Dune: Awakening - Launch Trailer

Amassing millions of views online, this trailer was the audience’s first step upon the scorched sands of Arrakis on the launch day of Dune: Awakening. As the pinnacle of the campaign for this much-anticipated survival game, this trailer required every creative tool in our arsenal, including sublime CG, mo-cap, expertly crafted multiplayer capture, and custom cinematics.
In this trailer, we set out to dramatize the player’s journey through Dune: Awakening. The goal was to highlight not just gameplay systems, but the emotional weight of player choice — all without a single line of dialogue. The narrative follows two players who meet early in the game, surviving together in the unforgiving desert. Through shared struggle, they form a bond, collaborating to overcome the dangers of Arrakis. But as they become more immersed, they’re inevitably drawn into the deeper political landscape of Dune. Their alliance fractures as each chooses a different faction — Atreides and Harkonnen — setting them on opposing paths. 
What begins in camaraderie ends in confrontation, as the trailer builds toward a climactic showdown between the former allies. In doing so, the trailer explores key pillars of the game: survival, cooperation, conflict, and the rise to power. 
To bring this story to life, we blended pure gameplay with custom-crafted in-engine cinematic sequences. Motion capture performances allowed us to convey emotional nuance — a look of doubt before betrayal, a brutal execution of a wounded enemy. These grounded human moments gave weight to each narrative beat. 
We complemented these scenes with original music created by the game’s composer, emphasising the shifting emotional tone: from the awe and hope of early survival, to the dark and explosive finale. To heighten the thematic arc, we created a number of fully CG sequences: abstract, stylized moments where the characters emerge from the desert, sculpted from sand, only to crumble as their alliance collapses. 
Through visual storytelling, performance, music, and pacing, the trailer aims to give players a glimpse of not just what they can do in Dune: Awakening, but how it will feel.