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{{quote|''"Yes it seems that 3D Realms have been doing something other than [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/1999/11/03/ giving each other piggyback rides] for the last 10 years. In a stroke all the anticipation we haven't felt since 1998 returned like a tazer gun to the base of the spine. I just hope that 3D Realms understands that if this game doesn't turn out to be history's greatest contribution to human culture and the cure for at least one type of cancer, then I and every other reviewer on earth are going to [[Hype Backlash|saw its bollocks off]]."''|'''Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw''', ''[[Zero Punctuation]]'' (Feb. 2008)}}
 
(For the actual Game-page, [[Duke Nukem Forever (Video Game)|go here]])
 
== Development History ==
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Just as numerous game developers [[Third Is 3D|named the third installment of a popular series "3D"]] back in [[The Nineties]], 3DRealms decided to extend the trope to Duke Nukem's fourth game by titling it ''Duke Nukem Forever'' ("4-Ever"). Little did they know at the time the other potential meaning -- because when they said ''Forever'', '''''[[Development Hell|they]] [[Vaporware|weren't kidding]]'''''.
 
''DNF'' was ''the'' prime example of [[Vaporware]] by way of [[Development Hell]], and widely considered the videogame equivalent of ''[[Guns N' Roses (Music)|Chinese Democracy]]'' (the sessions for the album started in 1994 and it was ''finally'' released in November 2008; ''actual'' Chinese democracy is, sadly, [[Useful Notes/China|still]] in [[Development Hell]]) or the infamous ''[[Dangerous Visions|The Last Dangerous Visions]]'' anthology (originally announced in 1973; [[Harlan Ellison]] [[wikipedia:The Last Dangerous Visions|still insists he intends to get the book out]]).
 
The game was given the [http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,66195,00.html Vaporware Lifetime Achievement Award] by ''Wired News'' for its continued delays, an award created specifically for ''DNF'' (as it was winning the Vaporware Awards too often). When readers complained against its removal, the game returned the following year to win some more awards.
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3D Realms released numerous trailers and teasers throughout development, including [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDlB2P1leRM this 2001 trailer] featuring footage tailored together from non-interactive cutscenes (according to a former 3D Realms developer) as a "proof of life" for the game. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWuteFLUPSY Another teaser trailer released in 2007], combined with the surprise release of ''[[Prey]]'' (3D Realms' ''other'' vaporware title), suggested ''Forever's'' development might have finally gotten somewhere.
 
Another video of [http://kotaku.com/5013638/first-duke-nukem-forever-gameplay gameplay footage] was shown in George Broussard's late-May/early-June 2009 appearance on ''The Jace Hall Show''. Gamers remained jaded after seeing this, since the game's development history never seemed to break out of alpha stages (as there would be a chance 3D Realms would restart from scratch because they weren't totally satisfied with the results). Several from-scratch restarts ''did'' happen during 3D Realms' development of the game; [http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/fail_duke_nukem/ this Wired article] details the history of the people who designed, developed, and ultimately failed the project. To make a long story short ([[Clue (Filmfilm)|too late]]): [[Protection From Editors]] ended up being the game's downfall.<ref>George Broussard's notable [[Protection From Editors]] led to the opposite problem of most instances of the trope; rather than blocking out all criticism, Broussard's perfectionism led to endless revision of ''DNF'' to avoid flaws in the final product, regardless of the budget or any lingering deadlines.</ref>
 
A few months after the 2009 trailer premiered, Take Two pulled the plug on 3D Realms' funding and [[Author Existence Failure|released the development team]] -- and since the company retained the rights to the ''Duke Nukem'' name, it sued 3D Realms for damages (the lawsuit ended in a settlement). A [http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=1154 countersuit filed by 3D Realms] suggests ''Forever'' was slated for a 2010 release on PC and [[Xbox 360]] (and later announced for [[Play Station 3]]) -- and another ''Duke Nukem''-related game was in the works as well (under the working title of ''Duke Begins'').
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This would normally be the end of the story -- there's no development team, the game's easily the biggest joke in the gaming world, and no gamer alive expects the game to ever be released in any way, shape, or form -- but we all should have remembered one simple fact: ''[[Memetic Mutation|always]]'' [[Memetic Mutation|bet on Duke.]]
 
