Topic: Scott Miller interview (Duke Nukem)

[Pugnate]

http://www.yougamers.com/articles/1820_scott_miller_-_the_man_who_would_be_king-page1/

I just have one question. How is this game surviving in terms of money?

Anyway I am just highlighting some of the interesting bits, but the whole interview is really worth the read.

The next question was an obvious one to ask, given the length of experience Scott has: what do you think have been the best and worst changes in the gaming industry since you started?

Scott: This is a question I can answer in many different ways. For example, as an industry we’ve generally been overly occupied with graphics technology at the price of gameplay innovation. The cost of games is getting to be so high that we are seeing less and less original IP [intellectual property - Ed] given a chance. I’m not a fan of licensed IP, and as an industry we rely far too much on it, even though the data clearly shows that IP born within our industry is, by a large margin, more successful than licensed IP (if you exclude kids licenses and sports licenses – two special cases).

A new threat to our industry is resells, something that was not a factor only three years ago. Gamestop is the biggest offender, and makes over a billion dollars a year on resells now – with none of that going to the publishers or studios that created these games. This is a serious blow for content creators, and will only make it harder and harder for original IP to be given any sort of a chance in the future.

On the positive side the Wiimote is bringing in a horde of new players who are now finding games to be much more interactive, by using much more of their body. The casual games market is exploding, too, which is tremendously positive for the industry, by broadening the base.

Billions? Woah.

Since Prey 2 is already under production, we asked Scott if we be seeing a long term series of Prey games:

Scott: That is always the goal. With Max Payne, for example, we always planned for a long series. I’m still puzzled to this day why – after 3D Realms and Remedy sold the IP to Take2 – there’s not been a Max Payne 3. That’s a franchise that sold over 7 million copies between two games. We should be hearing about Max 4 in development by now.

Since Prey 2 is already under production, we asked Scott if we be seeing a long term series of Prey games:

Scott: That is always the goal. With Max Payne, for example, we always planned for a long series. I’m still puzzled to this day why – after 3D Realms and Remedy sold the IP to Take2 – there’s not been a Max Payne 3. That’s a franchise that sold over 7 million copies between two games. We should be hearing about Max 4 in development by now.

It would be rash of YouGamers to miss a great opportunity to ask Scott some questions about Duke Nukem Forever - perhaps the most famous game that’s not available…yet! The first thought we had though was ‘why?’ It’s been nearly 5 years since the last Duke game on a PC was released and although it was critically accepted, it was perhaps not the Duke game many fans were expecting; is it not a case that Duke’s time is now long gone?

Scott: First, we fully admit we’re screwed up the development of DNF, and it’s now an industry joke. I laugh (and cry) when I think about it, too. Our fault is that we set the bar too high, and we tried too hard to make the game to beat all games. In the last 18 months we’ve taken a much more realistic look at the project, we’ve hired a truckload of experienced help, and I personally believe we are now on the right track…finally.

As for the question of Duke’s lasting appeal, I believe strongly that it doesn’t matter at all. DNF will succeed or fail not because of the Duke brand, but solely based on whether the game is great, or not. The original Duke Nukem 3D didn’t have a large fan following, and yet it succeeded. DNF will have to stand on its own just the same.


Now it’s not unheard for games to have development times of several years (Half Life 2 being very notable, as an example) but it’s perhaps fair to say that none have had such an ‘interesting’ progress as Duke Nukem Forever! We asked him to be as brief as possible and here’s what Scott had to say about just why it has taken so long just to get to the point they’re at now:

Scott: As I said above, it comes down to our desire to not let fans down with anything less than perfection. However, perfection is not possible – that’s the biggest lesson we’ve learned. No game is perfect. Well, maybe Tetris. ;-)


DNF is also famous for its use of engines but the truth on the matter is:

Scott: We started with the Quake engine, but within six or so months we switched to the Unreal engine. However, I’m reminded of the story about the man who claimed to own the axe that George Washington used to chop down the cherry tree. The man said, “Yeah, it’s the same axe alright, but the head and handle have both been replaced a few times over the last 200 years of use.” The same applies with the Unreal engine we licensed so long ago.


