#628
Posted 15 August 2013 - 02:06 PM
Looking through Lameduke's files, I suspect that Episodes 2 and 3 were already abandoned or were being abandoned when the prototype was produced. Most of Episode 3's levels were last altered in the middle of November, while the prototype was compiled on either December 30th, 1994 or January 3rd, 1995 (the date that appears when you boot it up). The “newest” of the E3 maps is E2L2, which was last edited on December 6th.
Most of Episode 2's levels were last edited on November 10th, which is close to two months before the prototype was compiled. The only exceptions to this are E2L8, which was last edited on June 2nd, and E2L6 and E2L7, which were edited on January 1st, 1995.
Based on this, my view is that the developers had or were in the process of abandoning the concepts seen in Episodes 2 and 3 (such as the aliens having an underwater base) in favor of Duke3D's style, which is represented in LD's E1. Episode 2's city levels feel a lot more primitive and lighter than the E1L6, which is a lot closer to the style used in the final game's city levels. E2's textures are brighter and seem to be taken from photos (barring some exceptions, like the gas station sign and the nuclear reactor doors), while E1L6's textures look hand drawn and are darker than E2's. E2 also has more primitive level design compared to E1. There are some things like cameras and subways, but they aren't used nearly as often as in E1. E2 also has extra level details, such as run-down apartment buildings and garages you can enter, that don't appear in E1 or the final game. My guess is that E2 was the developers experimenting with more-open city levels with details like apartments you can enter, but canning it in favor of making city levels more focused around one or two specific areas.
E3 also feels like it came from a different point in development that was being abandoned when the prototype was complied. It also uses the brighter texture style seen in E2 and has level design that's more primitive than LD's E1 or the final game. With a handful of exceptions, the levels are static and lack the features that make DN3D's levels what they are. Some of the levels feel like barebones concepts than full-fledged levels, like E1 and parts of E2 do.
The “last modified “ dates for E2 and E3, along with the different style in them, suggest to me that they were made in an earlier stage of development, possibly when the devs were first starting to seriously work with Build and see what they could do with it. My belief is that Lameduke consists of two different stages of development mashed into one prototype. The first one, which is represented by E1 and E4, is a rough version of what would become Duke 3D and what the developers were working on when the prototype was compiled. E2 and E3 are from an earlier experimental stage, where they wanted city levels with some optional areas the player could access for the hell of it and make the aliens have an underwater base. However, they didn’t have a full grasp on what they could do with Build when those episodes were made, so the levels are more primitive than what's seen in E1, E4 and the final game. Based on all of the “gritty” graffiti and shit on some of the city textures, they wanted to make the game like the final one from the start, but E2 and E3 were earlier takes on the concept. E1 is when they finally got a grasp on what they wanted.
Think about it; every pre-release DN3D screenshot has a style similar to the final game, not LD's E2 and E3. No pre-release material shows the underwater base seen in E3. All of the city levels seen in preview shots show tall, DN3D and LD E1L6-style buildings, not the small buildings you see in most of LD's E2. Heck, skyboxs similar to the ones seen in LD's E1 and E4 appear in quite a few screenshots, but neither fixed nor broken version of LD's E2 and E3 skybox appears in screenshots. If we didn't have LD, there would be no evidence of the underwater areas existing. That tells me that the idea was long abandoned before they started releasing screenshots.
I don't have any design docs or anything that prove that E2 and E3 are from an earlier stage of development, but looking at the “last modified” dates for them and how they look compared to the final game, I think it's clear that E2 and E3 were abandoned or were in the process of being abandonded by the time the prototype was compiled.
This post has been edited by MYHOUSE.MAP: 15 August 2013 - 05:05 PM
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Moose Man, on 13 August 2013 - 09:33 PM, said:
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