The universe of Dune stretches across dozens of novels, films, and games, but we’ve never quite seen anything like what the team behind Dune: Awakening is trying to pull off within that grand fictional realm – now retooled as an open world survival game. Developer Funcom is throwing a giant “What if?” at decades of source material to create an exciting bit of tension, which in turn has allowed the developer the creative freedom to play within the Dune universe and not feel beholden to what has come before. In Dune: Awakening, a single change to the original story creates an entire alternate history for you to play in.

“When we first began to work on Dune: Awakening, we took a long look at the legacy of Dune: the books, the movies (including the one in pre-production), and the old games. There was a lot of internal discussion about where to set the game — before the events of the first novel, after the events of ‘God Emperor of Dune’ — the possibilities were endless. But in most cases, the setting was unrecognizable due to the massive scope of the IP spanning thousands of years and many conflicts,” explains Creative Director Joel Bylos.

“And then it hit us. What if Jessica had done as she was ordered (giving birth to a girl instead of a boy) by the Bene Gesserit? This simple change would allow us to retain the most familiar elements and time frame of the Dune universe, while giving our players freedom to have agency in the universe we were creating. At that point, probably about a year into development, we never looked back.”

Materially, what this does to the world of Dune: Awakening, is give you an Arrakis that is in the middle of a full-blown war. The Fremen are nowhere to be seen (we’re told they’re currently “missing”), and the Atreides, who are now alive and well in this alternate universe, continue to battle against the Harkonnen and others over the resources on the planet. This gives you a land that is ripe for scavenging, full of wrecked structures, broken vehicles, and plenty of weapons to unearth.

With the stage set, and with a little imagination, you can envision how Funcom, who are no strangers to developing massive worlds, could create an incredible survival MMO gaming experience here. Recently, we got to see this world first-hand in a recent hands-off preview build during Summer Game Fest: Play Days. While the title is still in development, you could see the bones are firmly in place to give us a compelling adventure that will let us explore vast swathes of the deadly planet Arrakis.

One feature in particular, known as Shifting Sands, will adjust the landscape of the Deep Desert each week, hiding points of interest and uncovering new ones, encouraging players to explore these regions over and over again, giving the planet itself a sense of being alive. There’s also Combined Arms, which is the combination of ranged and melee abilities that will work tandem to create interesting options for players in how they approach PVP and PVE encounters in Dune: Awakening. And of course being able to drive vehicles — that includes the versatile Ornithopters, modelled after the ones seen in the recent films (and Microsoft Flight Simulator).

Finally, we got to witness how Sandworms will function as a “natural tension mechanic throughout the game,” according to Bylos. This ensures that every time you decide to cross the open desert, you will be vulnerable; the Sandworms will come for you. And no, you can’t ride them. At least not at launch.

“Narrative is intertwined with everything players do: The shape of the world, the people you meet, the outfits they wear, etc. Everything is a part of the world and narrative and tells a story. The idea is that narrative in general is an integral part of the world,” Bylos elaborates when asked how the team intends to balance narrative elements within the open-world game exploration on Arrakis.

“The main storyline — apart from an opening sequence – is opt-in. We give you a reason to be on Arrakis and a path to follow (if you want to) and then we basically leave you alone — apart from some interesting dreams. It’s up to you if you want to follow the path of the main story or just head off into the desert and start building your own adventure.”

In talking more with Bylos about what the mammoth task of translating the rich universe of Dune into a game has been like, he stressed that the team approached this with humility and respect for the source material. Because there is so much to draw upon, it was sometimes difficult to pick and choose what would make into the game for launch, and what plans they’ll keep close to the vest for additions to the game later.

What will make it into the game at launch will be a faithfully recreated planet Arrakis for players to dive in and start exploring. Our preview build already looks amazing, almost like we’re about to step on the set of the movie – it may be set in an alternate timeline, but if you’re a fan of the recent films, you’ll feel at home.

“Our partners at Legendary have been extremely helpful and dedicated to making sure we have access to the movie resources as well as giving feedback to help us align our thinking with the core crew on the films,” Bylos adds. “We have had access to a large library of 3D scans from the film props, as well as more direct discussions with the creative team. I was lucky enough to be able to meet Denis Villeneuve at the movie premiere in London and briefly chatted about the film and games.”

Bylos also mentioned that the team has been working with Greig Fraser, the award-winning cinematographer whose credits include “The Batman,” “Zero Dark Thirty,” and “Dune” and has helped the development team with visual framing techniques. And their lore questions are sent to the Herbert Estate for double-checking and ensuring that they’re staying true to the vision of the novels.

As a fan of survival games like State of Decay 2, Minecraft’s survival mode, and DayZ, the entire concept of Dune: Awakening is incredibly enticing. Being able to set foot on and ‘live’ on the planet of Arrakis that’s shared with dozens of other players, it’s hard not to get carried away with how amazing of a gaming experience that could become.

Hopefully, we won’t have to wait too long to play it ourselves. An open beta for Dune: Awakening is planned before launch, but no firm release dates have been announced. For now, we’ll keep focused on their official channels for the latest news and hope to share new details here on Xbox Wire in the near future.