|
 |
Land of the Babes Interview!
As Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes is scheduled to street this week, we felt it was time to bring you another interview with Phil Gelber of N-space. Phil is the producer of Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes, and he has a lot to say about the game. Here's a small bit.
Q: Well, Land of the Babes is finished now, and will shortly be out there for the world to see. How do you feel about that?
A: Personally I feel proud, relieved, and excited all at the same time. Creating a game that stands up to the high standards of 3D Realms is a lot of hard work, and my team got the job done. I hope the world enjoys it and has as much fun as we did making it.
Q: How much of an irritation or an issue was it regarding the name change from Planet of the Babes to Land of the Babes?
A: It was pretty irritating from the standpoint that we had been using the name for a while, and although it was a great name, Land of the Babes wasn't a take off of Planet of the Apes. To be honest, there really isn't enough material to base a good game on Planet of the Apes.
There's a lot more that Phil has to say about Land of the Babes in this interview. Check it out today! For more information on Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes, make sure to check our our Land of the Babes page.
Posted by Joe Siegler at 6:45 PM
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
Interview with Lee Jackson
Our own Music & Sound Director, Lee Jackson is interviewed today by Sonikmatter. Actually, he was interviewed several months ago, but they never posted the interview until now (due to site rebuilding). Anyway, the interview with Lee talks mostly about what programs he uses in his music studio, his sound libraries, etc... Here's a bit from it.
SONIK : What sound libraries do you use ?
LEE : We recently made a rather large investment in sample libraries. I'd like to go into detail here, but this would involve information on Duke Nukem Forever, and I'm under Area 51 rules on that project.
SONIK : What is a typical day for Lee Jackson at work ?
LEE : No such thing. The closest thing I can compare my job to is that of a soldier - periods of not much going on, punctuated by days of sheer terror. On slow days, I'll usually get my Internet stuff out of the way, and then work on music, either playing around, composing, or doing R & D on sounds.
There's a lot more - a lot more (Lee is rather verbose in this interview) - so make sure check it out for some behind the scenes goodness with Lee Jackson.
Posted by Joe Siegler at 2:15 PM
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Interview with Paul Richards
Once again, one of our staff has been interviewed, this time it's Paul Richards - sketch artist for Duke Nukem Forever. In this interview, conducted by the German Duke site, duke4.de, Paul is asked mostly about his career, what he does, and what he did before coming to 3D Realms. Here's some of what Paul had to say:
Q: Where did you work before joining 3D Realms and what did you do there?
A: I was a conceptual artist at ION Storm for a year where I worked on 'Doppelganger', 'Dominion' and finally 'Anachronox'...that is until I got stuck on a comic book project that got axed. When work runs out, people like me get paranoid, and in that particular case it wasn't unwarranted. Then, in a bizarre twist of fate, I was "adopted" by id Software for two of the most surreal weeks of my life (And I mean that in a good way .
Q: What exactly are you doing on Duke Nukem Forever? Could you describe your work a bit more exactly?
A: I have a hand in designing environments, characters, objects and weapons. Alas, that type of work can only last so long, so I pitch in where I can. One day I might be roughing out cinematic storyboards or game box compositions. Later on I could be providing game textures, world models or character dialogue. I'm learning to be more versatile.
Paul's got a lot more to say, so make sure and check out the entire interview today! (Link removed Aug 28, 2006 due to non existance).
Posted by Joe Siegler at 3:15 PM
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes is almost here!
The new Sony Playstation title, "Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes" is almost here! This all new, all original Duke Nukem adventure on the Playstation is due to street anywhere from the 21st to the 28th of September.
As the game is coming this soon, we thought we'd let you know that you can still pre-order the game, and it will be shipped to you (from Amazon, we don't sell this title directly). Furthermore, the Official Strategy Guide is available!
If you are interested in ordering either of these items, please visit our Land of the Babes page, where ordering links are now posted.
Furthermore, we will be posting an interview with Land of the Babes producer Phil Gelber in the next day or so. We've put a new round of questions to Phil about the game being released, the name change from Planet of the Babes, as well as many other things. Keep your eyes peeled!
