The video game Duke Nukem Forever spent more than 14 years in development, from 1997 to 2011. It is a first-person shooter for Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, developed by 3D Realms, Triptych Games, Gearbox Software and Piranha Games. It is the sequel to the 1996 game Duke Nukem 3D, as part of the long-running Duke Nukem video game series. Intended to be groundbreaking, it became an infamous example of vaporware due to its severely protracted development schedule. Director George Broussard, one of the creators of the original Duke Nukem game, announced the development in 1997, and promotional information for the game was released from 1997 until its release in 2011.
After repeatedly announcing and deferring release dates, 3D Realms announced in 2001 that Duke Nukem Forever would be released "when it's done". In 2009, 3D Realms was downsized, resulting in the loss of the game's development team. Statements indicated that the project was due to "go gold" soon with pictures of final development. Take-Two Interactive, which owns the Duke Nukem Forever publishing rights, filed a lawsuit in 2009 against 3D Realms over their "failure to finish development". 3D Realms responded that Take-Two's legal interest was limited to their publishing right. The case was settled with prejudice and details undisclosed in 2010.
On September 3, 2010, 14 years after the start of development, Duke Nukem Forever was announced by 2K Games to be in development at Gearbox Software, with an expected release date of 2011. Duke Nukem Forever was released on June 10, 2011, to mostly negative reviews. It holds the Guinness world record for the longest development for a video game, though this period has been exceeded by other games since.
Background Scott Miller was a lifelong gamer who released his text-based video games as shareware in the 1980s. By 1988, the shareware business was a $10 to $20 million a year market, but the distribution method had never been tried for video games. Miller found that gamers were not willing to pay for something they could get for free, so he came up with the idea of offering only the opening levels of his games; players could purchase the game to receive the rest.Kushner (2004), 60–61. George Broussard, whom Miller met while he was in high school, joined Miller at his company, Apogee, which published and marketed games developed by other companies. While Miller was quiet, with a head for business, Broussard was an enthusiastic "creative impresario". Apogee (from which a new brand name was made in 1994, 3D Realms) grew from a small startup to a successful corporation. Among the games they published was id Software's Commander Keen in 1990 and Wolfenstein 3D in 1992. Commander Keen was met with great success and inspired the development of many sidescrollers for the DOS platform, including many developed by Apogee and using the same engine that powered the Keen games, and Wolfenstein was highly successful, popularizing 3D gaming and establishing the first-person shooter (FPS) genre.
In 1994, Broussard began working on 3D Realms' own first-person shooter. Rather than the faceless marine of other games, players controlled Duke Nukem, the protagonist of two 2D platform games from Apogee, Duke Nukem (1991) and Duke Nukem II (1992). Broussard described Duke as a combination of the film stars John Wayne, Clint Eastwood and Arnold Schwarzenegger. After a year and a half of work, Duke Nukem 3D was released in January 1996. Aspects that appealed to players were environmental interaction and adult content, including blood and strippers.
In the mid-1990s, 3D Realms began developing a new 2D Duke Nukem game. It featured pre-rendered graphics, achieved by rendering Duke Nukem 3D graphics as sprites, creating a style similar to the 1994 game Donkey Kong Country. According to the developer Aaron Hurd, Duke would fall in love with a Russian soldier named Eva; as this was the fourth Duke Nukem game, the developers chose the title Duke Nukem 4 Eva, which became Duke Nukem Forever. This game was canceled due to the rising popularity of 3D games and the title was used for the next 3D Duke Nukem project.
Development
1997–1998: Quake II engine 3D Realms announced Duke Nukem Forever on April 27, 1997. Barely a year after the release of Duke Nukem 3D, its graphics and its game engine, the Build engine, were antiquated. For Forever, Broussard licensed Id Software's superior Quake II engine.Wernicke (1998), 1. The licensing cost was steep—estimates were as high as $500,000—but Broussard reasoned that it would save time used to write a new engine. Because the Quake II engine was not finished, 3D Realms began development with the Quake engine, planning to incorporate the Quake II features as they were completed. Broussard and Miller decided to fund Duke Nukem Forever using the profits from Duke Nukem 3D and other games, turning marketing and publishing rights over to GT Interactive.
In August and September, the first screenshots of Duke Nukem Forever were released in PC Gamer. As 3D Realms did not receive the Quake II engine code until November 1997, the screenshots were mockups made with the Quake engine. 3D Realms unveiled the first video footage of Duke Nukem Forever using the Quake II engine at the 1998 E3 conference, showcasing Duke fighting on a moving truck and firefights with aliens. While critics were impressed, Broussard was not happy with progress.
