Creative Director of the upcoming Dune MMO (massively multiplayer online game) Joel Bylos has sat down for an interview with PC Gamer and dished some of the first details we have about this title.

Many are expected, like survival being dependant on water and spice. Also avoiding worms. But there were two worthy of attention.

Firstly he explicitly references fantasy survival game Valheim as a source of design inspiration.

Valheim is one of the industry's surprise indie success stories.

A tiny game made by a tiny studio which hit all of the sweet spots and rocketed to both critical and commercial success, selling 5 million copies in its first month.

Specifically Dune will emulate their softer approach to survival.

For example, in Valheim not eating won't kill you. Instead eating food provides buffs.

Speaking psychologically it's a carrot versus stick scenario.

Those buffs are good enough that you'll want to maintain them but the risk and fear of starvation isn't there.

In Dune canon spice use creates an intense physical dependence.

Realistically failure to consume it would cripple or possibly kill you but they're not going that route.

So you want to stay above a certain [spice] level to keep learning abilities, you might want to stay above a certain level to make sure that you have 100% of your maximum health all the time. We're not trying to punish the player by killing them if they have don't take spice for a while, but we're trying to give them good reasons to maintain their spice levels.

Sounds like a sensible compromise for a game adaptation.

The other interesting point he makes is regarding exploration and the dynamic nature of a desert.

This game's map won't be static.

Arrakis is a desert world wracked by intense storms.

Its sands will shift and can bury or reveal content.

That could be sufficiently new and interesting enough to stand out in the intensely crowded survival genre.

Dune: Awakening doesn't have an ETA but is being developed for PC, Xbox One and X|S, and PlayStation 4 and 5.

[ Main Image: Dune Awakening. Credit: Funcom via Steam. ]

References

Dune Wiki. Spice Melange. (viewed February 28, 2023)

Livingston, Christopher (February 27, 2023). Spice, worms, and water: First details on survival systems in the upcoming Dune MMO. PC Gamer.

Steam. Dune: Awakening. Funcom. (viewed February 28, 2023)

Wikipedia. Valheim. (viewed February 28, 2023)