Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

So, while we were down for the count this week, another long, lost friend disappeared into the wind, a victim of his success, and the idea there is such a thing as too much development time.  Yes, I am sure you hae all heard the news by now, that 3D Realms has gone under, and with it, goes the longest running punchline in the history of video gaming development.

It is sad to think that a team of talented artists, programmerrs, story writers, and producers will be out of work with the end of 3D Realms.  I mean they have poured their life and soul into a game that at this point, had reached mythical status in is supposed development.  Questions also arise over the idea that maybe 3D Realms wasn’t developing anything except for a way to continue to garner money from investors.  Whatever it was, the clock ran out on 3D Realms, and now, one of the most prolific characters of video gaming in the 90′s has died a very undignified death.  I’m sure the death is only temporary, as someone will snap up the assets of 3D Realms and finish the game that is Duke Nukem Forever.

It is a hard thing to swallow, but it was 1997 when Duke Nukem Forever was announced.  It came off the huge success of Duke Nukem 3D, a game that came out of nowhere, with tons of neat little features like interactive environments, colorful jabs popular culture, and an endearing hero, chiming out the best of Bruce Campbell one liners.  The game was campy, but became a great kind of pick up and play games, that became repackaged too many times to count.  When the sequel was announced, it was mentioned that it would use the Quake engine and that it would redefine the FPS genre.  Gamers sat with bated breath on the arrival of Duke Nukem.

And we waited.  And waited.  And waited.  During that time, we saw a few screenshots, but beyond that, not much was out there.  In the real world, we watched three presidential elections, the dot com boom and bust, and probably over 1000 other game releases during that time.   My marriage started a year before that, and I even had a son that is seven years old now, almost eight.  There is even a website that mentions important facts that have happened during the development of Duke Nukem.

This is not the first time excess has killed a franchise.  The favorite whipping boy before Duke Nukem Forever was John Romero’s Daikatana.  Lauded and advertised to the hilt, it became the poster boy for what not to do with your advertising and development.  Those lessons were apparently not heard by George Broussard and the rest of 3D Realms.  it also did not help that 3D Realms was self-funded, instead of receiving money from a publisher, something I was unaware of, as I thought they were getting some money from Take Two.  Self funding a project gives you a ton of freedom, but also puts the burden on the developer to keep a schedule, something George and crew were notorious in missing.  At some point you have to wonder if 3D Realms just thrived off the mystery of exactly when Duke Nukem Forever would be finished.

But now, Duke Nukem Forever is gone, lost to excess and poor planning.  I am sure that someone will snap it up (perhaps EA or Atari?) and turn it into something that might make money, but until then we bid you a fond adieu.