Dune: Imperium – Uprising Design Diary 6: Solo, Two-Player and Companion App Modes

October 25, 2023

In this final design article for Dune: Imperium – Uprising, we’re going to talk a bit about solo mode, two-player mode, and some updates to the official companion app to support Uprising. For this article, I’d like to introduce you all to Caleb Vance, a member of the Dire Wolf design staff. Caleb did a lot of hands-on development work on the modes we’re talking about today, so we’ll mix it up a bit and today’s article will be written as a conversation between Caleb and myself.

Paul Dennen: Dune: Imperium launched with very successful solo and two-player modes, but we wanted to see if we could streamline those two systems into something unified. Caleb, I remember pulling you in early in the process to feel out how viable this might be.

Caleb Vance: At first, I thought that aligning the two modes was a great goal. It could make both modes easier to learn and let the central House Hagal mechanisms shine. However, it took a little doing to make two-player mode a competitive experience that aligned with the way that solo games played. Rival cards were a pretty early addition that helped the two modes start to come together. Once we had unique character opponents for use in both solo and two-player, it made a lot of sense to make the two modes as similar as possible!

PD: Yes, we talked about how we wanted each Rival to have more of an identity in DIU, relative to DI. In DI, we asked players to ignore Leader passive abilities, because they mostly didn’t make sense, and used only the Signet ring abilities. How do the Rival cards in DIU work?

CV: Uprising uses our new Rival cards to represent opponents instead of Leader cards. These Rivals could be better tailored to work with the House Hagal deck, and they gave us new avenues to differentiate the characters from the upcoming film. For example, Rivals will spend resources during the early or mid-game to earn their Swordmaster. But watch out! Tougher rivals like Feyd (who have a lower Swordmaster value) can earn their Swordmaster with fewer resources, while easier rivals like Staban have to cash in a lot more resources to get their pivotal third Agent.

Rivals have their own political priorities, representing the Imperium Factions they wish to befriend or spurn. When playing against Staban, be wary on the Spacing Guild and Fremen Faction tracks, as the Rival might prioritize them, gaining extra Influence with them. Watch out for the Rival’s “Scheme” ability, too, representing their long term game plan on Arrakis. A rival will use its Scheme ability when placing its third Spy on the board, recalling its other two Spies. So, Feyd can be a menace when he places a third Spy and gains an Influence. Watch out when he has placed two Spies and is ready to start his Scheme!

Between Swordmaster value, political priorities, and their Signet and Scheme abilities, there’s a lot of variety in these automated opponents. I remember you wanting to give players different levels of Rivals to compete against in increasing difficulty. I think we were able to deliver an exciting cast of villains (and heroes) for players to face in their solo and two-player games.

PD: We did also want to accommodate two different styles of play, having received feedback from some players that they were disappointed with DI’s two-player Rivals that didn’t earn Victory Points and didn’t try to win. On the other hand, some players were happy with the published rules where two-player Rivals just got in the way and didn’t require much upkeep. How did we address that?

CV: Generally, bringing the solo and two-player mode rules closer together means that your Rival in a two-player game now has a unique character (with their Rival card), and will try to compete to win the game. Similar to the solo mode, the two-player Rival will collect enough resources to exchange them for their Swordmaster, and then will begin converting resources to Victory Points. Now in a two-player game you’ll have to defeat two opponents instead of one.

However, we didn’t want to leave behind players that preferred the head-to-head two-player experience introduced in DI (with a Rival that primarily exists to blocks the players). So, DIU includes Lady Amber and the Beast as two Streamlined Rivals. These two Rivals won’t score points or win. They will collect resources until they gain their Swordmaster. Then they will no longer collect resources, and will just block players in the Conflict and on board spaces and Faction tracks. These two Rivals are a great alternative for players that want something low maintenance, so they can focus on a tense battle against one opponent.

Companion App

PD: Finally, I want to give you the floor to tell everyone about the updates we’ve made to Dire Wolf Game Room. You and the rest of the Game Room team put a lot of thought into the updates. What can players expect to see?

CV: I’m very excited for players to get their hands on the new Uprising content in the Dune: Imperium companion app. We’ve implemented some exciting features, including:

The digital Uprising House Hagal deck, for use in solo and two-player games
Blitz! mode for 3 and 4-player games
An updated Arrakeen Scouts mode for 3 and 4-player games with tons of new Uprising specific content

Solo mode now includes a wide range of difficulties, with eight Rivals to face on four different difficulty levels. Two-player mode supports both regular and Streamlined Rivals. Arrakeen Scouts mode contains almost all new content. Best of all, players can now play with compatible leaders from other DI products in all game modes. Play as leaders like Princess Irulan with the base game, or Helena Richese in Uprising, or add in Armand Ecaz even when you’re not using the Rise of Ix expansion.

PD: Thanks, Caleb. I’m sure a lot of players are looking forward to downloading the companion app and checking it out!

Well, folks, this was the last of our design articles for Dune: Imperium – Uprising. I hope you all enjoyed some of the behind-the-scenes thought processes that went into making the game. And we’ll see you on Arrakis!

– Paul Dennen and Caleb Vance