DUNE: SPICE WARS
Team Specs
TEAM SIZE
DURATION
PLATFORMS
TECHNOLOGIES
3 to 4 programmers
I worked on it for 2.5 years
PC
Heaps, Haxe, CastleDB
WHAT IS DUNE: SPICE WARS
Dune: Spice Wars is a hybrid game between an RTS and a 4X with emphasis on the 4X elements. It is set in the universe of Dune from the original novel by Frank Herbert in 1965. You play as one of the playable Factions (Great Houses or well known groups) and your goal is to try and be the last one standing. To achieve this, you need to harvest Spice, annex villages and be both a political mastermind as well as an espionage master. The game features Online Multiplayer and an offline Single Player Conquest mode. You can play up to 4 players.
WHAT I WORKED ON
I learned so much during this project. What I am most proud of is being the solo creator of the entire game's AI. If you start a game alone in Free For All mode, you get to play against 1 to 3 AIs with adjustable difficulties and close to no cheating! I have also worked on a lot of the game system and, like every programmer on the project, my fair share of UI. On a day-to-day basis, I worked very closely to Game Designers to achieve the best gameplay systems possible while keeping a strong ownership of the systems I worked on.
WHAT I LEARNED FROM IT
Working with a completely new language and in-house engine is a superb experience. You learn to adapt and get familiar with new code bases quickly. This was also the first job where I really loved the game I was working on from the perspective of a gamer myself. That allowed me to get in touch with the community in the Discord and improve the game during its Early Access phase. I have also had the chance to work on the AI which was a somewhat self-contained subject that touched on everything else that was in the game. This was a great experience as I had to communicate with just about every other programmer and designer on many different features. Overall, the project was a blast to work on and I am very proud of the work done by the entire team.
NOTABLE EXPERIENCE
I have also had the pleasure to share a part of my work on the AI and some insights about the project with students and peers at the ENJMIN School in Angoulême. You can find a video of the complete talk below.