Prerelease:Duke Nukem Forever

This page details prerelease information and/or media for Duke Nukem Forever.

Where to begin? Duke Nukem Forever's 15-year development led to it being the butt of many jokes, such as "Forever" referring to the game's development time.

Development Timeline

1996

• Duke Nukem Forever enters development.

1997

• April 27 - The game is announced by 3D Realms, with a planned release date of mid-1998.
• November - 3D Realms switches the game to the (now completed) Quake II engine.

1998

• May 28 - The game is shown off at E3.
• June - 3D Realms scraps the game and switches from the Quake II engine to the Unreal Engine, due to the latter having an easier time at rendering wide-open spaces.

2000

• December - Gathering of Developers is given publishing rights.

2001

• May 17 - A new trailer is shown at E3.

2006

• January - George Broussard, the game's lead project manager, states that the game's assets have been finalized (spoiler: they weren't).

2007

• Early 2007 - 3D Realms restarts development for the second time.
• December 19 - A new trailer is released.

2009

• Early May - 3D Realms demands an additional $6 million to complete development. Take-Two Interactive only offers $2.5 million.
• May 6 - Broussard suspends development of Duke Nukem Forever.
• May 8 - 3D Realms lays off the game's staff.
• Late 2009 - Take-Two sues 3D Realms for being unable to complete the game.

2010

• Early 2010 - Take-Two gives 3D Realms' 2009 build of the game to Gearbox Software, demanding that they finish development.
• September - Duke Nukem Forever is re-announced, this time at the Penny Arcade Expo.

2011

• June 10 - Duke Nukem Forever is released.

Screenshots/Developer Commentary

Another old DNF development shot. I implemented a piss key. You could press F and Duke would unzip and piss wherever he was. Here he is on a talk show pissing in the host's coffee mug. The piss stream looked better in motion, a little yellow rope particle system.

A screenshot from an earlier build of the game was posted on twitter by Brandon Reinhart, a former DNF dev. Unfortunately the account was suspended not long after this. The text at the top reads:

Jay:So how do you feel about what the president? Do you think maybe you could've handled the alien invasion differently?

When asked, the developer elaborated a bit on the level order:

IIRC, the game opened with the Jay Leno interview, then Duke returned to his penthouse where the initial attack took place. He then climbs down the outside of his hotel for the vegas strip level.

(Source: [1] Screenshots of the posts)

An early version of the autograph signing, also used to describe one of the game's biggest issues.