Duke Nukem Forever: Restoration Project
Duke Nukem Forever: Restoration Project is an upcoming first-person shooter fan-made modification and restoration effort developed by the team Mighty Foot Productions. The project aims to complete and polish the leaked 2001 development build of Duke Nukem Forever.
Development and release
The project traces its origins to May 9, 2022, when a user known as "x0r_jmp" leaked a substantial portion of the 3D Realms development archives to 4chan; the build was originally shown at E3 2001 and is based on Unreal Engine 1. This leak included a nearly complete, albeit buggy and fragmented build of Duke Nukem Forever compiled in October 2001 and the project was announced in June, 2022. Following the leak, a group of modders formed under the name, Mighty Foot Productions, a reference to the in-game "Mighty Foot" attack from Duke Nukem 3D. A trailer for the fan project was released in 2022.In December 2022, the team released their first demo, titled the "First Slice" on Mod DB, containing early chapters. This release functioned as a shareware-style episode, containing nine restored and polished levels that comprised the first chapter of the game, titled "High Stakes, Lady Killer." The release included a fully functional renderer, restored music tracks, and bug fixes for the enemy AI. Their goal is to restore and fix the issues of the leaked game and complete the unfinished content to create a cohesive campaign. The team continued to release updates, focusing on further polishing the game's mechanics and stability, such as multiplayer features and UI upgrades.