Dune: Awakening director “absolutely” feels pressure following the movies

On May 20th, 2025, the game titled “Dune: Awakening” is set to launch. This MMORPG is inspired by Frank Herbert’s novels and is being developed by Funcom. In this game, players will venture into the harsh, desert environment of an alternate Arrakis, where survival is key.

Initially, when Funcom secured the rights to develop a Dune video game, they weren’t aware that Denis Villeneuve would be involved in both writing and directing the film version of the story. With Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya starring in the movie, its positive reviews and strong box office performance brought more focus – and greater pressure – on the game development process.

According to Joel Bylos, the creative director of Dune: Awakening and the chief creative officer at Funcom, there was a significant sense of pressure due to an approximately three to four-fold increase in their project budget, as he shared during the London Games Festival’s Screen Play event this week.

“We were working to make it a very good game, but we were a much smaller company.”

Following the acquisition of the Dune gaming license and commencing work on the project, Funcom was taken over by Tencent Games. This company also holds shares in Epic Games (creators of Fortnite), Roblox Corporation (behind Roblox) and Riot Games (responsible for League of Legends).

He mentioned that they were pouring additional funds into the company, aiming to expand our project significantly. This shift in investment, he explained, expanded the scale of the project.

In my role as a creative director, I needed to tweak my long-term goals for the game and shift my focus towards questions that I thought would be relevant a few years post-launch. Instead, I started pondering these questions much sooner during development to ensure we could create something more expansive and impactful.

At present, the game is undergoing an internal testing phase known as a beta. There’s talk about potentially opening this up for a public beta test. Bylos hints that if they choose to do so, they will make an announcement by early May.

Being brought up among the world of Dune, Bylos is eager to incorporate the intricate historical tapestry of the franchise into the forthcoming adaption. “Dune boasts a fascinating backstory,” he explained.

You possess the books, the unrealized Jodorowsky film, and the 1984 movie. Additionally, you have the ’90s video games based on Dune, which I enjoyed playing as a child.

In Dune: Awakening, we’ve made an effort to pay tribute to the past by incorporating a retro radio station that plays popular tunes from classic video games of the 1990s.

Recently, a radio play for the in-game station was released on YouTube.

Additionally, he subtly suggested a “blazing giraffe” as an in-game element that manifests when players consume excessive amounts of spice, alluding to the unfinished film by Jodorowsky which shares the same title.

During the process of creating the game, Bylos highlights Conan Exiles and Ghost of Tsushima as significant influences.

He expressed his strong affection for how well [Ghost of Tsushima] integrated players into its world, and he hoped to replicate some of those experiences in Dune: Awakening, according to him.

Although it draws inspiration from various sources, Dune: Awakening is committed to maintaining the essence of Frank Herbert’s novel series.

“The central guiding point has always been the books,” he added.

However, unlike the original book series, the movie version takes a significant turn by not featuring Paul Atreides’ birth.

As a gamer, I find myself in a unique position where I get to explore different paths in the Dune universe. Instead of following the canonical route where Jessica bears Paul Atredes, in this alternate timeline, I’m adhering to the Bene Gesserit ways and giving birth to a daughter instead – a twist that sets off a whole new narrative thread, as Bylos put it, “the story branches off at that point.

Initially, Funcom faced criticism upon its announcement, yet Bylos remains optimistic that their video game will be a worthy successor to the novels, showing due reverence.

For numerous different causes, folks may feel angry, but during the game, we will demonstrate genuine concern towards them,” he explained. “I believe they will truly appreciate our approach.

2025-04-12 13:11

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