The Long-Drawn-Out Track record of Duke Nukem Forever

The gaming community would have never expected the game "Duke Nukem Forever" to come out. It is a sequel to the FPS classic game "Duke Nukem 3D". It took forever to completely develop DNF. After about a dozen years, being constantly reworked from nothing, gamers thought that it really would take forever to come out, if it would really come out. Undoubtedly, a lot of mishaps and blunders after another came up before the game reached where it currently is.

It first started with It all began John Romero’s development company which earned its money from games like "Doom" and "Duke Nukem 3D". Enough money was earned for the company to continue operations for the next decade without having to release another game. The company’s philosophy was solely focused on the designer. This meant that the developers of the game were given total control over a project without having to argue with game publishers who try to impose their demands on the creation of the product or even its release date.

This meant that the designers oversee the whole thing, adding their own creative flavor, at their own pace. However, there was a danger that a terrible management could delay the game indefinitely. At first, the game was being developed at a decent pace, with the help of a licensed version of the then-advance Quake Engine. But overtime, they discovered that the Unreal Engine was enormously superior so they set aside all the work they’d already done, licensed the better code and went back to square one to start all over again.

Thus a cycle began. Every time a better game engine would come out, the solution was to drop everything that’s already done and go back to step one. As a result, the way towards completion proved to be longer than ever. And since the company had awful lot money to burn, Romero’s obsession to make the game flawless instead of just releasing it didn’t really do the damage it should have. In fact, the only financial trouble they had was when they put out "Daikatana," which spectacularly failed to even be remotely playable.

Over time, Romero finally started to realize that he was running out of finances. He had no product to show for all the years of development other than a few chaotic demos and useless materials. So he tried to find investors to support the company, so it could push DNF for the last attempt. Unfortunately for Romero, they failed miserably. By this point, investors gave the intellectual property over to another company that could get the game out. And this is where the design house, Gearbox, would come out.

Now, the game is set to be released on May 6 2011 and its trailer seems promising. After 12 years of development, there are only high expectations left for the game.

It’s a good thing that not every great game has to take forever to be done. There are lots of outstanding games in the market that still offer the best gaming experience possible.