What Ever Happened To Duke Nukem Forever?

Known to fans as the biggest failure or the coolest game they've haven't played yet, Duke Nukem Forever is undoubtedly the most talked about unreleased game in the history of videogames. With development spanning 12 years, a handful of engines, two publishing partners, and some of the biggest players in the industry, it's no wonder why so many rumors flew around the game and why they continue to do so months after developer 3D Realms' official disbanding. Clive Thompson over at Wired has put together what is probably the most detailed review of the game's development history and somehow got tight lipped former 3D Realms employees to spill about their experiences working on one of the most talked about games in existence.

Going back to how 3D Realms' owners George Broussard and Scott Miller met and taking readers up to earlier this year with the former developer's issues with Take-Two Interactive, you get the sense that the biggest issues facing Duke Nukem Forever was the internal drive to create something that would amaze every player and a endless supply of cash that would allow the team leads to push milestones, goals, and time tables out the window. Not exactly the kind of problem that most developers have, but maybe because it was uncommon that nobody knew what to do after the second or thrid engine change...

But because the technology kept getting better, Broussard was on a treadmill. He'd see a new game with a flashy graphics technique and demand the effect be incorporated into Duke Nukem Forever. "One day George started pushing for snow levels," recalls a developer who worked on Duke Nukem Forever for several years starting in 2000. Why? "He had seen The Thing" -- a new game based on the horror movie of the same name, set in the snowbound Antarctic -- "and he wanted it." The staff developed a running joke: If a new title comes out, don't let George see it. When the influential shoot-'em-up Half-Life debuted in 1998, it opened with a famously interactive narrative sequence in which the player begins his workday in a laboratory, overhearing a coworker's conversation that slowly sets a mood of dread. The day after Broussard played it, an employee told me, the cofounder walked into the office saying, "Oh my God, we have to have that in Duke Nukem Forever."

I would like to believe there is a still a place for Duke. I enjoyed my time was the similarly themed Matt Hazard earlier this year and think that there's still a spot in the hearts of fans for the original gaming icon to come back. But right now Duke's possible future looks bleaker than it ever has.

[Learn to Let Go: How Success Killed Duke Nukem] Wired