Back in the day the guys who made Marathon Infinity created a company called double aught and were working on a game called Duality which never saw the light of day, but looked swaggy as shit from the concepts and whatnot. I think Greg Kirkpatrick was the head dewd, but don't quote me on that.

So whatever happened to them? Anyone know?

From the Halo Wikia: Greg Kirkpatrick

There's this thread about it on MBO (particularly this post).

Also here's a gallery (also via MBO) with concept art and level designs from Courtney Evans' Flickr (did the Tempus Irae Marathon scenario). There's also a few pages with screenshots and music on his website, but you'll have to Google/Bing/DuckDuckGo for that (or just check this thread on MBO).

There's hopefully more stuff out there about it, somewhere. But, those are just what I have bookmarked from one night a year or so ago (boredom + craziness + also wanting to know more about it).

Such a shame, game seemed loaded with promise. Seemed to have a very different tone from any other games being made at that time, if you know what I mean. Very mysterious, kind of dark, somewhat heady and intellectual. I loved the website too. When I was just a wee lad I had a myth map making group that I named Duality after that game. We were a spectacular failure, but hey, what is there to expect from a bunch of 14 and 15 year olds?

Such a shame, game seemed loaded with promise. Seemed to have a very different tone from any other games being made at that time, if you know what I mean. Very mysterious, kind of dark, somewhat heady and intellectual. I loved the website too. When I was just a wee lad I had a myth map making group that I named Duality after that game. We were a spectacular failure, but hey, what is there to expect from a bunch of 14 and 15 year olds?

Did you ever play the Thief games (I, II, III)? They definitely fit the mysterious, dark, and heady/intellectual vibe Duality was going for, and I've always thought Looking Glass had similar philosophies and design sensibilities as Bungie (if not better). Plus, Thief was a pretty good complement to Myth, with animated cutscenes, a worm's eye view to the story, and the third game in both series not being up to par to the previous two (though, Thief III is more of a 7.6, as opposed to a 3.1 for the nonexistent Myth III, if you're grading like Pitchfork).

As for mapmaking, I kinda regret not being around to do any mapmaking for Marathon, Myth or any other game in the "golden age" of the 90's and early 00's. Though, I would've probably never finished anything, since the few maps I tried making for Marathon and Myth when I played with FCAW on B.net a few years ago sucked, so I gave up. I'm a lazy ideas guy :,-( (which is the worst kind of ideas guy, and they're already the worst of the worst).

Such a shame, game seemed loaded with promise. Seemed to have a very different tone from any other games being made at that time, if you know what I mean. Very mysterious, kind of dark, somewhat heady and intellectual. I loved the website too. When I was just a wee lad I had a myth map making group that I named Duality after that game. We were a spectacular failure, but hey, what is there to expect from a bunch of 14 and 15 year olds?

Did you ever play the Thief games (I, II, III)? They definitely fit the mysterious, dark, and heady/intellectual vibe Duality was going for, and I've always thought Looking Glass had similar philosophies and design sensibilities as Bungie (if not better). Plus, Thief was a pretty good complement to Myth, with animated cutscenes, a worm's eye view to the story, and the third game in both series not being up to par to the previous two (though, Thief III is more of a 7.6, as opposed to a 3.1 for the nonexistent Myth III, if you're grading like Pitchfork).

As for mapmaking, I kinda regret not being around to do any mapmaking for Marathon, Myth or any other game in the "golden age" of the 90's and early 00's. Though, I would've probably never finished anything, since the few maps I tried making for Marathon and Myth when I played with FCAW on B.net a few years ago sucked, so I gave up. I'm a lazy ideas guy :,-( (which is the worst kind of ideas guy, and they're already the worst of the worst).

I'm actually not too familiar with Thief though I am aware of the series' existence. I can see the similarities in tone, but I feel like Duality was shooting for a sort of future religion (Future (War) Cult?) space opera kind of thing. That's just conjecture based on the screenshots though.

Marathon was significantly easier and more suited to my skill-set so far as map creation goes, but I was also in the 5th grade when I first started playing around with Forge so you can imagine how primitive those offerings were. It was loads of fun though, and to this day I sometimes get an idea for a new multiplayer map but I haven't actually touched Forge in over a decade. Great tool, Forge was. Simple enough for a beginner but with some creativity you could make some awesome stuff, as evidenced by a lot of the great community offerings over the years.

Myth was another can of worms because I am not a talented artist, which put a serious crimp in my map making endeavors. Full of enthusiasm but short on talent. My little group did end up releasing a few maps though, but they were fairly crude. I was far better at playing Myth than I ever was at making maps for it.

I'm actually not too familiar with Thief though I am aware of the series' existence. I can see the similarities in tone, but I feel like Duality was shooting for a sort of future religion (Future (War) Cult?) space opera kind of thing. That's just conjecture based on the screenshots though.

Yeah, I get what you mean. IIRC, Duality was supposed to have a sorta-corporate/cultish overworld, then more natural/beastial underworld that was creeping up. Though, not to bang on the Thief drum too much, the first game was a lot like that (technology and religion vs nature and magic/cult [vs you]), and all four of the factions in Thief were a rabid cult in their own special ways. Still, shame that Duality never went anywhere, since, yeah, weird alien-beast cults are pretty cool.

Marathon was significantly easier and more suited to my skill-set so far as map creation goes, but I was also in the 5th grade when I first started playing around with Forge so you can imagine how primitive those offerings were. It was loads of fun though, and to this day I sometimes get an idea for a new multiplayer map but I haven't actually touched Forge in over a decade. Great tool, Forge was. Simple enough for a beginner but with some creativity you could make some awesome stuff, as evidenced by a lot of the great community offerings over the years.

Myth was another can of worms because I am not a talented artist, which put a serious crimp in my map making endeavors. Full of enthusiasm but short on talent. My little group did end up releasing a few maps though, but they were fairly crude. I was far better at playing Myth than I ever was at making maps for it.

Heh, I totally agree with you on Forge/Anvil and Fear/Loathing. I've only really dicked around with Weland, but I've definitely found the tools for Marathon a lot easier to grok than Myth's. Which is ironic, since I found thinking up Myth maps was a lot more fun and made more sense (to me) than ones for Marathon. Where any experience with Halo (or just doodling up maps for Halo) can transfer over to Myth.

Always had an easier time coming up with symmetrical arenas, or asymmetric open maps with a few symmetric features (like Sidewinder/Avalanche, or Valhalla), than completely asymmetric maps like Lockout, and I've always thought the best Marathon maps were the more labyrinth ones. Plus, I'd rather make scenarios than netmaps for Marathon (or figure out how to get people to play the Survival mode in Aleph One, I can never get enough Survival/Firefight in my life).

The real challenge I think in making Marathon maps is how far can you push the engine to create interesting 3 dimensional spaces? I know in Aleph One the technology has advanced considerably but originally with Forge making awesome 3d spaces without being able to use bridges could be challenging at times, but I enjoyed working within the limits of the engine.

Duality should be resurrected by someone, game concept has too much potential.

The real challenge I think in making Marathon maps is how far can you push the engine to create interesting 3 dimensional spaces? I know in Aleph One the technology has advanced considerably but originally with Forge making awesome 3d spaces without being able to use bridges could be challenging at times, but I enjoyed working within the limits of the engine.

Unless things have changed recently, Aleph One is still a classic portal-based engine, and bridges and balconies are still out of the question.

I never actually got that far. What's the ending?

Abuse was awesome I never could beat it either, despite many attempts. Abuse multiplayer was super hectic if you ever got the chance to try it.

I was misinformed then, I was under the impression that true 3d was added at some point in Aleph One.

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