After 3D Realms' development ended, [http://kotaku.com/5609770/rumor-borderlands-studio-reviving-duke-nukem-forever Gearbox Software] (the makers of ''[[Borderlands (Video Game)|Borderlands]]'', ''[[Brothers in Arms]]'', and ''[[Half-Life]]'' [[Expansion Pack|expansion packs]] ''Opposing Force'' and ''Blue Shift'') picked up the scraps and ''finally'' wrapped up development on the game. (Gearbox's first involvement with the franchise, incidentally, involved developing ''[http://kotaku.com/5314491/gearbox-named-as-developer-for-scrapped-duke-begins Duke Begins]'' before it was cancelled -- and Gearbox founder Randy Pitchford himself was a former 3D Realms employee; [[One Degree of Separation|who knew that he would complete the game 3D Realms started just after he left them?]])
 
At PAX 2010, ''DNF'' made a surprise appearance with [http://pax.gamespot.com/story/6275192/duke-nukem-forever-hands-on-impressions a playable demo], marking the first time any member of the general public ''ever'' managed to play a version of the game during its ridiculously long development cycle. After a fourteen year wait (and a minor hiccup at the end of development before going gold), Take Two released ''Duke Nukem Forever'' on June 10th (internationally) and June 14th (the United States)…[[Anticlimax|to a tepid critical reception]]. The game sold well enough for Gearbox to say ''Duke Nukem 5'' will likely sooner or later, however -- and this time, they'll try and make the gap between sequels a bit less than sixteen years.
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== ''Duke Nukem Forever's'' development features examples of the following tropes: ==
 
* [[The Ace]]: The promo art for the game depicts Duke as an astronaut, MMA champion, and a recipient of some kind of an award. Also on a snowy mountain with a sign that says "'''HAIL TO THE KING EVEREST'''". He also fishes for [[Everything's Even Worse Withwith Sharks|sharks.]] With his ''[[Up to Eleven|bare hands.]]''
* [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking]]: In the 2011 trailer:
{{quote| '''Narrator:''' ''When the invaders came back, they came back angry. They tore our planet apart, bit by bit. But they made one mistake... they shouldn't have gone after our women.''<br />
'''Duke:''' ''Dammit. Why do they always take the hot ones?'' }}
* [[Bowdlerised]]: [[Zig -Zagging Trope|Zig-zagged]], in a sudden cross-over with [[No Export for You]], the Russian release of the game not only features [[Broken Base]]-inciting voice actor casting for Duke, it also went through the pains of translating all the swearing... and then bleeping it out. And there's no way to un-bleep it. And locking out the usual Steam ability to change a game's language. And retaining the game's 18+ rating because nothing else was censored!
* [[Cue the Flying Pigs]]: A few days before the unveiling at PAX, 3D Realms president George Broussard (who [http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=1&cId=3147571 once] said it would be ready "when pigs fly") tweeted a link to... [http://bp0.blogger.com/_awSNbDFeIPs/RjHkcL5Z9hI/AAAAAAAAACk/vw4PGZo9Jxs/s1600-h/pigs-fly.jpg guess it]. Hell, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjOE8shhaRk even Duke has his fun with this trope.]
* [[Follow the Leader]]: A weird case of this: Now that the game is actually out, there have been complaints about how "dated" certain parts of the game is and that it has been done before, such as realtime keypad tapping as shown in [[Doom]] 3, protaganist-based storytelling and physics puzzles as in [[Half Life]], destructible terrain in [[Red Faction]], etc... But truth be told the features would have been groundbreaking if the game had been released, a decade earlier (or in some cases even half a decade earlier), if the trailers for [[Duke Nukem Forever (Video Game)|Duke Nukem Forever]] showing these features were any proof. Also an interesting case of [[Older Than They Think]].
* [[Lampshade Hanging]]: Even the game's [http://gbxforums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=109904 announcement press release] calls the release "shocking" and claims, "[[Cue the Flying Pigs|Seriously, flying pigs spotted heading towards Penny Arcade Expo!]]"
** The trailer has a pretty nice one, after Duke uses a pig cop's rough hide to light a cigar:
{{quote| ''"What? Did you think I was GONE forever?"''}}
* [[Preview Piggybacking]]: Owners of the ''[[Borderlands (Video Game)|Borderlands]]'' [[Updated Rerelease|Game of the Year Edition]], another Gearbox game, could sign up for the ''Duke Nukem Forever First Access Club'' to be among the first to play the public demo version of ''Duke Nukem Forever''. Members of said club also get the first DLC, the "Hail to the Icons" pack, for free.
* [[Rated "M" for Manly]]: The ESRB classification for this game is "M for Mature", and has the entire rating box filled out. And then there's [http://www.esrb.org/ratings/synopsis.jsp?Certificate=30650 the description].
* [[Refuge in Audacity]]: Expected. Gearbox was worried that the game would be ''too'' crude, and were surprised they didn't have to cut out any of the "Strong Sexual Content".
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/918623"
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