Duke Nukem Forever, which was not

Let's not hide a sin, - for many, the legendary long-term construction Duke Nukem Forever , which began to be developed in 1997 and released only 14 years later , in 2011, turned out to be a real disappointment . This, of course, did not stop your humble servant from gathering together with friends and playing the game in one night, having completely enjoyed it; however, the cult status of Duke Nukem 3D was out of the question .

During the development of the game they managed to call it the “Holy Grail” and bury it several times; forums joked that the game itself does not exist in principle. But what do we really know about the Duke Nukem Forever development process today? Yes, almost nothing.


A trailer from E3 2001 with a demonstration of the original DNF build (2001)

Today, some details have appeared on the network that shed light on the most famous long-term gaming industry. As it turned out, the version of DNF on the Unreal Engine, which existed in 2001, was 90% ready - and the game included elements of horror and RPG. At least that is what Frederick Schreiber , vice president of 3DRealms, a game development company, says. Information came from Discord on Duke Nukem games.

The game itself was grim, even by 2001 standards. According to Schreiber, during the game you had to find out the reason for the mysterious events taking place in it. The single player consisted of approximately 25 levels, and the multiplayer consisted of 12 levels, with most of them already completed. The game had episodes in rooms where there was a sudden blackout, and the player was waiting in the dark corners of the monsters and scared distant screams (which, generally speaking, suspiciously reminds Doom 3, which was then at the first stages of development and moving in the same direction). The game also had outdoor levels, with most of the game in the story it was raining and lightning flashed.

The most notable feature of the game, which was never told, was the motorcycle. After you found it at one of the initial levels, you could move around half-open Vegas to other areas of it (in addition to the motorcycle, the game also had a metro for similar purposes). You took quests from NPCs in some areas and went to others to carry them out. This was somewhat reminiscent of GTA or any modern RPG, albeit with loading screens between locations.

The development of this version of the game was from 1999 to 2002. The 2001 build process took 14-16 hours. You could choose which quests to do yourself, and you had inventory for various items (badges, key cards, etc.), which pretty much resembled Deus Ex .

The cause of the problem, which ultimately led to the cessation of work on that version of the game, was the decision of one of the creators of Duke, George Broussard. The game was created on the Unreal Engine, but the developers decided to create a new render in the spirit of Doom 3, which allowed to draw shadows in real time and improve lighting at the levels.

As a result of the transition from static to dynamic lighting, the creators of the game all levels in the game turned black - after all, static light stopped working. They were forced to redraw all textures from 2002 to 2004; At first, the developers tried instead to write a tool that would allow the generation of normal maps, but nothing good came of it - the final result looked awful. As a result, they turned out Doom 3, but without normal maps - and the game looked still quite average.

Information about this fact, along with screenshots of the 2003 version of the game, were posted on RPGCodex :





What was it about the 2001 version of the game that did not live up to the release?

• At one of the first levels of the game there is a computer from which you could send an email to yourself. Unfortunately, now the game crashes when someone tries to do this because the old POP3 server was disconnected.
• Each weapon had an alternative shooting mode (RPG / Nuke, Shotgun / Slug / Acid).
• In-game levels were more and more open (similar to Half-Life, Deus Ex) - you could activate side quests by talking to other NPCs.
• The game included a mini-game with a stripper in the spirit of Dance Dance Revolution
• The game had a much more serious tone than the 2011 release version; jokes, of course, were present, but the game did not try to build a comedy out of itself.

The weapon selection screen in Duke Nukem Forever (2001)

Let's be honest: often when it seems to us that the project is 90% ready, in practice it suddenly turns out that there is never 10% of the work ahead, but the same amount. Therefore, the build is hardly a full game. Therefore, it is not surprising that 3D Realms are interested in obtaining funding to complete the very legendary version of the game - however, they have problems with licensing. Right now the rights to Duke belong to Gearbox , and apparently the case is unlikely to ever get off the ground .


Presumably an unknown level screenshot of an earlier period


Duke Nukem Forever Game console Duke Nukem Forever (2001)

In support of his words, Frederick Schreiber posted a screenshot of the directory with the game files of the build, which the company allegedly brought to the E3 exhibition in 2001.



You already wondered what other secrets Schreiber keeps on his computer? There are very few of them: 6 builds of the same Prey , which was developed within the walls of 3DRealms from 1995 to 1998, and which no one except the developers themselves have ever seen ...