Joel Bylos, the game's creative director for Dune: Awakening, talked about the game's intention to rethink the main elements of the survival genre. They do not want to punish players too harshly, so players will not be punished too much for eating spices, rather they will be encouraged to do so.
Three main pillars will be used to build survival in Dune: Awakening.
Due to severe storms, players will have to look for shelter or build their own; Sandworms – these insects will be attracted to sudden movement on the sand, so players will have to keep an eye on themselves and the situation around; water is a valuable commodity that is always in short supply in the desert.
Bylos cited Valheim, a game that abandoned certain aspects of the genre but became popular with a wider audience. They decided to use the same principle for Dune: Awakening: if the player is left without shelter or fails to maintain the water level in time, instant death does not await him.
For crafting, players will have to do research. Another aspect of Dune: Awakening is "endless exploration." New areas are continually being added and old locations are hidden under the sands of Arrakis.
Thus, players will be able to compete to discover uncommon concepts that will allow them to dominate the market for a limited period of time — until the area is open for reconstruction.
Dune: Awakening is in the works for PC, Xbox Series, and PlayStation 5, but the game has yet to be released. In a new trailer, the developers showed the first footage of the game using the engine.
