Duke Nukem 3D Interview

skating_jesus · 08-25-2008

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When you look back on what were turning points in video games, one of them surely had to be the release of Duke Nukem 3D on PC in 1996—and it was a key moment for a number of reasons. One was for how it contributed to the advancement of the 3-D shooter genre. Another was how it further solidified the Dallas area as a hotbed for game development. And, of course, there’s the over-the-top, irreverent persona of the title character, as many game heroes (or anti-heroes) were relatively tame and humorless in comparison.

And now the word has gotten out that Duke 3D is coming to Xbox Live Arcade, so if you haven’t checked it out before, you’ll have a chance soon. If you have played it in its one of its previous incarnations, you’ll have some reasons to try it out again—and it’s not just the 200 Gamerscore points that it offers to achievement hounds.

TeamXbox had a chance to talk to George Broussard, who is co-owner/president of 3D Realms. He was also the executive producer on the original Duke 3D game and project leader on the XBLA version. Note that we didn’t say “XBLA port” or “XBLA translation.” That’s because there’s a lot new under the hood. We’ll let Broussard explain all that—and then be sure to stop back tomorrow for our own hands-on preview of the game.

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Duke Nukem 3D on Xbox Live Arcade...that’s got to be pretty exciting. After a dozen years, are you expecting that you’re going to get a lot of those who played it to revisit it or more likely introduce him to a new audience...or both? And how do you think Duke holds up over time?

George Broussard: We see a lot of old fans who want to play the game again or on a new platform. I’d like to think that we can attract some new fans as well, even with it being a classic game. I’d hope some new players get the game just to co-op or DukeMatch with their buddies. For a game the scale of an XBLA game, we’re pretty proud of the features we were able to put into it. I think it has a lot of value.

Watch your gameplay thanks to the game's replay feature, as well as restart from any point you've played!

Unlike many “classic” games brought to XBLA, you did a lot to freshen up Duke 3D and take advantage of the Xbox 360’s capabilities. How did the hardware and some re-coding time enable you to buff up your hero’s world?

George Broussard: We definitely put a lot of work into the game. It would have been simple to just port it and ship it, but people kept suggesting cool ideas and we just had to do them. Some of it was hardware, as in being Xbox Live, you open the game up to really solid matchmaking, voice chat and multiplayer.

There are other things that we just did, because it was cool or the right thing to do. Small things like letting you remap every button on the 360 controller to larger features like the User Clip feature. There are small features like the concept art gallery or in-game achievement list that we didn’t have to do at all, but we thought they were features we’d like to see in games.

In the end I feel like we added everything possible within reason to update the game and keep it within a reasonable timeframe (a first for us!).

What are User Clips and what do you expect to see from XBLA players? Do you expect any surprises?

George Broussard: Every time you play the game (single player, co-op or DukeMatch), the game saves a game clip. You can view the clip later or share it with your friends. You can even jump into old clips and play the game (in single player). Your clip can also be uploaded to the leaderboards if you get a top spot. We have a Time Trial leaderboard that tracks how quickly you play a level. It’s really cool to download people’s clips and see how they ran through a level, then try to beat their times. I think there will be some fun battles on the leaderboards due to this feature.

And Painless Death sounds like something everyone is going to want to know about. Tell us what that’s about...and how long do you think it will be before other developers start copying it?

George Broussard: One of the core things that makes you stop playing a game is dying. It’s frustrating. This is a feature that spun off the demo-recording mode that was already in the game. John Pollard, one of the programmers, said “Hey, I can do a cool death thing with demo recording, look at this.” Once we saw it, we had to pursue the idea.

What happens is that once you die, you are presented with a TiVo-style timeline of your play in a level. You can then scrub along the timeline and jump back into the game at any point during your play of the level. You can still quicksave your game, like 12 years ago, but you no longer need to. You just play. You never ever think about saving the game.

This worked well for a classic game where you don’t want to replay a level ten times and you don’t want to be bothered saving a game in a checkpoint world. Would this work in Halo or Call of Duty? Maybe, maybe not, but it’s a fun area in which to experiment and see where it takes us. Braid and Prince of Persia clearly show that the mechanic is a solid idea.

Here’s a math problem for you: Solve for x in the equation D * 8 = x, where D = Duke. (In English, what do you get with eight-player co-op?)

George Broussard: What’s better than drinking beer on a Saturday afternoon and playing co-op shooters with your buddies? Simple as that. The old game supported it and we’re really excited to open it up over Xbox Live and the Internet for the first time (versus playing on a LAN).

Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask what everyone wants to know...what’s up with Duke Nukem Forever?

George Broussard: It’s going really well. There are several hours of fairly polished game to play. We’re actively testing parts of the game and getting feedback from play testers and things are coming together. It’s fun, it’s in focus, we know what bits are fun and which are not, and it’s just a matter of time now. I’ve probably never been as happy or excited about the game as I am these days.

I want

F3AR ChaRLie · 08-25-2008

Love Duke Nukem. I will be buying this!

Whitewater · 08-25-2008

As will I. I love this game.