During the second Dune: Awakening Direct showcase, Funcom revealed a new series of trailers for the upcoming open-world survival MMO. The title recently surpassed one million wishlists on Steam.
During this year’s Summer Game Fest, the game’s story cinematic titled ‘The Vision of Paul Atreides’ revealed the game’s alternate timeline in which Jessica Atreides chooses to give birth to a daughter instead of Paul, beginning a unique and unpredictable chain of events. Players will be tasked with creating their own story in the Dune universe.
“Making the world feel seamless and connected has always been one of our goals on Dune: Awakening,” said creative director Joel Bylos. “We built this structure with the idea of making the game expandable, which is difficult with a single map. The idea with the overland map is that it allows us to just keep building the world and giving players new spaces to explore. Who knows what it will look like five years from now?”
“I think Dune has a large audience of core fans because it is such an interesting universe, so my take with the game is always to try and start from the lore,” creative director Joel Bylos said in a March interview. “It is the best-selling science fiction novel of all time for a reason. Any mechanical decisions we make in the game usually come from a thoughtful and deliberate choice about lore, or when we need to change things and why.
We want players to be able to find their friends (or make them) quickly, and the game has a wealth of social interactions outside of the guild system – chat, emotes, proximity voice (with appropriate blocking controls), trading, player hubs, etc,” Bylos concluded.
Dune Awakening doesn’t currently have a release date. The game’s closed Beta is ongoing, and players can sign up for a chance to participate on the game’s official website. More Dune: Awakening information is expected to be revealed at Gamescom in August.
