Shiro Games recently published a FAQs on the Steam page of Dune Spice Wars to reveal a little more information on his forthcoming game.
Dune Spice Wars is a real-time strategy game that incorporates elements of 4X to its gameplay. Indeed, Shiro Games explains that the game is good in real time, but the speed is slower than in the majority of RTS. Moreover, we can pause the progress of time, or speed it up. As in the majority of 4Xs, there are exploration phases in Dune Spice Wars, we have to control territories and manage economy, politics, military aspect … Elements that can make you think of an old game from Shiro Games, Northgard, but the studio would like to remind you that all development of Dune Spice Wars was done from scratch, without reusing any Northgard elements. On the other hand, Dune Spice Wars is a game on a much larger scale than Northgard, and games are planned to be much longer.
Dune Spice Wars places you on the planet Arrakis, where you will have to build and grow your base. The map will be procedurally generated, but you can choose criteria to adapt it to your taste: size, wind strength, activity of sandworms, etc… Your territory will not be delimited by oceans as in many games of the genre, but by from deep deserts …unless you acquire the technology needed to survive for a long time in such a desert. You will find different places known from the books. By the way, the game Dune Spice Wars seems more faithful to the books than old games adapted from the Dune universe, or even other derivative works. For example, House Atreides here wears the color green, like in the books. Two of the five playable houses are already announced: Atréides and Harkonnen.
Shiro Games also talks about the artistic direction of the game. Indeed, they explain that the visual style must be cartoonish, because this game takes place in a desert. Thus, the developers ensure that players who will spend hours in front of the game do not get tired of environments that are too bland, with sand and rocks as far as the eye can see. They also claim to have worked with a geologist specializing in deserts to create believable environments on such a planet.
Dune Spice Wars will be first released in early access. Shiro Games claims to be working on a multiplayer mode, but it will not yet be available when Early Access is released. As the single player campaign, it should arrive with an update for Early Access. In terms of additional content, Shiro Games explains that no DLC is planned for now since the developers are focusing on this early access and the core of the game for its release. If there is a strong demand for more content, and they see an interest in it and something new to explore, Shiro Games doesn’t rule out thinking about it later. Finally, the studio claims that if enough players ask for it, mod support could be added later.
We also now know that the game will be entirely in French, among other languages. Dune Spice Wars will be released on Steam later this year. We should know more soon about the early access period.
