Dune Awakening to Launch on PC First, Optimized for Controller Play

Translating a game from PC to console presents its fair share of challenges, especially when the game’s genre has deep roots in the PC landscape. Navigating this shift without losing integral aspects can be demanding. However, for Dune Awakening, the development team has made it clear that they are “designing with a controller in mind.”

Interestingly, there hasn’t been any official announcement about the console release date yet. Even the PC release timeline remains under wraps. In an effort to unpack the strategies behind this anticipated multi-platform launch, I had a conversation with Nils Ryborg, who is currently a producer on Dune Awakening at Funcom. Before joining Funcom, Ryborg contributed to the console adaptation of Pillars of Eternity at Paradox, thus bringing a wealth of experience to our discussion.

Reflecting on his time at Paradox, Ryborg shared, “The process was quite the adventure. I recall Pillars of Eternity (laughs) and the lengths we went to refine the user experience, drawing some influence from action RPGs, particularly regarding character movement.” He went on to explain, “Though the game was largely tactical, using a controller imposed certain limitations. We developed AI architects to help players guide their NPCs to make smart choices and streamline movement and decision-making. Real-time combat became more intuitive while still preserving pause-and-play mechanics for complex strategies. Accommodating these features required us to adapt the UX, like finding creative ways to map actions to the controller.”

With that said, how did Funcom handle the transition? Did they adopt similar strategies to Paradox, or was a different path taken to provide a smoother experience?

“Starting with a console-first approach tends to simplify things,” Ryborg noted. “When you design the game with a controller from the outset, it translates back to PC more seamlessly. On the other hand, adapting a pure PC game—originally tailored for mouse and keyboard—to a console environment is quite a challenge. That’s why we’ve kept controllers in mind from the get-go.”

He added, “We’re launching on PC before anything else, ensuring that setup is solid. But when it comes to consoles, I’m confident that the transition will be smooth, barring the typical technical limitations that consoles might impose. It has to perform well without complicating things unnecessarily.”

So, while console fans have to be patient a bit longer for more details on Dune Awakening’s console debut, there is some reassurance. They’ll receive a game closely aligned with the PC version, meaning no significant disparities in gameplay experience across platforms.