Northgard creator working on RTS game Dune: Spice Wars

French studio Shiro Games is working on Dune: Spice Wars. It is a real-time strategy game set in the Dune universe. The game should be playable as an early access game next year.

Pictures from Dune: Spice Wars show the surface of the sand planet Arrakis with different air and land units. The goal is to take control of the planet and its spice stocks using violence, politics, espionage and economics, according to developer Shiro Games.

The French studio has been working on the game for two years and aims to release it as an early access title in 2022. The studio expects the game to be available as such for nine to 12 months before the full game is released. During that period, the developers add multiplayer support and a campaign, among other things.

According to the company, Dune: Spice Wars combines elements of rts, grand strategy and ‘4X’. The term 4X refers to the combination of explore, expand, exploit and exterminate. Four factions are playable in the game.

Shiro Games is best known for the Viking rts Northgard. It’s not the first RTS in the Dune universe. The best known is Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty, which Westwood Studios released in 1992 and which is seen as the blueprint for successive RTS games, with all the basic elements that characterize the genre.

Tencent subsidiary Funcom is also making games based on the Dune franchise. In 2019, the company announced it would make at least three Dune games.