Dune: Sands of Destiny

By: Brennan Furber

The nerd life is often a disappointing one. As a lover of all things science-fiction, nothing would make me happier than to jet off to outer space with my droid companion. Unfortunately, technology is pretty far off from making this a possibility, but getting to experience anything remotely close to an intergalactic adventure is enough to satiate my child-like wonder. One of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to do this is through video games, and there is no short supply of them in the sci-fi genre. However, one sci-fi franchise that does not have a video game adaptation also happens to be my favorite: Dune. 

For this blog post, I put myself in the shoes of a video game developer at Bethesda Studios. Bethesda is a very popular video game studio known for making immersive open-world role playing games. The Elder Scrolls series, Fallout and Doom are all products of Bethesda that have done very well in the video game sphere, and I could think of no better studio to create a Dune game than Bethesda. Consequently, I used artificial intelligence to create an Instagram post announcing the video game with the image above, and the caption read as follows: Bethesda Studios unveils “Dune: Sands of Destiny,” an immersive open-world game. Embark on a legendary journey through Arrakis, encountering fierce creatures, forging alliances, and shaping the planet’s destiny. Stay tuned for exclusive updates! #DuneSandsOfDestiny #ArrakisAwaits #BethesdaGaming.

For the image, I chose the engine Microsoft Bing. When I did the AI assignment for my client, Tom’s Offroad, it was very difficult to synthesize a storyboard that included people due to the unrealistic faces and body parts. For this blog post, the software worked perfectly. It was able to render the deserts of Irrakis in the exact way I pictured Bethesda would, and the silhouetted figures gave it that mystical feeling that the franchise is known for. The caption was less realistic, but before I gave Chat GPT the parameters of 40 words or less, it was very authentic. It gave that feel of an exciting new video game franchise that took a lot of hours to create, and meant a lot to the community, which it undoubtedly would. 

What I’ve learned the most from using these tools is to temper your expectations and make it easy on the software. Choosing a renowned franchise with notable landscapes will provide you with good results. Choosing a niche, local organization like Tom’s Offroad will be much more difficult, and is unlikely to leave you with a usable social media post. 

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