View source for Dune Awakening Direct/en

Dune:Awakening Direct is a series of showcases live streamed by Funcom on their [https://www.twitch.tv/funcom Twitch] and [https://youtube.com/live/tRyh4tREzi0?feature=share Youtube] channels, hosted by [https://twitter.com/Soembie Soe Gschwind] where new information about the game will be announced.The series is set to start to coincide with the release of the latest movie, Dune Part 2
[[File:Let the fear go over and through you only teasing will remain.png|thumb|The teaser image used in the preview announcement, of the stage where the interviews will take place]]

=== Episode 1 - 4th March 2024 ===
The first episode aired at 2024-03-04 17:00 UTC<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRyh4tREzi0</ref>, consisting of two sections - a featurette titled Creating Worlds, from Book to Film to Game, which features interviews with academy award-winning cinematographer on Dune: Part 1 and 2, Greig Fraser, and Funcom Creative Director, Joel Bylos, giving a glimpse at what it takes to bring the ultimate Dune fantasy to life.<ref>https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1172710/view/4154077995436354366</ref>, and a never-before-seen trailer rendered entirely in-game to show many features of the game

==== Creating Worlds, from Book to Film to Game ====
The featurette starts with an interview with Joel Bylos, the creative director of Dune:Awakening and explores the process and the relationship the Funcom team has with Legendary, the producers of the latest Dune films, and how that has helped craft the game. This was followed by a direct interview with Joel. Some notable information presented here:

* The game is made in [https://www.unrealengine.com Unreal Engine 5], using Nanite and Lumen technologies to add modern, advanced graphical fidelity and lighting to the game.
* The Dune Movies also used UE5 so they were able to share assets between the two projects.
* When the players land in the game, they will first fight for physical survival, attaining water and shelter, travelling by night and sticking to the black shade - until later ascending to political survival in the late game.
* There are two forms of [[Sandworms]] - "smaller" ones with split jaws that chase players, and much larger "ringworm" ones in [[The Deep Desert]] that can swallow harvesters and equipment whole. There's only one rule: The Sandworms will always come.
* To get water in the early game, you need to drink from [[Dew Fields]] and eat plants - but eat too many and you throw up
* The game has a full levelling system, and has a Combined Arms system, of [[Melee]] and [[Ranged]] weapons, [[Vehicles]] and abilities:
** The [[Bene Gesserit Abilities|Bene Gesserit Voice]] can be used to command enemies to come to you so you can stab them
** The [[Swordmaster Abilities|Swordmasters have a knee charge]] to knock people to the ground
** The [[Trooper Abilities|Troopers have Shigawire Claws]] to grapple away and shoot from afar with [[Sniper rifle|sniper rifles]] and [[Shotgun|shotguns]]
** There's a large amount of [[Crafting|craftable]] weapons

* There aren't strict classes, but players choose their mentor during character creation to give their starting abilities
* More abilities can be learned from different [[Ability Trainers|trainers]] throughout the world
* [[Sandworms]] cannot be killed or defeated, only avoided
* [[Thumper|Thumpers]] can be crafted and placed to distract sandworms
* Vehicles are craftable - [[Sandbike|Sandbikes]], [[Groundcar|Groundcars]] and [[Ornithopter|Ornithopters]]
* There is a [[Journey System|Journey system]] of larger, over arching story missions
* There are [[Contracts|contracts]], of more straightforward, isolated missions
* There is a grouping system where players can play together to do Journies, Contracts and fight together (and revive each other in combat)
* [https://dune.fandom.com/wiki/Vladimir%20Harkonnen The Baron Harkonnen] is a good looking man.
* There is a [https://dune.fandom.com/wiki/War%20of%20Assassins War of Assassins] ongoing, players can ally themselves within factions ([[Atreides]], [[Harkonnen]] etc) and do missions to advance and level up through the ranks
* The [[Landsraad]] demand the players do certain things, which the Factions will have to work against each other to achieve the objectives
* Players can choose to opt out of the Landsraad and play the game in any way they want - even just being an isolated rock farmer
* [[Closed Beta|Closed Beta tests]] have been ongoing for several months, are getting larger over time
* [[The Shifting Sands]] is a full PvP area where weekly [[Coriolis Storm|Coriolis Storms]] come and totally change up the landscape
* Players can create [[Blueprints]] of buildings, to create holograms that their guild/group can help build
* Blueprints can be traded, creating a market for buildings

==== Survive Arrakis Trailer ====
The episode concluded with a brand new trailer drop, rendered in-engine and showed many new elements to the game that were not previously known, such as:

* Characters leave trails and footprints in the sand
* The "small" split-jaw worms chasing the player and roaring as they reach the rocks
* Using a laser to melt a blue ore to gather resources
* The [[Mining|mining]] system having a bright blue line to gather resources effectively
* The fabricator crafting a [[Stillsuit|stillsuit]]
* Placing windmills (or windtraps?)
* A spaceship crashing onto the sands, leaving a black smoke trail
* Several player characters gathering from loot drops at the [[Crash Site|crash site]]
* A [[Patrol Ship|huge ship]] overhead with spotlights that hunt the players
* Horizontal [[Climbing|climbing]] across a cliff face
* Players can deploy [[Hunter Seeker]] drones with an "infrared" vision - highlighting enemies in bright yellow
* Various underground facilities - research and [[Eco Lab|eco labs]]
* Mining lasers can cut (and gather?) wrecked [[Ornithopter|ornithopters]]
* [[Antigrav|Personal antigrav]] systems can levitate the player like a jetpack
* A [[Trading Post|trading settlement]] with many stalls selling various goods
* A "[[Spice|spice]] vision" scene with the player having bright blue/purple eyes
* [[Binoculars]] can view far into the distance
* Large scale battles with dozens of visible characters, flying and ground vehicles
* Crawling on all fours after battle
<references /><gallery>
File:Da direct bts1.png|Behind the Scenes of D:A Direct ep 1
File:Image2.png|Behind the Scenes of D:A Direct ep 1
</gallery>
[[Category:PreBeta]]