Prerelease:Duke Nukem Forever/Differences

This is a sub-page of Prerelease:Duke Nukem Forever.

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

Considering that Duke Nukem Forever endured a long, chaotic development hell, its not a surprise that many things were changed.

Release Date

Many release dates were promised (and missed) by various people. For convivence every release date ever promised has been noted here. Only dates coming those officially associated with the game's development (developers, publishers) are noted here.

To do: Likely more

Date	Stated by	Source
Holiday 1997	Scott Miller	October 16th 1996 Gameslice interview
1998	Joe Seigler, Scott Miller	News post, PC Gamer magazine issue 42
Summer 1998	3D Realms	April 25th 1997 press release
Mid 1998	George Broussard	April 27th, 1997 .Plan update
Second quarter of 1998	Scott Miller	May 5th 1997 interview
November 1998	GT Interactive	Press Release Schedule Q1 1998.xls, GT Interactive - Press Releases, Screen Shots, And Release Schedule
1999	George Broussard	June 15th, 1998 press release, June 16th, 1998 interview, October 16th, 1998 False.com interview
2001	2000 3D Realms company card
Second half of 2001	Gathering of Developers	December 4th 2000 Press Release
Spring 2010	Anonymous Developer, Triptych Trailer	Reddit post, Triptych Trailer
April 15th, 2010	Joe Siegler	Joe Seigler's blog, Goodbye Duke Nukem (August 2011)
May 3rd, 2011 (North America)	Gearbox Software	Original release dates, before being delayed to final release dates in March 2011.
May 6th, 2011 (International)

Characters

For a more in-depth analysis of how the characters changed, visit its dedicated page.

Logo

2001	Final (2011)

Story

1996 Builds

Proton blows up a part of California.

1998 Game Outline

See Development:Duke Nukem Forever/1998 Game Outline.

2000 Story Script

See Development:Duke Nukem Forever/2000 Story Script.

2009 World Chart

In a leaked world chart dated to July 29, 2008.

Gameplay

The game once had RPG and Horrer elements, along with semi-open world sections with the Vehicles in 2001.

Main Menu

August 2001	October 2001	June 2008 (footage)	Final (2011)

A raw August 2001 install has a broken menu. This causes it to not render any options in the menu, though the console and exit confirmation prompt still work. A fix is needed to make the menu appear properly.

HUD

Weapon Selection System

August 2001	October 2001	June 2008 (footage)

Miscellaneous

Various ideas considered for the game but ultimately discarded include:

• In an email to Prey project leader Paul Schuytema, Scott Miller would suggest an idea to him that he also desired in Duke Nukem Forever that he called "adventure game class" items.
• Scott Miller would state in a January 2000 interview that he had pushed for the idea for Duke to dual wield weapons. This idea was apparently voted down within the company for "being too different".
  • Scott Miller would go on to state in the same interview that he had recently pushed for Duke to be incapable of killing female NPCs. This idea was also rejected by 3D Realms staff as they felt it "takes away from the realism of shooting whatever and whomever the player chooses." The final game made all NPCs unkillable, regardless of gender.

Music

TBA

Weapons

Several weapons used to feature alternative fire modes, such as in the 2001 builds, that were removed from the final game.

Pistol

2001	Final (2011)

Changed to a desert eagle after the Quake II iteration, ultimately ending up as a M1911 in the final game.

Shotgun

2001	Final (2011)

Ripper

November 1999	2001	2003	2005
Final (2011)

The Ripper is perhaps the weapon that went through the most revision during development. In the Quake II build of the game, it was introduced as an M16.

At some point no earlier than 2004, the M16 was swapped out with Duke Nukem 3D's Ripper. Broussard would confirm this change in an August 2006 post on 3D Realms' fourms.

Pipe Bomb

2001	Final (2011)

The Pipe Bomb was known as the "Multi Bomb" in the 2001 prototypes, were it possessed two firing modes; pipe bomb and sticky bomb.

Detonator

2001	Final (2011)

Trip Mine

2001	Final (2011)

An earlier Trip Mine model in the 2001 prototypes can be found in the folder Meshes\Models\weapons\TripMine_BAK. This appears to be an older version of the used Trip Mine.

RPG

1997	2001	2002	Final (2011)

Railgun

2001 (Earlier design)	2001	Final (2011)

Shrink Ray

2000	2001	Final (2011)

An earlier, unused design for the Shrink Ray, timestamped August 30th, 2000, in the 2001 prototypes can be found in Meshes\Models\weapons\Shrinkray2. "Shrinkray2" follows the basic design principles that the used Shrink Ray does, but is much more boxy, and most importantly, uses green crystals for ammo instead of a brain-like object.

This used design in the prototype is timestamped May 10th, 2001.

Freeze Ray

2001	Final (2011)

Called the Freeze Cannon in the 2001 prototypes.

Cut Weapons

Weapons present in the 2001 prototypes that were removed from the final game include the Chainsaw and Flamethrower

Items

Beer

The beer item was shown with a brownish-tan color in the December 2007 teaser.

Duke's Shades

Prototype Night Vision	Final Duke Vision

Jetpack

2001	Unused design in Final Game	Final (2011)
	TBA	TBA

Cut Items

TBA

Levels/Locations

Las Vegas

Vegas was originally set at nighttime but changed to daytime in the final.

EDF Base

Ended up being seen in The Doctor Who Cloned Me DLC.

Area 51

Ended up being seen in The Doctor Who Cloned Me DLC.

References

todo

• Gary Whitta had penned the story to earlier versions of the game (1 2)
• Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw of Zero Punctuation fame had been contacted about writing a script around 2007-2008 by Brian Hook.
  • Video with former developer that discussed it, Yahtzee confirming/discussing it and 2014 Vice interview where it is discussed again by him.
• .CPJ model timestamps for models from 2001 prototypes.