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Part of the problem with Duke Nukem Forever is that the designers (by their own admission) tried to create the "ultimate first person shooter." They wanted the best graphics, the best gameplay, the funniest humor, etc. They wanted to make what would be the best first person shooter of all time. It seems like every time a new game engine would come out they'd pull the plug and restart development on that engine. I used to know game developers who worked on DNF with the Quake 1 engine. Then later UT. They'd fire much of the staff and move onto a new development team and start from almost square one each time. They set their goals far too high. They generated too much hype for their own product. Setting the bar high is one thing; being able to deliver is another. If you want your game to use the latest and greatest FPS engine at any given time you will need a shorter development cycle. For whatever reason, 3D Realms couldn't understand this or was simply too inept to get it done within the necessary time frame to make that "best game engine available now" time window.
When you want to release a game on any given engine before something newer, better and prettier comes along, you've got to move your asses and create the content quickly. The time frame from coding, to modeling, animation, texturing, scripting, map making, etc. to play testing has to be as short as possible. To do that (and do it well) you need resources. You need the right talent pool and you have to have management that can drive the project and get it done within a reasonable time frame. Given that game developers go from company to company and from project to project with some unemployment time between projects, there was an incredible talent pool available. I knew a few people looking for work during this whole time that could have been tapped especially given that 3D Realms is or was local to DFW at the time. (The local DFW talent pool for 3D animation and programing was huge at the time.) Yet applications over there were always rejected by everyone I've never known that applied there. People with other quality games under their belts. So from my perspective 3D Realms didn't do what needed to be done to get their project developed within a reasonable time window to meet their goals.
What they should have done was go the route Crytek did with the Crysis 1.0 engine and develop it all in house. Unfortunately they didn't see that as an option for whatever reason. Yeah it would have increased development time and they would have had to hire the necessarily programming talent to make that happen. But hell they've been developing the game since the Quake 1 days, and failed to get anything out the door. I think this method would have allowed them to reach their goals with better results than they ever could have licensing other company's engines. Years ago when it became fashionable to design your own engine vs. license one they should have jumped on that bandwagon. And with a clear design direction for the game they could have brought their concepts to life with fewer restrictions than they could with a modified version of someone elses engine. At least in theory. Unlike the Crytek team who truly set the bar high with their own in house engine that could do more than anything that came before it, they chose to stick to an engine licensing model. And rather than trying to get on a particular engine bandwagon quickly, they chose to adopt the engine well after the first games using it were already released.
Essentially where 3D Realms really screwed up aside from setting the bar too high for themselves was sheer mismanagement.
When you want to release a game on any given engine before something newer, better and prettier comes along, you've got to move your asses and create the content quickly. The time frame from coding, to modeling, animation, texturing, scripting, map making, etc. to play testing has to be as short as possible. To do that (and do it well) you need resources. You need the right talent pool and you have to have management that can drive the project and get it done within a reasonable time frame. Given that game developers go from company to company and from project to project with some unemployment time between projects, there was an incredible talent pool available. I knew a few people looking for work during this whole time that could have been tapped especially given that 3D Realms is or was local to DFW at the time. (The local DFW talent pool for 3D animation and programing was huge at the time.) Yet applications over there were always rejected by everyone I've never known that applied there. People with other quality games under their belts. So from my perspective 3D Realms didn't do what needed to be done to get their project developed within a reasonable time window to meet their goals.
What they should have done was go the route Crytek did with the Crysis 1.0 engine and develop it all in house. Unfortunately they didn't see that as an option for whatever reason. Yeah it would have increased development time and they would have had to hire the necessarily programming talent to make that happen. But hell they've been developing the game since the Quake 1 days, and failed to get anything out the door. I think this method would have allowed them to reach their goals with better results than they ever could have licensing other company's engines. Years ago when it became fashionable to design your own engine vs. license one they should have jumped on that bandwagon. And with a clear design direction for the game they could have brought their concepts to life with fewer restrictions than they could with a modified version of someone elses engine. At least in theory. Unlike the Crytek team who truly set the bar high with their own in house engine that could do more than anything that came before it, they chose to stick to an engine licensing model. And rather than trying to get on a particular engine bandwagon quickly, they chose to adopt the engine well after the first games using it were already released.
Essentially where 3D Realms really screwed up aside from setting the bar too high for themselves was sheer mismanagement.
