Excerpt from a March 2000 interview of Mark Rein (Vice President of Epic Games). The interview was originally posted at: www.r-pov.com/interviews/mrein.html (link now dead)


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stonewall: In 1993 you made a proposal for the Build engine on behalf of Epic Games. At the time Epic was releasing pinball games and a year later research began on Unreal. What were your plans for Build and how did not getting that engine affect Epic?

Mark: I'd say we came out way ahead the way things worked out. With Ken Silverman (creator of the Build engine) on board we might not have been as motivated to make our own technology. Build was good tech and of course Duke Nukem got made with it, but it wasn't a long-term technology play like the Unreal Engine. So both Epic and 3DRealms ended up better off for the way things worked out. 3DRealms produced the monster hit Duke Nukem 3D and, by complete coincedence, we went on to produce the engine that they will use for the sequel to it.

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