DUNE: SPICEWARS
We’ll be Dune some spice mining
rrakis. Dune. Desert Planet. We’ve seen it before in books, movies and games, but the desert planet of Shiro Games’ upcoming Dune: Spice Wars takes its own approach to the world. While Spice remains key to gameplay, Shiro’s approach tackles the broader galaxy of Dune in a way that most prior games haven’t attempted.
AI got to see SpiceWars’ blend of 4X and RTS gameplay in a hands-off gameplay demo, and it’s looking very promising. It included the broad outline of the start of a singleplayer Dune campaigni as House Atreides, as the player ventured out from their single starting territory to explore the surface of Arrakis.
Dune:SpiceWars shares a lot of design basics with Shiro’s critically acclaimed Northgard, an RTS cantered on capturing and controlling territories rather than spreading out over a wide-open map. That works pretty well with the 4X DNA present in SpiceWars. Expanses of desert terrain form distinctlyoutlined territories which each contain a small town. Conquering the town confers control of the territory, and each section of desert can be exploited for resources like Spice for trade, Plascrete for buildings, or various rare commodities to sell for cash.
Taking territory is just not just about selecting some troops and marching them on over like you might’ve done in a Command&Conquer game. Factions like the Atreides can diplomatically annex small towns, but it takes a lot of time. They can also roll in the troops, but that’s expensive and dangerous: The locals put up a fight, and conquering one town will set others against you as Fremen bandits then come to raid your territory. Further, any troops venturing outside your turf are automatically on a clock: Once they run out of supplies, they’ll quickly die.
The desert isn’t a homogenous expanse of sand. Deep Deserts are the equivalent of oceans in other 4X games, and foot units there rapidly run out of supplies and are at risk of sandworm attacks. Meanwhile, special territories like the polar ice caps can supply resources otherwise very hard to get.
NO PLACE LIKE CHOAM
Most of Northgard’s resources went towards building obvious material things. For that, SpiceWars really just has Solaris, Plascrete, Manpower, and Water. Truly taking control of Dune will require clever use of soft political currencies, in addition to agents to infiltrate and lobby important organizations. Meanwhile, your resources go towards backing up those plays by expanding your holdings.
Dune is a far more political than military work of science fiction, and SpiceWars appears to respect that. Though the game takes place only on Arrakis, the politics of the wider Imperium and its factions are vital to success. Players will curry favor in the Landsraad, trying to pass resolutions and laws that favor themselves over others. The goal is to be appointed governor of Dune, but that’s a path they’ll find difficult if they’re too aggressive in military conflict.
Landsraad favor is just one of the currencies players can accrue and spend. Your Authority goes towards pleasing factions like the Spacing Guild, Bene Gesserit, Emperor, and others, for which you get direct rewards. There’s also the Spice sales and distribution company, CHOAM, which happily buys up all the spice you don’t personally hoard—and you have to hoard some, since the Emperor also demands a direct tax in it.
Remember: The Spice must flow.
You don’t have to wait long before you can try some space politics for yourself— Dune:SpiceWars will released as a Steam Early Access game this spring.
TAKING CONTROL OF DUNE WILL REQUIRE CLEVER USE OF SOFT POLITICAL CURRENCIES