There’s a new hope in game development land – the hope that Duke Nukem Forever (DNF) might actually see the light of day. Developer Gearbox Software has officially announced that they are working on Duke Nukem Forever, and expect it to be released sometime in 2011.
Speaking in an interview with Gamasutra, Randy Pitchford (co-founder and CEO of Gearbox) explains how the legend arrived in the hands of Gearbox.
Pitchford’s first industry job was at 3D Realms, where he worked on Duke Nukem 3D and early versions of DNF. “Over the years, we’ve all kind of watched the story unfold about the tumultuous development the game has been under. One thing has been consistent, though. The guys that were on it were committed to it,” said Pitchford.
Despite their commitment, in May 2009, 3D realms had to lay off the entire DNF development team for financial reasons. 3D Realms entered into a legal dispute with Take-Two Interactive over the ownership of Duke Nukem intellectual property.
Pitchford recalls learning that Duke Nukem co-creator Allen Blum was struggling to keep the project alive: “For Allen, Duke was his life. He and some of the other guys, they just didn’t give up. They didn’t know what else to do, so they kept going at it, working out of their houses and trying to keep the dream alive.”
Pitchford recounted how, after a meeting with Gearbox’s executive vice president Brian Martel, a deal was brokered to revive the DNF project in multi-platform format. This would require that 3D Realms hand over the IP rights to Gearbox. The official deal was signed at Gearbox HQ with about 50 people present who were currently or previously involved in the project.
However, there was still the matter of the Take-Two Interactive lawsuit: “Ultimately, when I acquired the brand, I acquired the liability,” said Pitchford. “I was now the person having to defend the lawsuit with Take-Two. Fortunately, we have a good relationship with Take-Two and they got behind it. I was able to help clear the drama away. Where we’re at now is a drama free world, where everyone is focused on making it work.”
Pitchford explained the state of the DNF project when Gearbox inherited it: “There was a lot of work there, but there wasn’t a game. There was…a lot of great tech, a lot of great features and subsystems, a lot of great gameplay mechanics. It was a lot of stuff, but it wasn’t assembled into a game.”
“But the guys like Allen had been with it so long and they knew it so well that when ‘let’s ship this game’ became the goal, they were able to build a very efficient and effective plan to use what was there,” he continued.
DNF has a legacy of announcements spanning over 12 years – a saga which has left a bitter taste in the mouths of many fans. Gearbox was well aware that any new announcements could only come when the developer actually had something to show.
“We recognize that this is a brand you cannot make promises about. There has been too much talk and not enough walk. We decided let’s not talk and brag. Let’s not beat our chest. Let’s just show up at [PAX] with the game – and give people the opportunity to play it themselves,” Pitchford explained.
According to Pitchford, the game is currently in the polishing stages.
“What we hope is that a lot of the people that [have played DNF] will talk about it and that will get over the skepticism. I mean, we’d rather do that than a press tour. If gamers are looking at it, it’s real. If I read another article about it, even if it’s a respected journalist, I’m not going to believe it,” Pitchford continued.
“Now that we’re the caretakers of the brand, we’re going to be very interested in its success and building its future. What will happen beyond Duke Nukem Forever? We have no plans. We don’t have all the information yet to be able to make that decision,” Pitchford concluded.
Source: Gamasutra
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