Building a simple game today is more accessible than ever before. There are tons of toolkits, assets, and tutorials available online that can help anyone build a simple title. But when they try to dive deeper into the secrets of game development, most of them find out that it’s not as easy as it seems. Actually, it’s much harder than we imagine – because game development is not only about programming, artwork, and other things directly related to the game but also marketing, raising funds, and such.
Thus, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that some games take long years to be ready. Most of the time, they are worth waiting for – the result of all those years of hard work is not only a great experience for gamers but the survival – and profits – of the developers, publishers, and everyone involved in bringing the game to us.
Sometimes, as you’ll see below, all the waiting is in vain, though…
Cyberpunk 2077 – 8 years (and counting)
Cyberpunk 2077 is a game everyone is talking about – especially since Keanu Reeves showed up as one of the NPCs in the game. It was first announced in May 2012 by CD Projekt (CD Projekt Red at the time) and its first teaser trailer was revealed in January 2013. By the time its third trailer was presented at E3 2019, it has become one of the most anticipated games of 2020, with its release planned for April 2020.
Unfortunately for those on the edge of their seats, the release was later delayed to September 2020, with the multiplayer function of the game pushed back to 2021.
Will it be worth the wait? We’ll have to wait and find out.
Diablo III – 11 years
The first Diablo was a defining entry in the isometric RPG/hack-and-slash genre. The developers were surprised by its success – and sales – at the time. Of course, it received a series of expansions and sequels, all of which were well-received by critics and gamers alike.
Blizzard announced the third major entry in the franchise in 2008 – but the development of the game started long before that date.
Work on Diablo III began in 2001 when Blizzard North – the Bay Area division of Blizzard Entertainment – was still functional. In the coming years, the studio worked on two games – Diablo III and a similar game set in space – but several key people left the studio to form their own businesses, including the studio’s founder. Subsequently, Diablo III was scrapped.
Five years later, Blizzard ultimately announced the game again, with Jay Wilson – known for his work on Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War and Company of Heroes, among others – as its lead designer. It took four more years for the game to be ready.
The game was worth the wait – it was received positively by critics and gamers alike, improving on the second entry in the series where it needed. And now a fourth entry in the series is under development, with more “metal” visuals by game designer Jesse McCree.
Duke Nukem Forever – 14 years
Duke Nukem 3D was one of the most successful games 3D Realms ever released. The game has a cult following due to its long and complex single-player campaign, competitive multiplayer, and its cheezy, often offensive one-liners. It sold more than 1.25 million copies in the US alone well into 2002.
The sequel, Duke Nukem Forever, was announced a year after the original’s release. Initially, it was built on the Quake II engine and planned to be released in 1998 – but with the engine not ready yet, the team started working on the Quake I engine. Then, in the same year, programmers suggested switching to Unreal Engine that was more realistic than their previous choice. In the coming year, the game missed several deadlines. Two more years and an ownership change later, a new trailer emerged, showcasing a game that would look better than pretty much everything available at the time. But the years passed, the team working on the game diminished, and the release date was pushed back to “when it’s done”.
The coming years saw several rumors circulating about the game but not many facts – that until in 2009 when the staff working on the game was laid off and 3D Realms was sued for not delivering the game. During these hurdles, several developers from the original team continued to work on DNF from home. Ultimately, these gathered in an independent game studio called “Triptych Games”. The studio ultimately took over the development of the game officially with support from Gearbox Software (founded by a former 3D Realms developer with a history of working on the game).
With help from 2K Games and Piranha Games, the game was back on track – in 2010, the game was announced again, with Gearbox owning the intellectual property and 2K Games holding the exclusive publishing rights. Those buying Borderlands’ “Game of the Year” edition got early access to its demo, and the game was finally released in June 2011.
As it turns out, the game was not worth the wait. The reviews were mostly negative and the sales, too, with only half of the expected number of copies sold. To add insult to injury, Duke Nukem Forever holds the Guinness world record for spending the most time in development hell.
Bonus: Black Mesa – 15 years
The odd one out also happens to have the longest time spent in development – we won’t hold it against it, though, because it wasn’t made by a big studio with big budgets and development teams but a group of enthusiasts wanting to create a great game in their free time.
Half-Life: Source was, let’s face it, a disappointing release, far worse than the iconic title deserved. Fans of the original have decided to recreate Half-Life on the Source engine and do it as it was supposed to be done. Two projects – the Leakfree mod and the Half-Life: Source Overhaul Project – were announced in 2004, and soon joined forces to achieve a single goal. This is how the Black Mesa: Source project was born.
The first standalone Black Mesa version was released in 2012 – it contained all chapters of the original Half-Life without the Xen levels. Development took much longer than expected because the members of the team changed very often, and the bar for the finished product’s quality was raised several times. A year later, after a new update to the Source engine, the team decided to go commercial. A new release followed in 2015, this time on Steam Early Access, with Xen still a work in progress.
The final release, bringing the entirety of Half-Life up-to-date, finally happened in March 2020 – it improved on the original, turning the Xen levels into a proper closure to the story. The game turned out so good that Dario Casali, a Valve designer who works on Half-Life games, revealed that it chose Black Mesa over the original Half-Life to get into the mood when working on Half-Life: Alyx.
