Walking around the planet Arrakis, also known as Dune, is dangerous. Giant sandworms are drawn to the rhythmic tremors caused by the sound of footsteps and will quickly come to swallow anyone who stomps on the dunes.

This is where sandwalking comes in, a method of dune migration practiced by the Arrakis natives known as freemen. In his novel Dune, Frank Herbert describes the sandwalk as a way to keep the sandworms alert by making their footsteps "sound like the natural movement of sand. Steps... Drag... Drag... Step... Step... Step... Wait... Drag... Step..."

PC Gamer editor Wes Fenlon recently interviewed Funcom's Joel Bylos, creative director of the upcoming survival MMO Dune: Awakening takes visual inspiration from the movie

"There was a lot of fun.

"It was there," Bylos said. But it was eventually cut: "It looked ridiculous and made you walk really slowly. [That the sandwalk was removed from the game is probably no big surprise to those who saw "Dune" in 2021: in Part 1, it appeared for only three seconds. 'I have to walk like a freemen,' Paul grumbles to his mother. 'Follow me. Do the same movements. And they walk a few steps, limping strangely and awkwardly across the sand. That was the end. The camera cuts away quickly so we don't have to watch any more.

The reason sandwalks are yawned at is not just that they look silly or slow. Director Bairos also said of Dune: Awakening, "Dune: Awaken was originally scheduled to be released before Dune: Part One in order to avoid spoiling the film. To avoid spoiling the movie, "they told us not to show the Freemen stuff in the game.

"They said, 'We're not going to show you the Freemen stuff in the game.'

The delay in incorporating the Freemen into Dune: Awakening meant that they would not be in the game at launch. 'They are not the stars of the game,' he said. They won't be there from the beginning. You will interact with them in the desert backcountry and later areas. So the freemen's abilities are not available to the player right from the start."

For players who wanted to see the sandwalking system in action, there is still hope: Bylos clarified that Funcom has not completely given up on the idea of letting players sandwalk. 'To be honest, we haven't decided yet,' he said. 'We tried it, it didn't work, so we stopped. We may come back to it."

Sandwalking is not the only change Funcom has made regarding Dune, but they seem surprisingly committed to either sticking to the lore or finding lore-friendly justifications for the parts that deviate from Frank Herbert's book It seems. According to Byros, they have received permission from Herbert's estate to change the mechanics of Dune's laser gun to prevent players from constantly nuking each other