I recently started on my game construction project – I’m going to make myself a copy of the Dune Board Game.  This time, I’m going to take the game a bit further than I have before (in both Ian’s copy of Scott’s design, and John’s copy of Ilya’s design) and I’m going to make myself a copy to include the Spice Harvest and Duel expansions.

When it comes to the classic Dune board game, there have been a number of efforts to create print-and-play versions of the game and rules, but a few of them have, for me, risen to the top.  Scott Evert’s redesign primarily uses the original card art, but with an completely original graphical redesign.  Scott also included all of the expansion components in his redesign, making it (as far as I am aware) the most complete effort at a print-and-play set.  Conversely Ilya Baranovsky completely redesigned all the components using his own artwork and design which gives his component set a distinctly different feel.  Ilya started, but did not complete components for the expansions, however, leaving his set incomplete for those who want the Grand Dune experience.  Finally Slev Sleddeddan compiled all of the Dune rules commonly in use into a single easy-to-read document which many print-and-play sets use.  Slev’s ruleset for the core components in unassailable, having been edited with a fine-toothed comb by many fans, however, since the expansion rules are less used, I have noticed that they require a bit more work to bring up to the standard of the core game.

The goal for my construction is to use Ilya’s art and design for the core game, and attempt to utilize the graphic design and artistic philosophy for the expansion components.  Additionally, I plan on touching up and laying out Slev’s rules into a rulebook that I can be proud including in my game box.

The primary challenge of this build will be the leader tokens and traitor cards for the Landsraad and Ix.  I think that with what Ilya started, there is enough character art to put a full set together.  But, even still, it’s going to take some photoshop work to make it look good.  The Duel board will also be a bit of a challenge in making it look good, as I’ll have to do that from scratch.  All the cards I expect to be pretty easy (I have that down fairly well), with the main work being pulling in the art assets (I’ll be pulling the text in directly from Slev’s rulebook).

I’ll have to see how it goes – hopefully I’ll have a sweet looking game when I’m done!