What Killed Duke Nukem Forever
Like any other sub-30 geek, I’ve had my fun with the Duke Nukem series. From its humble side-scrolling platformer beginnings, up until Duke Nukem 3D, the franchise made sure I never considered Bruce Campbell the originator of “come get some” until much later.
I missed out on Duke Nukem Forever’s announcement however, with the legendary game-that-never-was only entering my consciousness once it became fashionable to mock it’s eternally-delayed production. Do phrases like “Duke Nukem Never” ring a bill?
And now, months after DNF’s development was officially halted, a meticulously researched article on Wired chronicles the game’s lengthy development process—and the reasons behind it:
[Duke Nukem co-creator George] Broussard simply couldn’t tolerate the idea of Duke Nukem Forever coming out with anything other than the latest and greatest technology and awe-inspiring gameplay. He didn’t just want it to be good. It had to surpass every other game that had ever existed, the same way the original Duke Nukem 3D had.
As new games and technologies appeared, Broussard’s perfection kept forcing the development team back to the drawing board. He was flush with cash (thanks to the Duke Nukem series and other successful titles developed by his company, 3D realsm), and the financial freedom turned out to be his—and Forever’s—downfall. With no urgency to get an income-generating product on to the market, no discipline existed to make that happen.
It seems that somewhere along the way, Broussard forgot that games are successful when they are fun to play, not because they are perfect. Modern Warfare 2 is far from perfect. It isn’t a revolutionary game that changed the FPS genre forever, nor does it feature a memorable story. And don’t get me started about the borked multiplayer of the PC version.
Still, while MW2 may not be a classic that video game historians will write about years later, it was still fun. That’s something Broussard apparently missed in his quest to create the perfect game:
Ironically, the end was within reach, even if Broussard couldn’t see it. Raphael van Lierop, who was hired in 2007 as a creative director, was given several pieces of the game to play. It took him about five hours. Broussard was stunned; he’d thought those levels would take half that time to get through. “You could see the gears turning, with him thinking, ‘Oh wow — maybe we’ve got more game than we think,’” says van Lierop. Broussard had been staring at the game for so long, he’d lost perspective.
Even if another development team gets you off the ground, you will never be the same again, Duke Nukem Forever. Rest in peace. It just took 12 years to kill you.
Post from: The Gadget Blog
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