[RichardStorm]

So guys, here it is first work Balls Of Steel team would present to you...

DUKE NUKEM BEGINS

By CK, JetNick and RichardStorm
( coming soon a topic or a site for us )

This mod is the first of a serie we planned about duke story and universe in past and future; it turns around the events and bad guys of old duke chapters: DN1, DN2 and 3D (no DNF) , according to our interpretation. So, people, expect to meet Proton and Rigelatins, and new strange things.

This mod is the past. A chronicle about Duke's father, Dave Nukem, who already met aliens time before the 3d years, Duke's birth in 1967, then some events about Duke's youth in 1986 circa.

About gameplay, it shows a new HUD, new enemies, different weapons, cinematics, a good soundtrack (we hope) and many other things.
Right now we're still working on various places: plot, maps, con features and so on; we alre also trying to give voice to our characters, with the help of other people. The percentage of completion is about 30%.

Stop talking, here are some -good- first screenshots on what we've worked 'til now; all of these ones are taken from first episode, playing with Dave:


Somewhere in the 2nd level





New pigs again...



..and this bad guy...



Random fun




We hope to give you a good gaming experience with this work, we will appreciate any comment about it and you're welcome if you want to help us !


-

[brullov]

Jazz, guns and babes!

[NightFright]

LOL, you even see the cigar when firing the rocket launcher. xD This could be really great, and the idea to turn it into a prequel with a different character is also interesting. Will you have specific voice acting for Duke's dad?

[Fox]

I kinda of like that M79 launcher.

[brullov]

NightFright, on 24 July 2013 - 02:01 AM, said:

LOL, you even see the cigar when firing the rocket launcher. xD This could be really great, and the idea to turn it into a prequel with a different character is also interesting. Will you have specific voice acting for Duke's dad?

Sure. VinsaneOne will help us

[RichardStorm]

That should be an M72 LAW rocket weapon... the sprite is kinda crappy now, i put it temporarily but i'll change or modify it soon

[Fantinaikos]

If I had seen THIS KIND of screenshots, I would have accepted the proposal!
Are you looking for other beta/sketched enemyes?

[Micky C]

As first screenshots they look pretty good, although some of them still need some work (you're probably aware of that).

To give the mod a fresh, distinguishing look, why not go for a new palate? It'd really help with the feeling that we're fighting in the past or something like that.

[RichardStorm]

@Fantinaikos: for now we're ok with all enemies and duke's father sprite, but there is another important thing to do: young duke sprites, age 20, with less muscles, no jetpack and different robes. You could collaborate with Nick, stay tuned.

@Mikko C : We don't want to change palette in this mod, maybe we'll do in future project. About some sprites, we know, we'll work where necessary (i started to remake LAW rocket today)

[Fox]

I think that giving the palette a sepia filter would be great. You could make it so that tilefromtexture still load Duke 3D palette, but in-game looks different.

Edit: something of this sort:

[Jblade]

Cool - but urr, is that a forcefield when it's set in the past? Unless that's an area built by the aliens or osmething.

[NightFright]

I would simply replace forcefields with iron bars, if possible. Maybe it's not so elegant to open those, but well, it's the past for a reason.

[RichardStorm]

There are some places with advanced/future technology, just like that screenshot.

[t800]

Great idea for mod, finally something truly fresh and distincive. Good luck, I am definitely looking forward to it. (And hope that it will not disappear as Blight *sigh*)
I have just one little nitpick about these mobster piggies, their feets look odd. Give them some boots or shoes and it will IMHO look much better. I noticed that they have tommy guns, so will they become full auto hitscan enemies as assault enforcers?
(To set mood and atmposhere of that era, will you also use some 60s songs or posters for old movies or even hippie aliens? )

BTW Fox that looks great, you almost nailed it!

[RichardStorm]

We got some difficulties on the right music genre for this mod, choosing among old spy movies music , jazz, rock and rock'n roll... or whatever...

For new pig, i just forgot to update it, cause new sheet with shoes is ready sry...

[Radar]

Force fields could have existed in the early 1900's. Search up a guy named Tesla.

[Tea Monster]

Just a historical note, but hippies and Old Chicago style mobsters were 30 years apart.

Mod looks cool though and it's nice to see some different ideas for mods.

[gibfrag]

I'd say the shotgun looks the least impressive in these shots. It could use some work. I'd be willing to help.

[Jimmy]

This looks pretty good. Cool to see a mod with some flair. Pay some extra attention to the art, though. It's a little dirty in places. Image Analyzer is free and does a magnificent job at transferring things to a palette, better than Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop. It will eliminate most of the browns being green or greens being brown.

[RichardStorm]

About our general approach to making or editing sprites, we do what we can... LAW rocket is just the old crappy NAM sprite and will be changed soon... the shotgun is a quick edit of mine on a Marty Kirra work (Doom modder), i''ll try to do it better...

I know palette conversion and importing pics into ART files need some knowledge to be done right, in terms of programs and filetypes... right now we use only editart and dukeres, wiht bmps and gifs , plus some old dos software and some image editor. Getting an 8-bit file sometimes reveals frustrating...

Btw your criticism reveals where we need to improve our methods... right now, we need some good programs for good sprites... obviously any other help or support about this argument is well-accepted

[Jimmy]

I'm glad you're receptive to criticism. Your team will go far with this attitude (though sometimes things need to be taken with a grain of salt. Criticism isn't always well-founded or even constructive at times.) This pack right here has a lot of tools and some tutorials you might find useful. I would personally recommend abandoning DukeRes, but do what's right for you. The version of EditArt I've put together in that pack is the absolute best version available, until someone comes up with a modern port so use that. I only use EditArt to import or do minor pixel changes. I draw with Photoshop (though GIMP or Paint Shop Pro works well too, I'm just comfortable with Photoshop.) Like I said though, Image Analyzer is absolute best when it comes to dropping your art into the palette.

[OpenMaw]

Artem Nevinchany, on 24 July 2013 - 02:08 AM, said:

Sure. VinsaneOne will help us

You actually have him involved at this stage?

[RichardStorm]

Right now plot is still in construction, we only planned basic elements and moments, so Vinsane hasn't been involved 'til now.

Btw here is what i did in about half an hour:



//Edit
Oh now i did some searchs on how that wep is fired, some fingers should be on the trigger...

.

[brullov]

Commando Nukem, on 24 July 2013 - 11:19 PM, said:

You actually have him involved at this stage?

yes

[OpenMaw]

Artem Nevinchany, on 26 July 2013 - 06:27 AM, said:

yes

I doubt that. I'm in contact with him all the time. He's very busy at this point with real life things. I know for a fact he's not involved with any Duke related projects at this point because he's way too busy. As the old saying goes "Don't count your chickens before they hatch."

[RichardStorm]

Artem what u wrote ??

Anyway, he got contact with other people ... the only thing i know is that there is someone who can give voice to our characters.

[Ronin]

Well you could always go with this guy, probably the manliest Duke impression ever done.

[Richard Shead]

Ronan, on 26 July 2013 - 01:52 PM, said:

Well you could always go with this guy, probably the manliest Duke impression ever done.

LOL, that's me!!

[Mark]

Run it through a pitch shifter program to lower the voice. It might actually be good.

[NUKEMDAVE]

RichardStorm, on 26 July 2013 - 01:07 PM, said:

Anyway, he got contact with other people ...

Like me?