What is this Website about?
This is the official site for Dune: War of the Spice, an independent PC Game currently in development by Rockstorm-Games.

And what is Dune: War of the Spice exactly?
It’s a PC game based on the Unreal Engine 3, or to be more exact, based on the Unreal Development Kit. Our goal is to create a realtime-strategy-game set in Westwood’s Dune-Universe. For more info on Dune and what it’s about, head to our page The Game.

What are the playable factions?
Since it’s loosely based on Westwood’s Dune-Universe, Dune: War of the Spice will feature the three Great Houses: Atreides, Harkonnen and Ordos. You will also be able to choose some mino/subhouses to fight along your side, granting you unique new units and abilities to aid you in your struggle to dominate.

Do you plan to add more great houses? You should include house xyz for sure!
We don’t plan to add more great houses currently, but we can’t deny the possibility. Currently we will focus on the three great houses named above.

Which minor houses will you include?
We will probably include the minor houses found in Dune-Games before: Fremen, the CHOAM Merchant Guild, Ix, the Imperial Sardaukar, and the Bene Tleilax. We are currently developing ideas to add additional minor houses to this list. For information on each of these groups visit the Dune Wiki.

Will there be a Single Player Campaign or Multi-Player Gameplay?
We are definitely going to create a Single Player Campaign with a story structure that is mission-based, but it won’t be in the first public release, which will be focused on multi-player. We are also thinking about adding new single player game modes.

What kind of new gameplay-modes?
Currently we are only developing a classic RTS-Mode, but it’s possible that we add new modes later.

When are you going to release this game?
It’ll be Dune when it’s Dune.

Will there be maps on other planets then Arrakis?
There will also be maps on other planets, with some surprises included. But you won’t find Spice Melange on them.

Will there be new units and buildings?
We based our techtree loosely on Westwood’s Emperor: Battle for Dune, but we’ve already customized and updated huge parts of it, adding many new units and replacing old ones. Also even old units we’re retaining from the older Dune games will be getting design make-overs to match our unique style.

Common complaints

Q:

“You reversed the colors of the Atreides and Harkonnen from the original novels. And the Harkonnen symbol should be a griffin. You guys suck! I’m not going to play your game because of this one thing!”

A:

Trust me, we understand your concern.

We did think about the House colors and heraldry at the start of this project since we are trying to adhere more closely to the original fiction than any other Dune game has previously done. We’re fully aware that in the novels the Atreides are represented by a red hawk (and by banners of black and green) and the Harkonnen by a blue griffin and by (banners of red and blue). We chose to adopt the visual standard of Blue and White + Hawk for Atreides, Black and Red + Ram for Harkonnen and Green and Gold + Snake for Ordos for several reasons:

- The adoption of the ram in place of the griffin is not one we took lightly. It’s partly an homage to the Dune games that have preceded us and established this highly recognizable symbol for the Harkonnen (it’s what players of the previous 3 generations of Dune games are used to), but it also fits the play style and characterization of the Harkonnen that we want to convey. We had also thought that having winged sigils for two of the main factions (hawk and griffin) could create visual confusion.

- There was too much overlap in the original color sets – there are blue and red in both – it would have caused recognition problems in hectic battle scenarios.

- The cultural associations of color: Red = Bad, Blue = Good cannot be ignored. It’s unconscious but it permeates throughout visual media. The reason for this is simple: it works. It conveys connotations of meaning that are direct and require no explanation, which is a good thing in a game; saving time and visually clarifying complex situations so you can get back to killing stuff.

So please understand that we are by no means trampling on the original fiction, for which we have a great deal of respect. We have very good reasons for going in this direction, and these changes should not unduly affect your gaming experience.

Besides, if it REALLY bothers you, you can always fix it by choosing a different team color in multiplayer.

Q:

“You guys don’t have the rights to this, Electronic Arts / Frank Herbert’s Estate / Dino DeLaurentis / Shai Hulud are going to eat you alive! You’re doomed! Dooooomed!”

A:

Thanks for the support.

In all seriousness we are aware of the legal issues and we’re currently not making ANY money from this project and go to great lengths to assert the ownership of the rights holders whenever possible in the hopes that we can continue to develop this project out of our great respect and admiration for the source material.

That being said, we would welcome the opportunity to take this project commercial and develop it officially, so if you’re a legal representative from EA and you’re reading this…let’s talk.