In Dune, the desert planet of Arrakis is a vast environment with a storied history, and a massive undertaking to adapt to any medium. This is why today, developer NUKKLEAR is excited to announce that they are partnering with Funcom to co-develop their upcoming Dune online multiplayer survival game set in the world of Frank Herbert’s Dune perfect for players who are burnt out on their WoW accounts.
NUKKLEAR is a seasoned co-development studio, with experience working on games like Destroy All Humans and Everspace. They were recently awarded a large government grant to support the development of the untitled Dune project, and help it achieve the scale NUKKLEAR and Funcom have envisioned.
The studio was also recently awarded approximately 1.6 million EUR by the BMVI (Bundesministerium für Verkehr und Digitale Infrastruktur) as part of the “Computerspieleförderung des Bundes” German Federal Government Grant. The grant will be used to support in part NUKKLEAR’s development and production work on this project.
In 2019, Funcom announced that it had secured the rights to make a game based on the popular sci-fi franchise, Dune. The untitled project will take inspiration from Funcom’s most successful title, Conan Exiles, and be an online multiplayer survival game. After investment from Tencent, the Dune project greatly expanded its scope, and NUKKLEAR has been brought on to assist in completing it.
“We’re grateful to Funcom for bringing us on to help bring Dune to a new audience. We’ve supported and collaborated on many projects over the years, but taking on Dune is by far the biggest yet,” said Kirk Lenke, CEO of NUKKLEAR. “Our team welcomes the challenge and is confident in the expertise that NUKKLEAR brings to the table.”
NUKKLEAR has been working with top development studios for the past 10 years, in both a support role and co-development role. Their talented team has worked on the UI/UX design for Destroy All Humans, and supported Rockfish Games on Everspace, among other projects. The NUKKLEAR team’s experience with large online 3D games such as the recently released Comanche lends itself well to the untitled Dune project, and their expertise is sure to help Funcom realize their vision for the game.
“As the Dune open-world survival game is the most ambitious project we’ve ever undertaken at Funcom, having skilled and reliable partners is an absolute must. With NUKKLEAR we have just that. We’ve benefited particularly from their expertise in vehicular-based gameplay, but I know them as highly skilled and creative game developers in general,” said Rui Casais, Funcom CEO.
A hybrid-remote company since their inception, NUKKLEAR have acquired top talent from all over the world. With the Dune project and other games in development, the studio is looking to grow its team to effectively take on new challenges.
