When Frank Herbert began to pen the first Dune novel, video games were in an entirely nascent form. In 1965, when his iconic sci-fiwork was published, a mere handful of games had been created, often for looming mainframe computers as research projects.
However, in starting to build out his world of interstellar feudal conflict, political drama, and the desperate mining of a powerful drug called ‘melange’ or ‘spice’, Herbert set in motion a series of events that would have a profound influence over the real-time strategy genre, and even the wider gaming landscape.
Herbert’s tale initially appeared as a run of serialised pieces in Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine. Soon after, Dune was released as a novel, which would in turn inspire numerous sequels written by Herbert and later his son. Such was the first book’s popularity and influence on science fiction that it inevitably attracted the attention of Hollywood. Though, as it turned out, the vast and intricate setting Herbert had spun from words was far from easy to adapt into a celluloid release. Over the years Dune movies have been panned and canned, with David Lynch even disowning his infamous 1984 film version. In fact, it was 2021 by the time a Dune movie arrived that most felt was worthy, with director Denis Villeneuve at the helm.
A TALE OF TWO DUNES
Games, meanwhile—with all their interactivity, intricacy, and freedom from linear storytelling—proved to be a little more suitable when it came to communicating the spirit and tone of Herbert’s creation.
この記事は PC Gamer US Edition の August 2022 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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この記事は PC Gamer US Edition の August 2022 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
Special Report- Stacked Deck - Monster Train, a deckbuilding roguelike that firmly entrenched itself as the crown prince to the kingly Slay the Spire back in 2020, was the kind of smash success you might call Champagne Big.
Monster Train, a deckbuilding roguelike that firmly entrenched itself as the crown prince to the kingly Slay the Spire back in 2020, was the kind of smash success you might call Champagne Big. Four years later, its successor Inkbound’s launch from Early Access was looking more like Sandwich Big.I’m not just saying that because of the mountain of lamb and eggplants I ate while meeting with developer Shiny Shoe over lunch, to feel out what the aftermath of releasing a game looks like in 2024. I mean, have I thought about that sandwich every day since? Yes. But also, the indie team talked frankly about the struggle of luring Monster Train’s audience on board for its next game.
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