Duke Nukem 3D fan remake on hold

The authorized fan remake of Duke Nukem 3D in Unreal Engine 3 has been placed on indefinite hold for reasons not entirely clear, though the team does hopes to finish it one day.

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Break out your tired and hoary Duke Nukem delay jokes, as the authorized fan remake of Duke Nukem 3D in Unreal Engine 3 has been put on indefinite hold for reasons not entirely clear. However, developer Interceptor Entertainment does hope to finish Duke Nukem: Reloaded one day, and goodness knows Duke's fans are good at waiting.

"After careful consideration of the progress and direction of the project, Interceptor Entertainment has decided to finish Duke Nukem: Reloaded at a future date that is yet to be determined," the team announced (via PC Gamer). "We hope to resume that work again when the time is right."

Why exactly Interceptor has chosen to place the project on hold is something of a mystery.

Interceptor says that it "still has the good will and non commercial license provided to us to use the Duke Nukem brand for our creative ambitions." However, a forum post from project lead Frederik Schreiber says that the license and agreement have mysterious, unspecified conditions it "can't live with."

While The Internet quickly started pointing fingers at Duke Nukem franchise owner Gearbox, both say it was Interceptor's choice.

"The recent Duke Nukem: Reloaded decision was not a Gearbox one by any means. There has been no change of heart or stance at Gearbox or any other parties. Interceptor Entertainment made this decision on their own," Gearbox marketing man Adam Fletcher said in a forum post.

"The non-commercial license agreement that we happily provided to the team is still valid."

It is a shame that development has stalled now, as Interceptor seemed to be preparing to release something.

Schreiber says that the team was "actually in the final phase of the game, slowly starting our Beta phase." He claims that the "current multiplayer version" of Reloaded is "around 90% finished," though it's not clear exactly what that contains. When Reloaded was first announced last year, Interceptor planned for the initial release to be a multiplayer-only milestone build with several maps and weapons.

Still, as Duke Nukem Forever showed, Duke Nukem can wait a long time for the right time when it comes. He's a bit shy, the poor lamb. Doesn't get out much. Really needs people to bring him out of his shell.

Here's another look at Duke Nukem: Reloaded's debut trailer from October 2010, showing off its revamp of the start area in Duke Nukem 3D's first level:

From The Chatty
  • reply
    September 28, 2011 11:30 AM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, Duke Nukem 3D fan remake on hold.

    The authorized fan remake of Duke Nukem 3D in Unreal Engine 3 has been placed on indefinite hold for reasons not entirely clear, though the team does hopes to finish it one day.

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      September 28, 2011 11:47 AM

      :(

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      September 28, 2011 11:54 AM

      i hope this gets cancelled honestly.

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      September 28, 2011 11:55 AM

      THERE IS NO GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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      September 28, 2011 12:08 PM

      It was prob going to be better than the new Duke gearbox is supposedly making.

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      September 28, 2011 12:10 PM

      [deleted]

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      September 28, 2011 12:11 PM

      I'd rather Black Mesa Source comes out before I die from dementia.

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        September 28, 2011 12:23 PM

        Great, this fucking mod again. I've written it off anyways regardless of their useless dangling updates that don't mean shit. DEAD

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          September 28, 2011 12:29 PM

          There was an interview recently with the voice actors they've got to do new work for the mod, so apparently there is some form of work being done on it... IT'S JUST TAKING FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

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            September 28, 2011 12:37 PM

            Why do they need voice actors for this mod? I thought it was mostly an engine/graphics upgrade?

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              September 28, 2011 12:40 PM

              [deleted]

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                September 28, 2011 12:41 PM

                If they change the "they're waiting for you Gordon...in the test chamber" line to some crappy voice I'll be pissed

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                September 28, 2011 12:46 PM

                Exactly how I feel about it, I was very excited years ago but have since lost all hope and interest that this will come out, it's as good as dead in my opinion

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              September 28, 2011 12:41 PM

              Good question... I believe the idea is that they're updating 100% of the assets and reusing nothing except the general idea and design of the original. So conceptually speaking, you should recognize that it's HL1 and the various locations, but it's entirely brought "up to date" to a modern professional standard (well, a modern-ish Source mod standard at least).

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                September 28, 2011 12:45 PM

                Do the sound effects & voice work need an update? I think it would be fine.

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              September 28, 2011 12:45 PM

              You will hear the voice of Gordon Freeman, for the first time (unless you count that animated thingie).

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              September 28, 2011 1:37 PM

              They should release early, and release often.

              They can update it later. Release the first hour. Add better voice acting later. Doing this super polished mod at 1.0 is killing mods. A bunch of people make a bunch of work that never ends up seeing the light of day because they can't get it 100% finished. What a waste of time for those poor developers.

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                September 28, 2011 1:39 PM

                True, if your mod is good then people will play it in a beta/buggy/ugly gfx stage

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                  September 28, 2011 2:20 PM

                  Modders should really focus on one thing at a time, release each individual mod, and then package the whole thing neatly should they ever release each individual part.

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        September 28, 2011 1:11 PM

        its going to be part of Half Life 3 box set....you see what i did there??

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      September 28, 2011 12:19 PM

      an albanian gypsy put a curse on duke. Te qifsha kurve may you never be finished on time ever again

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      September 28, 2011 12:33 PM

      When it's done.

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      September 28, 2011 12:38 PM

      [deleted]

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      September 28, 2011 12:41 PM

      Don't mean to poop on their party, but it never gave me the impression of something that would really happen -- looked like another terribly ambitious mod, fated to fizzle away.

      I mean, it's not as skepticism-inducing as those crazy Russians who claim to be remaking STALKER in the Crysis engine, but still.

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        September 28, 2011 1:34 PM

        Yeah, sorry to say, but it was pretty well doomed from the beginning.

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          October 5, 2011 7:59 AM

          this was just a resume builder. Something they can put on a demo reel. Then they can also point to the buzz they've now generated with these blogs. It went perfectly as planned.

          Hell they were probably hoping they would get * F O X ' D * earlier so they wouldn't have to be the ones to kill it.

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      September 28, 2011 12:46 PM

      I wish Gearbox would just pay them and rebrand it Duke3D HD.

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      September 28, 2011 12:48 PM

      reason not entirely clear = reality of trying to re-create a game in a modern engine (insane amount of content creation required). It was never going to happen.

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      September 28, 2011 12:53 PM

      lol

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      September 28, 2011 1:01 PM

      OK enough already! Duke Nukem was good the first few levels after that it sucked. This has gone far enough to the point I have to ask who really cares about this game anymore. So many newer IP's that are more promising than this washed up game. BTW looks like you guys got far with that whole roof top scene, I see it got just that far... :P

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      September 28, 2011 1:52 PM

      [deleted]

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      September 28, 2011 2:58 PM

      They, like every other overly ambitious mod developer, should focus on doing maybe ONE episode or level or chapter well rather than take on the task of remaking an entire game.

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        September 28, 2011 3:48 PM

        it's hard. But it's maybe the one thing in life I've actually completed. But that was long enough ago I'd probably need to remake it again

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      September 28, 2011 3:27 PM

      Well it certainly couldn't be worse than Duke Nukem Forever.

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      September 28, 2011 5:06 PM

      Wait didn't this come out a couple of months ago?

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