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posted by cmn32480 on Saturday July 18 2015, @11:37AM   Printer-friendly
from the let-sleeping-dogs-lie dept.

Gearbox Software ruined one of the best running jokes in software when they brought Duke Nukem Forever to market. At a recent developer conference in Brighton, they talked about working with independent developers to revive the character.

From Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford:

"I did not acquire the franchise merely to make sure we could all experience Duke Nukem Forever," Pitchford said. "That was sort of the toll we had to pay." He then explained that while Gearbox has carried out some concept development for the franchise, they'd need to work with the "correct developer" to make a new game.

One of the pitches:

Sam Barlow (Her Story)

Duke Nukem goes into a Vegas strip club at 4am, and it's kind of empty, and there's only two strippers working. He throws some money at them. Then, because there's no one else around, they sit down and they talk to him, and Duke sits there and he listens to this stripper talk about her life, why she's stripping, her family back home and how they live a state away but she flies into Vegas for two weeks of the month to earn money, then she goes go back and looks after her kids.

Then after an hour of this conversation, of him just listening to the woman talk, she asks Duke about his life, and then it flips. It's the first time anyone's actually asked about him, and he's forced to look inside himself and understand why he does these things, why he feels the need to kick ass, and it's just a lovely moment that they share. He walks away from it feeling like he understands himself a little bit better, but the ending is kind of ambiguous. We see Duke leave the strip club and we don't know what happens next.

What's your pitch, Soylent?


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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 18 2015, @09:04PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 18 2015, @09:04PM (#210865)

    Read the headline "Inde Devs Pitch ... Duke Nukem" instantly thought, fuck it's not a game dev just some hipster narrative bullshit. Read TFS, and confirmed.

    Here's an idea: INTERACTIVE FICTION EXISTS! For fuck's sake. It really does exist as its own established genre. [tads.org] Why do you think shit like Depression Quest and other narrative bullshit only these SJW hipsters care about are not being submitted to the Interactive Fiction Competitions? [ifcomp.org] Why? Because shit like Depression Quest would get blown the fuck out of the water as the crap it is, even competing against other similar "games". Game press continues to ignore Interactive Fiction, even though ebook readers can be scripted now so there's a potential market and platform for Interactive Fiction. Why ignore I.F.? Because then the shit you're shilling for your friend would be outclassed by actual good I.F.

    Here's my pitch: Get that bullshit out of my face. No one is playing I.F. "games" because the shit just isn't as immersive. You throw text at me? Fine, I LOVE MUDS and esp. RPGs... Oh, it's not even as advanced as ZORK or Colossal Cave Adventure? It's just a choose your own adventure story online? Fuck right off. Oh it doesn't even have any choices, it's just some ideological social justice rambling about prostitutes and being more sensitive to "social issues"? No, do NOT want. Get that shit out of here, and die in a fire (no, this isn't harassment, it's actually an endearing way of saying "goodbye" in the non-PC infected parts of the interwebs). Don't come bitching to your Patreon friends complaining of harassment (like Zoe) when no one on Steam wants that shit. It does not sell well because NO ONE WANTS THAT SHIT, it's not good, it's a step backwards from what we had in the 80's.

    I make games as a hobby. I've been making games since ~10 years old. I've quit my day job several times to make games, but you can make more money in business software than AAA gamedev. I used to call myself an independent gamedev back when I was licensing my games for those game collection CDs "200 Games only $15". Now the term "indie" is synonymous with identity politician bullshit artists who couldn't make a real game to save their lives. Just look at Sunset by Tale of Tales [gameinformer.com]. They were darlings of the Indie game journalists, but THEY GOT NO SALES. Take this "indie" crap out of here. Fuck "indie". I know there's tons of decent independent gamedevs out there [tigsource.com], they're just not in the west-coast clique. From NY to Texas (esp. around id Software studio) there are indie game scenes that make non-SJW infested shite. There's tons of interesting games [indiedb.com] out there that are actually games, but the "game journalists" aren't covering them (they primarily cover their friends and others who toe the SJW line, they don't really care about games, hence: Gamergate).

    Fuck "Reviving" Duke Nukem. You want to revive it? Give us a SIMPLE map editor, good online gameplay, and interesting weapons. Stop giving such a damn about "muh graphics" so that the barrier to entry for acceptable maps is lower. Give us a hub to rank and trade maps and have battles / tournaments on user created maps. The modding community already has tournaments of classic Doom mods, Quake, Duke3D, etc. ACTUAL INDIE GAMEDEVS ARLEADY REVIVED THAT SHIT! Publishers: Select some good mods of classic games and sell them, done, and for cheap too! Fuck off with this narrative nonsense. You story bound idiots want some legitimacy? YOU GOT IT: Go breathe some damn life into the interactive fiction genre [ifarchive.org] rather than pretending this poorly written "ambiguous ending" choose-your-own adventure shit like Depression Quest and TFS is "new" or "revitalizing" instead of just plainly crap nepotism that's retarding progress instead of innovating. Be warned though, your special snowflake status has been cancelled.

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