Funcom's Dune Survival Game Gets Dutch Studio Abstraction for Technical and Gameplay Development

The collaboration between German developer Nukklear and Funcom on an upcoming open-world, multiplayer survival game based on the Dune IP  now has another partner: Dutch developer Abstraction. Abstraction comes on board to work on engine level systems, rendering,  platform support, and other parts of development.

Dune is in the works as the IP is enjoying new attention after the 2021 film’s release (and an upcoming second part to come). This should make things familiar enough to potential audiences and Funcom is ready. The original partnership with Nukklear was originally announced in December, and is based on Funcom’s 2019 deal to make a game with the Dune IP. Inspiration for this game will come from Conan Exiles, and incorporate Funcom’s expertise on a number of systems and previous multiplayer titles.  Nukklear’s experience with vehicular gameplay was also cited, giving us some potential insight on what to expect.

Abstraction coming on board is more of a technological support role, with some gameplay elements as well. In a release announcing the new partnership on Dune, Abstraction’s role is described as :While a large portion of the Abstraction team focuses on engine work for optimized performance, various members have integrated into other existing teams working on the project within Funcom to help develop major features in the game. Other specific aspects of work on Dune include AI, audio, animation and physics. 

With the announcements, Funcom seems to have rounded out the path to development of the survival game. Funcom is keeping very busy with the Dune IP and many other IPs the company now controls. Dune: Spice Wars is an upcoming RTS title in development and we already know some of the playable houses there, Atreides and Harkkonnen, with early access planned. 

Funcom’s Dune IP with Nukklear and Abstraction is still much more under wraps for now. Though it seems like things are ready to move forward.