Bind.

Duke Nukem, development forever?
The long awaited Duke Nukem Forever finally gets a release date

By TK Kwon

echnology and gaming go

hand in hand, as technology

advances, so does the way
we interact with video games.
Due to this trend of technological
advancement, in a timeframe as little
as five years is leaps and bounds for
gaming standards. From simple 8-bit
graphics to complex 3D rendered
graphics with shaders and in-game
physics, the visual and auditory
benchmarks of games constantly
evolve. And as this evolution takes
place, developers and publishers
create games knowing that once they
finish their product a newer and far
superior standard will have already
been set. But what happens when a
studio refuses to let this happen, and
develops a product bent on evolving
with the technology that is used
to create it? Simple, Duke Nukem
Forever happens.

Scott Miller grew up loving
video games and as an avid fan his
lifelong dream was to create one
of his own. With a programming
background he developed some
games of his own and distributed
them via bulletin board systems
(BSS). After finding out that many
players enjoyed his games he
thought to make his hobby into a
second revenue source. Miller did
so by releasing only a part of the
game, much like game demos we
have now, and if the players enjoyed
it they would mail Miller money
orders to download the rest of the
game. Keep in mind this was during
1986, the internet was the apogee of
technology and the idea of digital
distribution was unfathomable.
Miller’s business model turned
his secondary job into his primary
revenue source and with it came the
birth of Apogee Software, Ltd.

Miller, with his background
in programming and gaming,
understood exactly what made
games work and what made them
flop. By using his digital distribution
model, Miller was able to publish
and distribute other studio’s games
via the internet. After acquiring
the talents who would later go on
to form the renowned Id Software,
Apogee published one of their

games that would later pave the way
to create one of the most popular
video game genres, first-person
shooters. Id Software’s Wolfenstein
3D was a groundbreaking game and
was met with critical acclaim and
Apogee knew that the genre was
here to stay. By employing the same
game-play mechanics to one of their
already iconic characters, Apogee
knew that is was time to kick-ass
and chew bubblegum, but they were
all out of gum.

Just as Apogee had expected,
Duke Nukem 3D blew gamers
away with stunning graphics,
sounds, and one of the most macho
testosterone fuelled characters in
gaming history. With such a massive
hit on their hands the Apogee crew
were expected to deliver another
Duke Nukem title, however, due to
development troubles and having
squandered a small fortune on a
game called Prey, which they later
shut down in 1999 and revived in
2001, Apogee knew that once again
it was up to Duke to save the day.
Unfortunately for Apogee, that day
never came. Project leader George
Broussard wanted all of the latest
gaming features and luxuries he
had seen in competing titles in
Duke Nukem Forever, but this led
to a vicious cycle that bled away
Apogee’s revenues.

After being in a development
cycle spanning over thirteen years,
Duke Nukem Forever became a
running gag and a tale of caution
to rising studios, and with now
limited funding, resources, and the
firing of the Duke Nukem Forever
development team, the game seemed
to be all but dead. Nevertheless,
unknown too much of the public,
two development studios were still
quietly working away on the game
after Apogee had reached out for
their help, and at the Penny Arcade
Expo 2010 Duke Nukem Forever got
a release date and relit the flame in
fans’ hearts around the globe. Duke
Nukem Forever, despite its many
setbacks and a seemingly endless
development cycle, is scheduled to
release on February 11th, 2011 and
bring back all the campy macho
goodness of the 80’s.

 

Feeling the poetic burn

       

Geist’s Poetry Workout hi g

h-kicks po

ets into a sweat

Gillian Jerome

 

By Sharon Yoshida

or so other adults, frantically

dissecting old fitness magazines
with sticky scissors. We shook the
hastily cut words in brown paper bags
as if they were lunchable maracas,
and assembled the randomized scraps
of paper into choppy paragraphs atop
crisp white linen tablecloths. To an
outsider, we probably looked like a

I: in a banquet room with 20

really odd ransom-note making factory.

In actuality though, we were just

working out our poetic muscles.
Held at the Listel Hotel in

Vancouver on September 19", the

Geist Poetry Workout led a full crowd

of both aspiring and established poets
through a boot camp style workshop
that culminated in ten poems in just
three hours. While this sounds like an
exhausting feat, under the guidance
of the experienced and erudite duo of
Gillian Gerome and Douglas College
creative writing instructor Elizabeth
Bachinsky, the Geist Poetry Workout
was more fun than fatigue.

A poetry workout is an unusual

concept, designed to help poets tap into

their imaginations with, as Bachinsky

puts it, “process-based creative writing

exercises— with an emphasis on the
absurd.” That is to say, poets often
get caught up in the serious process
of writing, and might miss out on
the insights hiding in the ridiculous.
A poetry workout can shake out the
serious.

Bachinsky, who has participated
in similar writing boot camps with

Stuart Ross in Toronto, has co-coached
several poetry workouts in the past and

says that each one is unique. Drawing
on a well of 30-40 exercises, Gerome
and Bachinsky create a unique poetic

experience for attendees using devices
such as images, prompts, collaboration,
crafting and physical movement.

At the Fall 2010 event, exercises
ranged from introspective free-writes
with Gerome and Bachinsky nudging
the poems along with prompts, to
hilarious homophonic translations,
which encouraged the poets to translate
foreign language poems phonetically.
By forcing participants to constantly
change directions and approaches with
each poem and exercise, the results
were often shockingly insightful and
entertaining.

The only pitfall to the boot camp
style of the workshop was the time
constraint. To their credit, Gerome
and Bachinsky made a valiant effort to
keep things on track; however, by the
end of the workshop, there just didn’t
seem to be enough time to get more
than a nibble of each of the valuable
techniques. The workshop could have
benefitted from a few more minutes to
account for the time it took to orient
oneself to each new exercise. Still,
if the goal was to start the flow of
creative fluids, the dribbles of ideas the
workshop provided were rich and sure
to spawn new and interesting poetry
for attendees.

Overall, as an inexperienced but
interested student of poetry, I feel that
the Geist Poetry Workout w: s a big,
sweaty success. From the scribbles of
silly words, great poetry will hopefully
emerge.

**

For anyone looking to stretch
their writing muscles, local literary
magazine Geist regularly offers
a variety of fun and interesting
workshops. For more details, check out
www.geist.com.