After finishing Duke Nukem Forever tonight and watching the extras videos, I noticed that every 2-3 years it seems like they completely remade the entire game, the premises changed and so did almost all the material they were showcasing. My question is, do you think there are nearly-completed projects out there under the name Duke Nukem Forever that they simply refused to ship and instead kept iterating until we got to where we are today? I'm curious to see what the community thinks of the prospect of a 10-dollar "Duke Nukem Forever: Collection" of old games being a possibility. It would be like a history lesson into how not to develop video games.

Probably? We know they changed direction and game engines several times over the course of development, so there kind of has to be. I mean, they wouldn't just delete all those assets, would they?

Also, a collection like the one you proposed would be the only way to get me interested in actually playing the game.

13 years, there better be more than one game.

I want them to release DNF '01 to see how it ended up. The trailer still looks awesome.

I want them to release DNF '01 to see how it ended up. The trailer still looks awesome.

There were no DNF games made before the one that came out. There were prototypes and versions of a game they were trying to make. If they had a game, they would've released it.

Multiple Duke Nukem games is like a Multiple orgasm, am I right?

@Hizang said:

Multiple Duke Nukem games is like a Multiple orgasm, am I right?

They take forever and some might not be real?

@SomeDeliCook said:

There were no DNF games made before the one that came out. There were prototypes and versions of a game they were trying to make. If they had a game, they would've released it.

From what I understand from reading over the years, they actually re-wrote the game twice. So there could be as many as two titles with a significant amount of completion. Not all game companies operate with good management, it's important to understand that even if they had three near-complete projects, they might've been shelved for no good reason than "we can do it better".

Edit: By re-wrote I am referring to asset generation and not just code-base.

@UnlivedPhalanx said:

@SomeDeliCook said:

There were no DNF games made before the one that came out. There were prototypes and versions of a game they were trying to make. If they had a game, they would've released it.

From what I understand from reading over the years, they actually re-wrote the game twice. So there could be as many as two titles with a significant amount of completion. Not all game companies operate with good management, it's important to understand that even if they had three near-complete projects, they might've been shelved for no good reason than "we can do it better".

Edit: By re-wrote I am referring to asset generation and not just code-base.

From what I read (and what might not even be true), some of the old staff said there was no direction. They would have certain features complete, but then they would get newer and more ambitious ones to work on. And when they did those, even newer and bigger ones. There was no "This is what we are working toward" or something that ever looked like a playable game, it was just "add as much as you can, its expected from the audience."

Then again, other staff members have said the complete opposite over the years. It seems we will never know the whole true story anytime soon. One things for sure, the game that came out is definitely not what they had envisioned. It was more or less what they could actually release given the circumstances of what happened in 2009.

@SomeDeliCook said:

@UnlivedPhalanx said:

@SomeDeliCook said:

There were no DNF games made before the one that came out. There were prototypes and versions of a game they were trying to make. If they had a game, they would've released it.

From what I understand from reading over the years, they actually re-wrote the game twice. So there could be as many as two titles with a significant amount of completion. Not all game companies operate with good management, it's important to understand that even if they had three near-complete projects, they might've been shelved for no good reason than "we can do it better".

Edit: By re-wrote I am referring to asset generation and not just code-base.

From what I read (and what might not even be true), some of the old staff said there was no direction. They would have certain features complete, but then they would get newer and more ambitious ones to work on. And when they did those, even newer and bigger ones. There was no "This is what we are working toward" or something that ever looked like a playable game, it was just "add as much as you can, its expected from the audience."

Then again, other staff members have said the complete opposite over the years. It seems we will never know the whole true story anytime soon. One things for sure, the game that came out is definitely not what they had envisioned. It was more or less what they could actually release given the circumstances of what happened in 2009.

The whole damn thing is bizarre.

I really really would love to see a documentary (a detailed one) about what in the jesus fuck happened over those 14 years that led us to this.

Edit: Like "Fistful of Quarters" style.

It would've been sick if they had playable demos for those versions in the final DNF.

I want the first DNF and Prey released, both looked amazing.

DNF 2001 looks phenomenal. If that were released back then and I played it, it seems like it would be one of the most memorable games ever. For being a good game, that is. Not like how DNF 2011 was memorable in less great ways. 
 
Also just a weird thing I noticed. The "stepping on things" animation looks WAAAYYY better in the 2001 game.