He also later stated that they were never less than two years away from shipping with the UT based version of the game. Broussard estimated that around 95% of the previous level design work was scrapped in the process. In 2002, after hiring several new programmers, the team completely rewrote the renderer and other game engine modules, beginning work on a new generation of game content. In December, 3D Realms released a Christmas card that suggested that DNF would be released in 2000.Īt the May 2001 E3, 3D Realms released a second video that showed a couple of minutes of in-game footage, which notably showed the player moving in a what appears to be Las Vegas and a certain level of interactivity (the player buys a sandwich from a vending machine and pushing the keypads). They released a second batch of screenshots on November 1 that showcased Duke Nukem Forever on the Unreal engine for the first time. In 1999, 3D Realms announced that they had upgraded to the newer version of the Unreal Engine.

He also said that DNF would be released in 1999. He also reassured gamers that the items unveiled in the May 1998 E3 demo would carry over on the Epic engine. Broussard said that the transition from the Quake to the Unreal engine would take from “a month to 6 weeks” and that the game would not be significantly delayed. In June 1998, the 3D Realms team switched to Epic’s Unreal Engine. However, 3D Realms did not get the Quake II engine code until November 1997, and the earlier screenshots were simply mock-ups with the Quake engine. Original prototype work on the game had begun as early as January. It follows Duke Nukem 3D as the next game in 3D Realms’ Duke Nukem series.ĭuke Nukem Forever was officially announced on Apalong with the purchase of a license to use the Quake II engine and the intention of releasing the game no later than mid-1998. Duke Nukem Forever (DNF) is a first-person shooter that was being developed by the now-defunct 3D Realms.

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