Translation? Still on the ‘Unreal’ engine but nothing like the same version that they started with all that time ago! Licensed engines are just one part of the whole middleware package and the growth of tools for developers has been quite noticeable over the past 5 years or so - one would think that this would make life easier for a typical developer but is this being too naďve?

Scott: It’s true; these tools can make life easier. Just not as easier as the middleware providers like to hype. There are nearly always problems to overcome or modifications that are needed. Still, they shake out as a big net positive for the most part.


Scott politely refrained from spilling any juicy details about the engine and technology details of DNF but given its past history, this is understandable. So much has been said and not said, but rumoured, that anything now would almost certainly be taken out of context. However, Scott did have some reassurance that DNF would be aimed for a wide range of hardware configurations stating that:

Scott: Our general approach is a common one, I think: We try to support all of the newer, cool whiz-bang graphics features, but at the same time we try to make it so the game will run on middle-range machines, too.


Fans of Prey will hopefully remember the aliens’ choice of music, which made sense when Scott had this to say about the importance of scores and audio effects in a modern game:

Scott: We believe strongly in the power of music, and we used award-winning composer Jeremy Soule (and his brother, Julian) for Prey, which had three hours of original music, plus over an hour of licensed music, like Don’t Fear the Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult. I hope we have something equally as impressive for DNF.


Cynics may not believe this but Duke Nukem Forever is in full development and has a team of 33 people working on it; surely the history of its production would scare off potential workers, yes?

Scott: You would think so, but not at all. In fact, in the last year especially we’ve dramatically upgraded the level of experienced & talented developers in-house, hiring key developers from several blockbuster projects. These new developers have made a stunningly positive impact on the project. And we continue to hire. I think when any developer visits our studio, meets the people already here, and sees what we already have in place…well, it becomes an easy sell.


Given the publishing experience of 3DRealms and their willingness to tackle difference platforms, it made sense to enquire as to what lies ahead for DNF too. For example, are Take 2 Interactive Software still publishing Duke Nukem Forever? Given the amount of experience 3D Realms has in the production area, it might make more sense for 3DRealms to do this themselves:

Scott: Possibly, but Take2 has inherited the agreement we originally signed with GT Interactive back in the 90’s. This agreement does allow us to direct sale the game, such as through an online digital service, and we plan to take full advantage of this.


The point about using a digital service is a good one as we’ve seen a huge increase in its usage for shipping games; the two most well-known being Steam and Direct2Drive. Finally, concerning DNF, we enquired as to what platforms the game is being planned for: multiple or PC only?

Scott: The plan is definitely to bring DNF to multiple platforms. We have not announced which ones, yet.

[Quemaqua]

Pretty interesting read, thanks for posting.

[MysterD]

Off topic -- Max Payne IP Talk.

About "we should be seeing a Max Payne 4. by now", yeah -- no shit.

What the hell is Take 2 waiting for??? That game was great -- and sold lots of copies, across ALL its respective platforms.

I dunno', but if there was a Max 3, who would you like to see make it...?

[Jedi]

2pts to D for off topic randomness!

[Quemaqua]

I have zero interest in another Max Payne.  2 was plenty.

[scottws]

I haven't played either one.

[Pugnate]

http://pc.ign.com/articles/774/774639p1.html

IGN has finally picked up on the interview.

The following quote from IGN is interesting:

While some thought the game might be axed, it appears Duke Nukem Forever is closer to becoming a reality than previously in its long history

Huh? Isn't that always going to be the case till the day it is released?

[Jedi]

http://pc.ign.com/articles/774/774639p1.html

IGN has finally picked up on the interview.

The following quote from IGN is interesting:

Huh? Isn't that always going to be the case till the day it is released?

Haha it's like saying I'm closer to the day I die than ever before! It just goes without saying 

[scottws]

Haha excellent point, Jedi!

[Pugnate]

And this is why IGN are better than gamespot.

[MysterD]

Well, I'm probably win the lottery before DNF ever gets released.....