Why Duke Nukem Takes Eternally
The story can be traced back to John Romero and his game development company, which bunched up a ridiculous amount of money on "Doom" and "Duke Nukem 3D."In fact, there was sufficient money to suffice the operation and expansion for a decade even without releasing another game. The philosophy of the company was to solely focus on the designer. In other words, the creative minds took total control of all the projects without having to consult the executives and management. They did not meddle with the products or impose specific dates of release.
Theoretically, this translated that the designers had the option to apply as many fun things into the game as they desired, with enough time to execute. In practice, it meant that horrible management could delay a game for an indefinite period. To be fair, the game was being developed using a licensed version of the Quake Engine at an acceptable pace. At one point in the process, they observed that the Unreal Engine was vastly superior, was immensely superior, throwing out all the work that had already been done, licensing the better code and setting about working on everything from scratch. Theoretically, this should not have caused the game to rot in the development process for more than a decade. Unfortunately, it did.
Each time a new game engine came out that proved superior to the one the company was using, the practice was to drop everything that was already done and start from scratch. The result of all this was a game that was always getting near completion, but never actually getting there. Romero's obsession with making the game perfect rather than simply getting the game out was not doing the damage it should have since the company had a massive amount of cash to spend. The only time finances ever really became an issue was then they put out "Daikatana," which had failed to even be remotely playable and ended up costing the company money..
Over time, Romero finally started to realize that he was running out of finances. He had no product to show for all the years of development other than a few chaotic demos and useless materials. So he tried to find investors to support the company, so it could push DNF for the last attempt. Unfortunately for Romero, they failed miserably. By this point, investors gave the intellectual property over to another company that could get the game out. And this is where the design house, Gearbox, would come out.
The gaming community once believed that the game "Duke Nukem Forever" would never be released. The game is supposed to be a sequel to the classic "Duke Nukem 3D" in the FPS genre. However, after nearly a dozen years of being constantly developed, modified and reworked, most gamers thought that it was going to take forever for the game to come out.
Now, the game is set to be released on May 6 2011 and its trailer seems promising. After 12 years of development, there are only high expectations left for the game.
Theoretically, this translated that the designers had the option to apply as many fun things into the game as they desired, with enough time to execute. In practice, it meant that horrible management could delay a game for an indefinite period. To be fair, the game was being developed using a licensed version of the Quake Engine at an acceptable pace. At one point in the process, they observed that the Unreal Engine was vastly superior, was immensely superior, throwing out all the work that had already been done, licensing the better code and setting about working on everything from scratch. Theoretically, this should not have caused the game to rot in the development process for more than a decade. Unfortunately, it did.
Each time a new game engine came out that proved superior to the one the company was using, the practice was to drop everything that was already done and start from scratch. The result of all this was a game that was always getting near completion, but never actually getting there. Romero's obsession with making the game perfect rather than simply getting the game out was not doing the damage it should have since the company had a massive amount of cash to spend. The only time finances ever really became an issue was then they put out "Daikatana," which had failed to even be remotely playable and ended up costing the company money..
Over time, Romero finally started to realize that he was running out of finances. He had no product to show for all the years of development other than a few chaotic demos and useless materials. So he tried to find investors to support the company, so it could push DNF for the last attempt. Unfortunately for Romero, they failed miserably. By this point, investors gave the intellectual property over to another company that could get the game out. And this is where the design house, Gearbox, would come out.
The gaming community once believed that the game "Duke Nukem Forever" would never be released. The game is supposed to be a sequel to the classic "Duke Nukem 3D" in the FPS genre. However, after nearly a dozen years of being constantly developed, modified and reworked, most gamers thought that it was going to take forever for the game to come out.
Now, the game is set to be released on May 6 2011 and its trailer seems promising. After 12 years of development, there are only high expectations left for the game.
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