How Success Killed Duke Nukem Forever

Illustration by Olly Moss.

There's an excellent article running on Wired about the recipe for disaster that killed 3D Realms, the makers of Duke Nukem Forever. Normally, when I see writeups about the developer and that game in particular, they are painfully biased or juvenile. This is one of the first articles I've seen that attempt to get in the psyche of George Broussard and the 12+ year long development cycle.

Not saying that it's the truth, but I certainly can believe that someone would reach a point where he is so obsessed with perfection that a mere deadline like "shipping the game" is woefully inadequate.