Entrevista sobre Duke Nukem Forever (En ingles)

Una entrevista donde podemos ver como responden a varias dudas como por ejemplo la interactividad que habra con las strippers XD


EmbraceThePing: Would Gearbox consider making the game for PC then porting to console?

Randy Pitchford: The game has been developed on the PC the whole time. We're actually putting a lot of effort into porting it to the consoles. So yes, Windows PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.

a3gis: What was the biggest broken/fail feature in the existing code that Gearbox had to code around/remove?

Randy Pitchford: I'd seen the game many times over the years, they're down the street and I've known George for my entire professional career, a lot of us are friends between the studios, so we've had opportunities to see and play Duke Nukem Forever. Every time I've gone over there and had a look, I've been blown away. There's always some incredible thing, and I was like "Why can't you guys just commit to that, put it together and ship it". But those guys, they wanted perfection. I think that was part of the issue. I don't think you can sum up what went wrong. I think there's a lot of very smart people that have always been involved, and if you asked any of them, they'd all have slightly different takes on it. I think if there was a simple answer, they would have fixed that.

But it's been a lot of fun. Since we've been able to invest and bring everybody together and get the resources behind it, there's all sorts of little things we've been able to do to it. I think at the moment, that there's about five things that I can point to that I thought were incredible. There's also things that when you look at them, you think "Wow, really? Did you really need to put that in?". I'm thankful for it - but the things like the drawing on the whiteboard. That took some engineer about six months just to make that happen, and it's like, I'm thankful for that as a gamer, but it's not something you see in other games for a reason. At one point I played in the game there's a fully functioning pinball machine, and the pinball machine alone could be a commercial pinball machine. It's fully designed out. That probably took two or three guys a year just to make that one thing in the game. I was playing the pinball machine, and I made a mistake and lost the ball, and I just about shit myself, because when I did Duke Nukem says "Damn, I've got balls of fail".

EmbraceThePing: What is Gearbox's strategy to keep the Duke alive after release?

Randy Pitchford: When I made the investment to buy not just the game but the whole franchise, I didn't make such a decision without believing there was a future there. I haven't thought about the future, we haven't planned it yet, right now we have to be laser-focused on this game because if we work out a long-range plan and it's awesome, but all of the mind-share and attention that went to that prevented this game from happening, then that would be the worst mistake. So we have to put all of our attention on making sure this game is delivered. Only then will we take a deep breath, and when it's done we'll either be partying or weeping in a foetal position in the corner. Something will happen though, and then we can react to it and start thinking about the long-range.

EmbraceThePing: What ratings category will the Duke occupy?

Randy Pitchford: We're gonna do the best we can to respect local laws but to not be censored. I think censorship is terrible. I know that it would suck to not be able to have the game. Here's the thing about Duke though. Honestly, it pushes the boundaries, but it doesn't leap across the line. It dances on the line, it stomps on the line, it pees on the line, but it doesn't really cross the line. It's interesting too because the world we live in today, we all have the Internet. We have these machines with a screen that's a magic window to infinite porn and violence, and anything in a game like this is not going to freak us out compared to what we can see on the Internet. I think people like us need to pressure our local old fogies to figure it the f#$k out and relax a little bit. It's kind of interesting - I get that it's really helpful to have a ratings board to inform the customer about what to expect, especially when we have parents who want to make informed decisions about their children. I get that and respect that. I think though when it comes to the point where someone consumes some form of information or entertainment, and they decide that what they're seeing or feeling is - or should be - offensive, and the result of that is they should be able to make decisions about how other people consume it? I think that is a big f%$king problem, and we need to shut that shit down. I think you guys need to vote out all these assholes that are politicians that are making it a problem.

exe3: How much of the code and assets from the last developers have you been given access to? Anything at all, or are you starting from scratch?

Randy Pitchford: In terms of the plan for the game, the vision - I'd say it was 95% done. In terms of the actual effort, and the man-months involved, I calculated that over the time that 3D Realms had been making the game they'd spent somewhere between 3000 and 4000 man months. Our plan, by the time we ship we'll spend 2500 and 3000 man months. There's a lot of effort involved, everybody on the team is working day and night to make sure this happens. But in terms of the vision, the story we're playing, that's 3D Realms' vision.

games.on.net:I know you said it was hard to pin down what went wrong, but what's your take on it? Where do you think 3D Realms failed?

Randy: It's hard for any of us to judge from outside about what the decisions were like. I've known a lot of those guys for my entire professional career. I know that at any given moment their decisions made sense to them. And I know they're not stupid guys. On one level yeah they were obviously responsible, they were doing what they did so of course they were responsible. But it's really tough for me, as a creator, to not have some amount of respect for guys who are committed to a vision, committed to their goals, even in the face of what they dealt with. What do you think Steve?

Steve Gibson: I think that, from when I talk to guys who were in that situation, and came out - they all talked about very different perspectives on what went wrong. The thing is, if all these guys had the same idea on what went wrong, they probably would have fixed it. It's not simple.

games.on.net: Were there any common themes among these different perspectives? You've mentioned a smaller sized team working on a Triple A title?

Randy: That was more of a newer problem. Back when they started teams were smaller. I don't know. Honestly that's probably a question that's better for the people that were in there. I was just like you, looking from the outside, so all I can do is speculate.

games.on.net: You used an analogy to describe the situation, saying you felt like you were in an ambulance (Gearbox) behind a car wreck (DNF development) and you felt obliged to save Duke. Was there some part of your business sense that acted as a warning signal, that was telling you "Hang on, twelve years here, is this wreckage worth saving the people in the car, or am I going to get trapped in the car with them"?

