the spice must flow

It was a hard task to pull myself away from the development of my dwarven paladin, but I managed to do it long enough for a viewing of the Director's Cut of the Dune TV miniseries this past weekend. The special effects are probably the only faults I have with this adapation of Frank Herbert's science fiction epic, because there are way too many times where it was clear the cast was running around a closed studio piled with sand. The computer generated ships and planet locations were passable, but also looked as if they were created under a tight budget. The acting was generally good, and unlike the Lynch version that required a working knowledge of the entire Dune universe before viewing it, the story was carefully assembled into three highly watchable episodes. This isn't to say that Lynch's film is completely terrible, because I think it suffered from being released at the wrong time - audiences weren't ready for such a complicated plot in a movie that was expected to be a typical big-budget popcorn movie.

All of this got me thinking about how ripe the Dune universe is for video gaming. Yet it remains ignored, except for the occasional lackluster release. Looking back, it's not like the subject was completely overlooked; there's a prototype for the Atari 2600 floating around for a game inspired by the 1984 film. However, the first official Dune game was released for the PC in 1992, and was a kind of action/adventure hybrid that doesn't make a whole lot of sense based on the screens. Though what most of us would remember is Westwood's Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty that came out the same year, considered to be the inspiration for every RTS game you've ever played. There were three separate campaigns based on three major royal houses: Atreides (good), Harkonnen (evil), and Ordos (more or less neutral) all vying for control of Arrakis. The base and troop building that most of us learned playing Command and Conquer had already been established in this game.

It wasn't until 1998 that I actually got my hands on a Dune game, and this was Dune 2000, a desperate Command and Conquer clone also published by Westwood. It was a little ironic when considering the game's pedigree; after all, this was just an update of the game that inspired the genre in the first place. The graphics and strategies were uncomfortably familiar, and as such resulted in a forgettable experience. Then again, John Rhys-Davies did appear as the Atreides mentat in one of the game's many live-action cutscenes.

The release of the TV miniseries in 2001 renewed interest in the setting, and spawned two games: Frank Herbert's Dune and Emperor: The Battle for Dune. Frank Herbert's Dune was intended as a direct tie-in with the miniseries, but resulted in a dismal failure both in its disregard for the source material and lack of attention to actual gameplay. Emperor was apparently a pretty good RTS game, and probably marked EA's entrance into 3D strategy before the release of C&C Generals the following year. After these games, development on anything Dune related basically stopped.

The sequel to the TV miniseries, Children of Dune, originally aired in 2003 but I never watched it, because frankly I had no idea it was even being made. The first miniseries I considered only a moderate success, because interest in Dune seemed to wane rather quickly and I figured that would be the end of this renaissance. I haven't read the recently started series of books co-authored by Brian Herbert (Frank Herbert's son) and Kevin J. Anderson (who has also penned his share of Star Wars novels). They don't seem well received, and feel more like novels written to simply pacify fans eager to see the series continue. In other words, very much like the Star Wars novels. I have even seen the likes of a limited run tabletop RPG, Chronicles of the Imperium, and another one rumored to have been in development by Wizards of the Coast that was later cancelled. The Dune series is largely regarded as one of the pillars of modern science fiction writing, and yet it's consistently pushed into the background as if to disregard its influence on the genre.

The Dune universe is one full of political intrigue and a more spiritual view of a possible future when compared with conventional science fiction that obsesses over technology. Though Dune may lend itself well to strategy titles, what's stopping the creation of a roleplaying game? Ascending through the ranks of a royal house, plotting and scheming; a smuggler in the quest for spice; or a Fremen footsoldier simply braving the unforgiving desert could all be adapted to this type of gameplay. The world of Dune is more complex than previous games have given it credit for. I'd like to see a developer take advantage of this, and not simply use the Dune name to sell an action or strategy game in an established formula. It obviously comes down to a financial return, but I think fans would appreciate more dignified treatment of the material, and would be more than happy to answer with their wallets. Most importantly, it would open up the market for science fiction games without the prefix of Star Wars or Star Trek.