From Dust Has a Glorious Engine for God Games

By Marcus Yam
published

It's time to mess with the villagers.

One of the games that slipped through our view during Gamescom last week was From Dust, a download game from Ubisoft planned for release in March 2011.

What makes From Dust seem so special is that it channel some of the classic PC gameplay styles from old games like Populous. While that sort of gameplay doesn't seem very marketable anymore in a stand-alone retail space, it could be perfect for download on Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and various PC channels.

From Dust is very much a game where you play God and have control over the land and elements. Right now it's just a solo affair, but developers are exploring the possibilities of adding multiplayer modes after release.

Check out the first developer diary below to see what the game is all about.

More from previews from IGN and Kotaku.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
31 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Blessedman
    That truly is a glorious engine.
    Reply
  • it' black and white!!!!!
    Reply
  • adikos
    the engine looks real nice, the gameplay however looks very unappealing, but this is just a first look. thats not to say it wont be interesting to play. i used to play populous and i really enjoyed sacrifice by shiny entertainment, while it was more rts sided, it was still a beautiful game at its time and was a change of pace.

    from dust has potential.

    wonder if it will have drm lol
    Reply
  • it seems like populous 3 WOOOT !they have already sold me i am SO on board .... the only thing that will kill it will be the DRM ....

    it is so sad that one has to worry about if a game will work at all thanx to extra software that publishers add ...
    Reply
  • LORD_ORION
    Wow that is pretty freakin awesome. I love this genre and will definitely give it a go.
    Reply
  • adribhel
    This is an innovative game engine. Not just prettier graphics. (Even though it has that too)
    Reply
  • willgart
    Well... not so realistic... there is no steam when the lava hit the water ;-)

    The natural physics appear to be really good. Really good starting point. Go Ubi go!
    Reply
  • decepticon
    I must say, that looks very impressive.

    *drool*
    Reply
  • moomooman
    Looks very populous-y, will those gorgeous graphics require a DX-11 graphics card?
    Reply
  • thomas1728
    It looks like I could just have fun building the environment.
    Reply