Former 3D Realms owners clash over Duke Nukem Forever blame
Apogee, which also went by 3D Realms at one time, published a number of successful and super-influential games, but is best known for its greatest disaster: the 15-year-long development of Duke Nukem Forever, which was ultimately completed by Gearbox. After footage of a 2001 build of the game leaked this week, Apogee co-founders Scott Miller and George Broussard opened up, just a little, about what «killed the original 3D Realms»—and the former high school friends are pointing their fingers at each other.
Miller, who recently resumed publishing games under the Apogee name, said in a brief blog post today that he didn't work on the Duke Nukem Forever project, but as co-owner of the company, had «good insight into the issues» that turned it into a «money pit.» Those issues, claims Miller, were that the studio was «understaffed by at least 50%,» didn't have «a good development roadmap,» and kept rebooting the game to switch to new 3D tech, «causing massive delays over and over.»
It's not news that engine switches were a problem—this is a game that started on the Quake 2 engine in 1997 and wasn't released until 2011—and a quagmire of Duke Nukem Forever's scale seems impossible to explain without the other things being at least partially true. But how did they happen? Miller doesn't take responsibility.
He doesn't explicitly assign blame, either, but Broussard, who was also an Apogee owner and directed Duke Nukem Forever until Gearbox took over, is the obvious target. Broussard had a few things to say about Miller in response.
«Mind blowing the nonsense [Miller] spews,» Broussard wrote on Twitter. «Not surprising due to his depth of manipulation and narcissism. [At] least I've had the class to keep thoughts private.
»I have
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