So yes, they scored the contract. But what about
their somewhat lackluster record in the industry? "Every developer has done poor
games," says Scott Miller, quickly adding, "we’re no exception." For
n-Space President Dyke, he knew that making this game wouldn’t be a walk in the park.
"It has been a tremendous weight that the team has had to carry to get this far, and
it has taken its casualties," he says. So, down in Orlando, Florida, Dyke assembled a
crack team to bring Duke Nukem to life in a totally new PlayStation adventure. "We
have as many as sixteen people working on the project," he says after rummaging
through his brain to remember the names of them all. "Seven different programmers
have supported the effort, as it’s not easy creating a kick-ass 3rd person
engine in little more than a year. The rest have been artists, animators, and designers.
No less than four people have worked on Duke’s animations." As Dyke begins to
explain the way in which the game was created, it soon becomes apparent that what started
as a simple answer to a simple question, has now snowballed into a massive undertaking
with its own unique set of problems and a unique potential to leverage the Duke Nukem
property in a totally new game experience.
Taking Duke to the Third Degree
As we now know, Dyke pitched the game to GT as "Duke Raider,"
but he says, "that was never supposed to be leaked to the press." In fact, when
we asked Scott Miller about comparing the concept for Time to Kill to Tomb Raider, he
bluntly states, "Calling Time to Kill ‘Tomb Raider Featuring Duke Nukem’ is
selling the game way too short." In truth, Dyke believes that his concept is merely
an extension of third person gaming. "Did anyone refer to Tomb Raider as ‘Fade
to Black featuring Lara Croft’?" he asks, clearly trying to distance the
comparison between Duke and Lara. Scott Miller is more direct in leveling comparisons:
"Duke is far more action oriented than Tomb Raider, and has more personality, more
gags, more gibs, and a more interactive environment." Yeah, but what about chest
size, Scott?
When talking to Dyke, it is clear that he looks at Duke Nukem as more
than just a hunk of meat. "Duke is not only cool and tough, he is also smart. I
always thought of him more like a human version of the T1 Terminator, and I think he has a
lot of James Bond qualities too." With these traits in mind, n-Space decided to take
Duke to the third person perspective, a mode unfamiliar to those who remember the
first-person action of Duke 3D. (Although there was a third person mode in Duke 3D, it was
a haphazard hack in that no one really used very much). Of course, the transition from
first the third person is not an easy one, as n-Space soon learned. Although games like
Tomb Raider, One, and Fade to Black have all used the third person on the PlayStation,
there are plusses and minuses to taking this route.
