The lead man behind DNF talks about the "complex" process of making the much-anticipated sequel

As fanboys whine, moan, complain and argue about Duke Nukem Forever, the game that will seemingly never appear, the series' normally quiet godfather has been answering some of the fans' slobbering posts on the company's bulletin board.

On the length of the game's development, which has been going on since early 1998, George Broussard wrote about the complexity of today's games as the biggest factor in lengthened development time.

"Today's games are much more complex," he said. "In Duke 3D, all the characters were sprites. Today they are polygonal models, have to be skinned and then animated or motion captured - a very long, tedious and complex process. Also, games today are "deeper" and require more than key/door stuff. That means more time to develop. Note all the so-so FPS games that didn't sell well in the last two years and you will see that they were simple compared to more complex efforts like Half-Life. A game like DNF is probably 5-10 times more complex than Duke 3D was."

He also took to task a fan who suggested the new Duke's longevity would come from multiplayer, rather than single-player mode.

"FPS games sell first due to single-player, then they sustain themselves and build a fan base on net play. I'll be very, very surprised if net-only games like Unreal Tournament or Quake III: Arena sell anywhere near a million copies. They may well do so, but it will be an uphill battle. And yes, I know they have 'single play' too, but it's not real single play like Half-Life and we all know it."

Take that, whiners!


Courtesy of IGN.com