Employees Flee 3D Realms
Duke Nukem Forever was first announced in April 1997. The development on this title has already reached Prey-esque mythic status. Recently up to 10 major team members have quit. Which include: Scott Alden, Will Bate, Brian Cozzens, Kyle Davis, Andy Hanson, Keith Schuler, and Charlie Wiederhold. The team went from about 24-28 developers to 18. They lost key members, responsible for physics, animation, and rendering.
What does this say about the future of Duke Nukem Forever and the efficiency of the work environment at 3D Realms? It doesn’t look good. Apparently the setbacks were caused by George Broussard, who is the leader behind Duke Nukem Forever. His perfectionist attitude coupled with his inability to stick to one vision on the game, has caused the team to rebuild the game engine several times. Which in turn made the team rebuild the levels, create new assets, and on and on…
When a game has been in development this long, living up to expectations is practically impossible. From the time that they started this project, they could have released 3 solid Duke Nukem games, instead of one meandering mess costing an absolute fortune to produce. At this point in the development cycle, there should be nothing added to the game. Just finish it. If you can’t get this game out, maybe someone else should spearhead this endeavor.
Fortunately for those developers who have escaped, have moved on to greener pastures. Brian Cozzens, Kyle Davis, Keith Schuler, and Charlie Wiederhold, are working for Gearbox Software, makers of the Brothers in Arms series.
Official Game Site
via: Kotaku
Toots
Posted to Video Games on 31 August 2006
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