With the new movie from director Denis Villeneuve, Dune has reentered the cultural zeitgeist. The original novel by Frank Herbert is considered one of science fiction's masterworks, and it's spawned five official Dune video games - the latest released two decades ago, in 2001. There is ripe opportunity for a new Dune game, but what might one look like in 2021?
The history of Dune video game adaptions largely occupies the real-time strategy genre. In fact, 1992's Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty was massively influential on the genre's development. On the other hand, 2001's Frank Herbert's Dune, which shares a title with the SYFY channel miniseries, attempted a third-person action game approach. It put players in control of Paul Atreides, the novel's main character, but was largely panned and was followed by developer Cryo's bankruptcy.
In 2019, Legendary Entertainment and Herbert Properties LLC announced there were new Dune video games in development from Funcom, one of which will reportedly be a "Games as Service" title that takes after the company's open-world, multiplayer survival game, Conan Exiles. Still, initial details suggested multiple projects are on the way, and it's unknown what forms these will take. The most immediately obvious route would be another crysknife stab at the RTS genre. The novels are primarily centered around control of planet Arrakis, where the incredibly valuable melange spice is harvested. Dune's future depicts a varied and scattered humanity under control of the Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, whose power is balanced by the noble houses of the Landsraad. Controlling territory and resources, open warfare, and subterfuge are all instrumental to the Dune universe, making the RTS genre a good fit, but the series' lore is deep enough to support other, similar types of games.
A New Dune Video Game Could Be Grand Strategy
Surviving in the Dune universe with any significant amount of power is a difficult task. There are so many forces at work, and everyone has plans within plans - a signature element Herbert's storytelling that was adapted well by the classic Dune board game, which recently made a comeback. The books touch on many aspects of ruling a planetary fief, where insufficient handling of political, economic, religious, military, or familial responsibilities could lead to the destruction of a house. Dune is wildly and vastly esoteric, so grand strategy is likely the only video game genre that could accurately capture the entire breadth of the series.
Stellaris is a good example of how science fiction grand strategy games can work, but elements of Crusader Kings' dynasty simulation could be incorporated to accommodate Dune's powerful families. The series ultimately tells the story of the Known Universe's aristocracy, and the relationships between the houses of the Landsraad are similar to those of real-life history's feudal nobles.
This system could also let a Dune grand strategy game remove itself from the storyline of the novels, allowing players to navigate the political and militaristic aspects of the setting as the head of one of the houses. Complete control of Arrakis, or even taking the throne of the Padishah Emperor, could be the end goal of the game. Outside of the imperial court and the houses of the Landsraad, a grand strategy Dune game could have an incredible number of intertwined factions, including CHOAM, the governing body of the Known Universe's commerce; the Spacing Guild, whose spice-addicted Navigators have a monopoly on interstellar travel; the Bene Gesserit, an organization that manipulates the bloodlines of the great houses and plants the seeds of various religious beliefs in order to influence populations across the galaxy; the Tleilaxu, who use Ghola clones and Face Dancers that change their physical attributes for spy craft and assassination; and many more.
A New Dune Video Game Could Be A Management Sim
While its politics drive its compelling narratives, nothing is more singularly important to Dune's universe than its spice, and controlling its harvest and export could make for a solid management sim. Required for faster-than-light travel, spice is used in large quantities by Guild Navigators to see into the future, allowing them to guide Space Guild vessels to avoid obstacles in folded space. It is also used by the wealthy throughout the Imperium to extend life expectancy. Spice only comes from Arrakis, where it's harvested by separating it from the sand in worm territory.
The spice must flow, but it's only one aspect of controlling Dune's most important planet. The Known Universe is rarely, if ever, at peace, but putting aside its constantly warring forces could result in a game of managing other resources on Arrakis. For the common folk of the planet, water is just as important as the spice. In addition to building, using, and maintaining machinery for spice production, players could oversee the harvest of the planet's limited water. Dew harvesters and windtraps could be set up to collect it, and it could then be doled out benevolently or hoarded as a display of power. The ultimate goal of a Dune management sim could be realizing Imperial Planetologist Liet Kynes' dream of turning Arrakis into a verdant paradise.
Dune Might Struggle In Other Video Game Genres
These two genres would make for compelling new Dune video games because of the setting's vast scope, but making a Dune action-adventure game, for instance, might be difficult because of the way combat and traversal are handled in the series. Firearms were made obsolete by personal shields that deflect fast-moving objects, and the advanced melee combat that evolved in place of guns could be tough to translate into gameplay. Something with an emphasis on traversal could potentially be done with the Fremen's rhythmless desert walk, but there's little room for concrete objectives out in the trackless wastes. A Microsoft Flight Simulator-like game that lets players fly ornithopters around Arrakis sounds like a good time, but Dune's vehicles are rarely used for anything besides transport and bombardment. This leaves only a straight-up survival game as a clear choice, but that would likely ignore vast swaths of the Dune universe, so it will be interesting to see how Funcom's multiplayer title shakes out.