating it like it was an MMO when it was just a Diablo clone. Nobody wants to pay a monthly fee for a Diablo clone.
3. Extremely poor customer service and image. More than once I can remember the employees generally being complete douches on their fourms. (I think my favorite was a literal "Who fucking cares?" in regards to people requesting LAN support.) This on top of things like the monthly fee and the lifetime sub, cemented Flagship as a greedy, piss-poor company in many minds. It was funny when they tried to justify the monthly fee by saying what a failure Guild Wars was: Way to not only be completely wrong, but probably insult some of your former co-workers as well. (Arene.net, makers of Guild Wars, was founded by ex-Blizzard people, just in case you didn't know.)

Roshin

Brainiac 8 wrote: »

I read this earlier today. It's interesting.

Broussard really is what killed 3d Realms. His insesant need to have the latest and greatest tech for the game did them in.

I blame Broussard entirely for DNF's failure. He's a madman who got lucky and then he had no idea what to do. I will admit that it was amusing to sometimes see him asplode on forums, though.

Cherrn

That's a good article, but nothing really surprising or deep came out of it.

I'm still holding out for an insider-financed 5-hour documentary. I'm sure it'd sell as much as the game would these days.

0blique

No new information, but it has everything in one place written as a coherent story, so it's not a bad article.

Are we going to end up getting the standard DNF thread components (list of things that happened since DNF was announced, pre-order receipt, etc.) in this thread too?

Undead Scottsman

0blique wrote: »

No new information, but it has everything in one place written as a coherent story, so it's not a bad article.

Are we going to end up getting the standard DNF thread components (list of things that happened since DNF was announced, pre-order receipt, etc.) in this thread too?

There's actually another DNF thread that got bumped today that has all that stuff in it already.

Olivaw

So, wait, there's actually a significant amount of game already developed?

Well that's interesting

Wonder if it's any good. Or would have been any good, if they had just buckled down and finished it

0blique

Undead Scottsman wrote: »

0blique wrote: »

No new information, but it has everything in one place written as a coherent story, so it's not a bad article.

Are we going to end up getting the standard DNF thread components (list of things that happened since DNF was announced, pre-order receipt, etc.) in this thread too?

There's actually another DNF thread that got bumped today that has all that stuff in it already.

Ok, got it.

http://duke.a-13.net/