Posted by Joe Siegler at 3:15 PM
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Gamespy's Sequel Ideas
There's a funny article over on Gamespy that we were told about the other day. It's a funny piece where they make up sequel ideas they'd like to see such as "Shake 'n Quake", "Star Warcraft", "Diablo 3: Counterstrike", as well as "Duke Nukem 5: The Wild West". In the article, this is their idea for a Duke sequel:
In this sequel, Duke Nukem travels back to the old west and takes on the toughest cowboy of them all, John "The Duke" Wayne. In this rare screen shot, the two Dukes battle for the hand of a fair damsel in distress. Without giving away too much of the plot, Duke uses his shotgun quite a bit while enticing his movie star counterpart to "come get some!"
Check out the rest of the article, it's pretty funny. Thanks Mike Clevestig.
Posted by Joe Siegler at 2:00 PM
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
More on Webisodic Duke Nukem
There's a new interview with Jim Perkins, the CEO of WEB Corp - the folks who will be behind the "Webisodic Duke Nukem" games. Without any further adieu, let's just get to a few choice quotes from Jim...
Q: Are there a certain number of Duke episodes you're aiming for or will it depend on the success and customer demand?
JP: We expect to release 10 Duke episodes in 2001 � our plan is to continue the series as long as the series is popular.
Q: We're pretty starved for info on the title so is there any gameplay related information that you can give to Duke fans around the world? Multiplayer?
JP: As soon as we nail down the gameplay for Duke, we'll let you know � it's pretty early yet. We are discussing/investigating multiplayer � it's not trivial :-).
There's more in this interview, so head over to game-interviews.com and check out the entire thing. We hope to have more about this title online shortly.
Posted by Joe Siegler at 2:00 PM
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Webisodic Duke Nukem
Online today is a news article over at the Daily Radar site which speaks of the new Duke Nukem game concept. The article refers to these games as "Duke Webisodic Series" - and here's what the article says about the game series:
WEB Corp. (World Entertainment Broadcasting Corp.) is an Internet media development company and provider of interactive episodic games. Recently the company struck a deal with 3D Realms to publish an Episodic Gaming Series starring the esteemed square-headed Nukem.
The person behind all this is Jim Perkins, someone who has been known to us for quite some time from his time with FormGen, the original publisher of Duke Nukem 3D. Here's a bit of what Jim had to say in the interview:
DR: Will WEB Corp. have a say in how development on the title is approached, or will you leave them to it?
JP: WEB Corp. has a big say in how the game series will be developed, as will the developer making the series, and of course 3D Realms. 3D Realms is not making the Duke episodic series -- we are finalizing who that will be very soon.
DR: How would a developer approach an episodic game?
JP: A developer starts with a base story, characters and technology that they can build on over time. Then they make episodes based on this in a series of pieces or gamelets over time, and similar to a television series -- creativity and flexibility are key. It's not easy, especially if a developer is used to making $10M, three-year epic productions. Making episodic games is very rewarding; developers see the results of their labor much sooner.
We will have more on this here on our site once there is more to report. In the meantime, head over to Daily Radar to check out the full interview with Jim.
Posted by Joe Siegler at 1:15 PM
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Duke Nukem Forever Fan Song
Recently, one of our UBB Forum users went beyond the usual fan contribution. Usually, a fan contribution is something like a level, or a piece of art - but this time out, we got an MP3 song called "Duke Nukem Forever". It's a quite funny song written by our forum user Devil Master.
We're presenting it here for you to download. Click here to download the zip archive (which contains the mp3 file, as well as a text file with the lyrics). Speaking of the lyrics, here's a sample to get you in the mood.
It was 1996 when Duke3D came out
Just a year later they decided to start
A brand new Duke game looking much more advanced
Based on Quake2 to make it kick ass
Oh... we're all fed up with waiting, everything they are saying
Is that it will come out, the release date is When It's Done.
We're all fed up with waiting, everything they are saying
Is that it will come out but the wait is no more fun.
I've been waiting too long for Duke Nukem Forever,
Who knows when it'll come out, maybe now or maybe never.
We all thought it was hysterical - download it today, and check it out for yourself! You can also check out some of our other fan submissions at our Fan Stuff page.