Randy: I'll tell you what, imagine you had $20 million, and you could use that to invest in any brand or any concept in the entire industry. Whether it's an existing brand or even something you even helped come up with. Imagine if you had that. I think that a lot of us who work in the industry might decide that Duke Nukem Forever is on the very risky end of the entire spectrum. So yes, of course those thoughts crossed the mind. But also, when you're in that moment, talking about that analogy, if you let that thought deter you from doing what you know is the right thing and also what you know your heart is telling you to do, you'll probably regret that for the rest of your life. And I don't live my life with any regrets, and the reason is because of the decisions I make.

games.on.net: You mention taking a risk there - is that part of your personality? You like to take a bet on things that other people may not touch?

Randy: I don't know. I mean, a lot of people might look at some of the things I've been involved in and some of the decisions that I've been responsible for, and might believe that I'm a high risk person. Like the decision to do a game like Borderlands, for example, people thought that was crazy. But from my point of view, if you also look at all the things that we've accomplished at Gearbox, together, and if you imagine that I'm not the sole decision maker, you think about how that works, you can also see that every single thing we've done has been successful. If you're all high risk, all the time, that's not how it works out. So I think collectively at the studio we have a lot of really good minds, and a lot of really good decision makers, and I'm thankful to be a part of that, and I'm thankful to be on the team with these guys. I think ultimately it'll be very clear that what we've done with Duke Nukem Forever, the decisions we've made and how we've approached that, will once again prove to be a very successful decision.

games.on.net: Duke's humour is this kind of 1980's sensibility, the time of Rambo and Porkies films. Crude penis jokes. That sort of stuff.

Randy Pitchford: We don't have any of those kinds of jokes (laughs).

Steve Gibson: The humour has evolved (laughs).

games.on.net: Do you think it's still relevant?

Randy Pitchford: What do you think?

games.on.net: I don't know - I'm asking you the questions! I had a few chuckles, but I'm a hardcore nerdy sort of gamer. If you want to talk to the mainstream audience, who are a little bit more PC these days, do you think they're going to resonate with that?

Randy Pitchford: We'll see! If you want my honest opinion, I think it's kind of an obvious question. I think the reality of the situation is that it doesn't matter, there's a whole spectrum of things in this world, and you can find things at any point in the spectrum. Like gosh, I saw this movie on the plane called Hot Tub Time Machine which just made me laugh the whole time. It was just stupid and silly and hilarious, and I think the whole world is a moshpit of entertainment, and the whole spectrum is covered. I think Duke is hilarious, and we love him, and he has been relevant this entire time. It's not because of the good games that have come out, because there haven't been any. He's been relevant this entire time because the fans have kept him relevant.

Steve Gibson: Yeah, that was a very succinct answer!

games.on.net: You mentioned you've hired a lot of the guys who were working on the game originally. Do you foresee these guys staying with you after Duke?

Randy Pitchford: I don't know. To me, so much of Duke is Alan. I don't want to imagine a world where Alan is not a part of Duke, and Duke is not a part of Alan. I don't want to imagine that.

games.on.net: So you're obviously thinking this is the first Duke in a series...

Randy Pitchford: When you buy a franchise, you don't do that to one-shot it. But I haven't put a single ounce of mindshare to the future, because the focus right now is on delivering this thing that has had so much drama, and we've been waiting so long for this. I know everyday that's all these guys are thinking about. We're all in.

games.on.net: Australia is quite important for Gearbox, in particular in terms of sales. You guys have done very well here. We also have draconian censorship laws. How much pressure do you guys feel to self-censor yourself, knowing that we're quite an important market.

Randy Pitchford: How much pressure do you feel as an Australian citizen to fix your laws?

games.on.net: We do what we can. You know what it's like though.

Randy Pitchford: I hate censorship. The last thing I ever want to do is censor myself. I get frustrated that there are territories where we sometimes find ourselves in spots where we either... the content doesn't reach that customer, or change the content. I hate the fact that I even have to make such decisions. I don't want to make such decisions, and I wish more of the world would get it, and stop worrying about such things, and start realising that the more comfortable we are with information and entertainment, the faster we'll all go.

games.on.net: It's interesting that you put the onus on us as gamers to change things, but as the business who is making money from this market, shouldn't you also be involved in that process?

Randy Pitchford: Oh yeah. We don't have a lot of credibility though. We're not constituents of the local population, so we don't vote for the people who are making your decisions for you. Secondly, we look like we're on the outside just trying to profit from the population. So if we say, hey, you guys should change your laws, they say you don't care about the wellbeing of our population, you're just trying to take money from us. So we have no credibility. It could actually injure your cause for us to make too big of a statement. It's the people in any society that have to create their own rights. Sorry, it's kind of an American attitude. We burned our King down and kicked him out of our country. We gave our citizens the rights to carry guns in case our government ever gets wily so we can shoot back at them.

vcatkiller: How interactive are the strippers?

Randy Pitchford: I like how that follows the censorship question.

Steve Gibson: I'd say we're very excited for people to see them and experience that, but that's a spoiler man.

games.on.net: Thank you very much guys!


Fuente: Games On Net