1998–2003: Unreal Engine
Soon after E3, a programmer suggested that 3D Realms make the switch to Unreal Engine, a new engine developed by Epic Games. The Unreal Engine was more realistic than Quake II and was better suited to producing open spaces; 3D Realms had struggled to render the Nevada desert. They unanimously agreed to the change, which meant discarding much of their work, including significant changes they had made to the Quake II engine.Wernicke (1998), 2.
In June 1998, 14 months after announcing that they would use the Quake II engine, 3D Realms announced that they had switched to Unreal Engine. Broussard said that Duke Nukem Forever would not be significantly delayed and would be back to where it was at E3 within a month to six weeks. He also said that no content seen in the E3 trailer would be lost.3D Realms (1998). However, according to programmer Chris Hargrove, the change amounted to a complete restart "in many aspects".
By the end of 1999, Duke Nukem Forever had missed several release dates and was largely unfinished; half of its weapons remained concepts. Broussard responded to criticisms of the development time as the price of modern game development. A significant factor contributing to the protracted development was that Broussard was continually looking to add new elements. 3D Realms employees would joke that they had to stop Broussard from seeing new games, as he would want to include portions of it in Duke Nukem Forever.
Later in 1999, Broussard decided to upgrade to a new version of Unreal Engine designed for multiplayer. Employees recalled that Broussard did not have a plan for what the game would look like. At the same time, GT Interactive was facing higher-than-expected losses and hired Bear Stearns to look into selling the company or merging it. Later that year, Infogrames Entertainment announced it was purchasing a controlling interest in GT Interactive. The publishing rights for Duke Nukem Forever passed to Gathering of Developers in early December 2000.3D Realms (2000). Following the death of one of Gathering of Developers' co-founders and continuing financial problems, in 2003 their Texas offices were shut down and absorbed into the parent company, Take-Two Interactive.
To placate anxious fans, Broussard decided to create another trailer for E3 2001, the first public showing in three years. The video showed a couple of minutes of footage, including a Las Vegas setting and a demonstration of the player interacting with a vending machine to buy a sandwich. The trailer impressed viewers and Duke Nukem was the talk of the convention.IGN reported on the graphics: "Characters come to life with picturesque facial animations that are synced perfectly with speech, hair that swings as they bob their heads, eyes that follow gazes, and more. The particle effects system, meanwhile, boasts impressive explosion effects with shimmering fire, shattered glass, and blood spilt in every direction ... Add in real-time lighting effects, interactive environments, and a variation in locales unequaled in any other first-person shooter and you begin to see and understand why Duke Nukem Forever has been one of the most hotly anticipated titles over the last couple of years." Staff at 3D Realms recalled a sense of elation after the presentation, feeling they were ahead of the competition. While many staff expected Broussard to make a push for finishing the game, he still did not have a finished product in mind.
In 2022, two builds close to the one shown at E3 2001 were leaked online. Responding to the leak, Broussard said that much of what was shown at E3 was "smoke/mirrors [sic] for an E3 video [they] should have never done"; he described the leaked game as a "smattering of barely populated test levels". Miller said the E3 trailer had overrepresented what was playable in the game at that point.
2003–2006: Conflict with Take-Two By 2003, only 18 people at 3D Realms were working on Duke Nukem Forever. One former employee said that Broussard and Miller were still operating on a "1995 mentality", before games became large-team, big budget development affairs. Because they were financing the project themselves, the developers could also ignore pressure from their publisher; their standard reply to when Duke Nukem Forever would ship was "when it's done". In 2003, Take-Two CEO Jeffrey Lapin reported that the game would not be out that year. He said the company was writing off $5.5 million from its earnings due to Duke Nukem Forevers lengthy development. Broussard responded that "Take-Two needs to STFU ... We don't want Take-Two saying stupid-ass things in public for the sole purposes of helping their stock. It's our time and our money we are spending on the game. So either we're absolutely stupid and clueless, or we believe in what we are working on." Later that year, Lapin said 3D Realms had told him that Duke Nukem Forever was expected by the end of 2004 or the beginning of 2005.
In 2004, GameSpot reported that Duke Nukem Forever had switched to the Doom 3 engine. Many gaming news sites mailed Broussard, asking him to confirm or deny the rumor. After receiving no answer from him, they published the rumor as fact, but Broussard explicitly denied it soon after. Soon after 3D Realms replaced the game's Karma physics system with one designed by Meqon, a relatively unknown Swedish firm. Closed-doors demonstrations of the technology suggested that the physics would be superior to the critically acclaimed Half-Life 2.Fahey (2005). Rumors suggested that the game would appear at 2005 E3. While 3D Realms' previously canceled Prey was shown, Duke Nukem Forever was not. According to Miller, around this point he approached the Canadian developers Digital Extremes, known for co-developing the Unreal games, to take over development, as Duke Nukem Forever was "in deep trouble". Digital Extremes and Take-Two were willing, but the takeover was rejected by others at 3D Realms.