Posted by Joe Siegler at 3:00 PM
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jess Crable Interview
The newest Duke Nukem Forever team member, Jess Crable, has been interviewed. This time the interview was done by the Stratos Group. They try and get some Duke Nukem Forever information out of Jess, but you'll have to read the article to see how Jess dances around that question. Otherwise, here's some of what he said.
SG: How did you 'break into' the industry?
JC: I got hooked on Unreal editing and made a lot of small mods during Unreal's early days and threw them on my website (www.planetunreal.com/oddities). After several months one thing led to another and Legend Entertainment in Virginia hired me.
SG: What, exactly, is your part in the development of Duke Forever? Take us through a day at work.
JC: I've been focusing on the game's AI, which has been a lot of fun. I just check my list of things to do and start doing it, there's not much else to a typical day outside of me bothering the level designers now and then and getting to listen to Brandon's weird music occasionally. It's pretty quiet since everyone's working very hard.
Make sure to check out the interview - Jess has some other things to say about himself, too.
Posted by Joe Siegler at 3:00 PM
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Brandon Reinhart Article
Our own Duke Forever programmer Brandon Reinhart has a new article that went online yesterday. It's over at Gamespy, and is entitled, "GreenMarine's Development Corner". In the article, he talks about several things related to the gaming industry - how it's organized, how some companies are laid out, game design, and how to break into the industry. The article contains no information about Duke Nukem Forever, but is a great read if you're interested in the behind the scenes working of this industry. Here's a bit of what he had to say:
Jay Wilbur once said "level design is where the rubber hits the road," and he's right. The Level Designer's job is to take the textures, characters, AI and models and mix them together with original architecture to create a game world.
Long before I was hired to work at Epic Games, I emailed John Carmack and asked him what it took to get into the industry. His response consisted of a single sentence: "Talent will be rewarded."
Make sure to check it out - it's a great article!
Posted by Joe Siegler at 12:45 PM
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Extreme ROTT Levels Released!
 ROTT fans rejoice! You have some new levels to play!
But first, a little trip down memory lane.. Back in late 1994, we released the shareware of Rise of the Triad. The full version shipped in February of 1995, and most people thought that was the end of the game.
Later in 1995, we released a relatively unknown add-on pack to ROTT called "Extreme Rise of the Triad". Extreme ROTT had some more utilities than the original CD had, it had some fan created things, and had 42 all new levels that did not appear in the original Rise of the Triad game. The add-on was discontinued shortly afterwards, and the materials have been unavailable since then.
However, we now present for registered Rise of the Triad fans the additional level data that was on the Extreme Rise of the Triad CD. This small RTL file, when used with the full version of Rise of the Triad will give you 42 all new levels to play. This add-on was created by Tom Hall (now of Ion Storm) and Joe Siegler (our webmaster). These new levels include some tricks not thought of during the original game development, and are generally regarded as some of the best level design ever come up with for Rise of the Triad.
You can download download the file from here, or visit our Rise of the Triad page, where you can download a gaggle of other things for Rise of the Triad including other free level packs we've released since the game came out. One of the packs is a cool group of levels that got rejected for one reason or another.
Posted by Joe Siegler at 5:30 PM
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes Goes Gold
Sony Playstation owners will be glad to hear this news - Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes has gone gold! That's right - the game is finished, and has been released to manufacturing, it should hit the store shelves shortly. We contacted Phil Gelber of n-Space, the folks who made the game, and this is what he had to say about it...
We are proud to say that Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes for the Sony Playstation IS DONE! The game has been approved by Sony and Duke fans should get ready to take Duke on one of his most heroic journeys yet. Hats off to the team here at n-Space and 3DRealms for working so hard to create a very strong story driven Duke experience. Time to enjoy the 3-day weekend and catch up on some sleep. Oh ya, the game should be in store the week of September 18th. As Duke would say "Come get some!".
Next week, we will have a new interview with Phil Gelber online about Land of the Babes, so make sure to keep your eyes open for that. If you wish to learn more about Land of the Babes, make sure to visit our Land of the Babes page, as well as n-Space. Furthermore, should you wish to pre-order either the game or the strategy guide, you can do so via the links provided below.
*Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes game
*Duke Nukem: Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes Strategy Guide
Posted by Joe Siegler at 5:30 PM
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
