At Gamescom 2022, I sat down withShiro Gamesto talkDune: Spice Wars. I was chiefly curious about what attracted the Bordeaux-based developer to the Dune license in the first place and what if any were the challenges in adapting Dune to the 4X genre.
Community director James Croucher regaled me with the tale of how Dune: Spice Wars became reality. “Our CEO [Sebastien Vidal] was at some sort of work event where he came across one of theFuncomguys who had recently come into the ownership of the license. That person knew our previous gameNorthgardand they talked about how Dune would look as an RTS. We kind of snowballed from there…”
Croucher described Vidal as a “huge huge Dune fan” so it’s no surprise that when the opportunity presented itself, Shiro Games leapt at the chance to have a crack at Dune. It’s not only Vidal who enjoys Dune but “most of the office are massive fans of the franchise as well.”
Dune is a hot IP right now following the release of the movie adaptation last year and another game announcement that occurred during Gamescom’s Opening Night Live event - an open-world survival MMO called Dune: Awakening. The conception of Dune: Spice Wars actually pre-dates the release of the Timothée Chalamet movie with the first solid conversations regarding the game taking place in October 2019.
I enquired whether there was a rush to get the game ready for early access considering the impending release of the movie and Croucher replied by saying Shiro wanted to “give it time to become a good game in its own right” while keeping it within the timeframe of the movie’s release so there was still excitement about the franchise.
For those familiar with Dune, they’ll know the inhospitable planet of Arrakis contains quite barren landscapes. While this suits the narrative of Herbert’s novels, it’s not conducive to the visual engagement of an RTS player. I asked whether there was trouble adapting Arrakis to a 4X game, Croucher shared “We actually worked with a desert man who’s worked in some of the most dangerous deserts across the planet. He helped us understand how deserts worked, how they differentiate and stuff” he continued by saying “He gave us some invaluable insight into how we could make things look a little bit different. Because you’re constantly looking at sand the entire game, we wanted to see how certain different areas could differentiate. “
Shiro has tried to populate the deserts of Arrakis with interesting rock formations, different environmental effects like the desolate areas where units’ supplies are drained quicker and the polar sink which allows certain factions to build a powerful water extractor atop it. While the desert proved a challenge for Shiro, Croucher believes “they worked around it in a cool way.”
Another challenge faced by the team has been balancing the multiplayer. Each time the team adds a new feature, there are major balancing implications to consider. This is especially pronounced in multiplayer as human players will be better able to utilise “gaps” in the game’s balancing that the singleplayer artificial intelligence may not be able to.
House Corrino in combat
We then talked about the general game design of Dune: Spice Wars and the community Shiro is trying to build for the game. It’s obvious when playing Spice Wars that the RTS elements are more macro-based than the APM-heavy giants like Starcraft, I asked Croucher whether this was always the intention, and he confirmed that “It was supposed to be a slower, more immersive experience where you have to really think about the actions you’re making, that you have to really think about the actions you’re doing over the course of the game.”
Community-wise, the team is very pleased with the feedback they’ve been receiving. While 4X is a niche genre, Shiro feels they are cultivating a strong community with Dune: Spice Wars. The team wants a full year of early access before announcing a full release, and they’re staying fluid in their development process, waiting to see how the community reacts to the features they’re adding.
Dune: Spice Wars published a roadmap several months ago which Shiro has been working through. Currently, the team is planning to release the next playable faction, House Corrino. I got to play a bit of Corrino during my sit-down with Shiro and fans of the game are in for a treat. This Machiavellian faction can throw its weight around in the Landsraad by changing the targets of various resolutions. Corrino can also deploy multiple main bases around the map after reaching the appropriate hegemony threshold. That’s not to mention the addition of the legendary Sardaukar warriors, the military elite of the empire.
Arrakis nights…
House Corrino is planned to release soon with the rest of the roadmap coming afterwards. The end goal of the roadmap is to have playable “heroes of Dune” on the map, similar to the war chiefs mechanic in Shiro’s other RTS title, Northgard. Following that, Croucher revealed to me they have one more update planned following the conclusion of the early access roadmap and after that, they’ll be considering a full release.
