It’s a big day for Warframe fans, in fact, it’s kind of like a Warframe Christmas. The Veilbreaker update was released alongside Protea Deluxe, a new single-player mission featuring Kahl, with additional Kahl missions coming to the game soon, and perhaps most exciting of all, Styanax is here.
Celebrating the 50th frame of the sci-fi MMORPG as a free gift added to players (for a limited time), Styanax marks a major milestone in the continuing journey of Digital Extremes’ adventures over the past few years. From today’s release of Warframe’s Hail Mary version all the way to recent months, it’s expanding its tendrils to a multi-game developer and publisher.
To learn more about the design, concept of this new frame, and how it reflects the newer and more modern Digital Extremes, I teamed up with lead game designer Pablo Alonso and newly shorted creative director Rebecca Ford (obviously out of place. Ford later Tell me a pair of shiny pink boots will be in the next dev stream).
First, Rebecca Ford emphasized that to celebrate the occasion, the team “wanted to do something special” with a frame that looked and played like a Greek hoplite. The framework’s theme was her idea, and the design around it was set about a year ago – much longer than the framework’s usual development cycle, a gestation period that was necessary due to the animated trailer released for Styanax a month ago.
As for the hoplite inspiration, Rebecca Ford credits the idea to fan desire and her own Greek temperament at the time, due to some sort of brilliant Rogue-like. “Probably Hades! There are a lot of fan concepts for spear users, hoplites or centaurs. So now we have what’s probably one of the more classic Warframes we’ve released over the years, just for sheer punch, In terms of ability execution and game loop.”
Speaking of the game loop, how exactly did the team bring the spear and shield combat fantasy into Warframe, so players can experience the concept as they play quests and grind rifts. Pablo intervenes in two main aspects they want to determine: the accuracy of the spear and the party that supports you. “It’s important to combine spears and shields as much as possible. One problem we had was that single target skills in Warframe weren’t particularly useful. But with spears, something precise was needed, which wasn’t powerful enough. So we had to find A twist, when you hit them with a spear and they hit a wall, it triggers an AOE vortex. For us, Styanax is helping the team, giving your team shields and energy, and that’s for us important too.”
One addition to Veilbreaker that will likely fly under the radar (for many unfamiliar with Warframe) is an overall change to how armor works on enemies, and a newfound ability that players can use to strip away that protection. Styanax also has some dedicated armor pieces that allow them to rip it apart like any other frame. According to Pablo, it was through the development of Sytanax that the team learned of the need for broader gameplay tweaks: “So I go and hit a guy and he still has armor. That doesn’t feel right. You have to actually hit them seven times Take off your armor.”
Obviously, this isn’t the first time a new framework has led to radical changes to the game, and Pablo then recalled the release of Harrow and how their framework, which relied on headshots, also led to improvements to the system.
If an element of Styanax demonstrates a shift within Digital Extremes, it’s a newfound ability to provide more substantial rewards, which have been a major revenue stream in the past. “Five years ago, if I offered to give away our brand new headliner frame completely for free, I might have stabbed myself to death!” exclaims Rebecca Ford. “We’re still working on our monetization, trying to figure out what’s most important in the first two weeks of fair and free monetization. We’re now in a position where we can give away a frame for free as a celebration, rather than figuring out another way. Now, with optional monetization focused on the “fashion framework” — the customization and personalization of players’ space murder armor sets — there’s an opportunity to offer something even cooler to the community.
However, Styanax also represents a long-standing and historically successful practice that draws inspiration from internal staff with no direct connection to the design team. While Pablo is the creator of the vast majority of frameworks, other developers passing their ideas his way is an ongoing process that remains the same under Rebecca Ford. Rebecca aims to maintain that, stating: “Pablo supports the next development, but we also very much hope that others will contribute ideas as the team grows. Many of our popular Warframe ideas come from others who bring them to The staff on the table. Like Gauss, he was brought in from people outside the design team.”
In the end, according to Rebecca Ford, the process of creating Warframe was an opportunity for the team to come together nine years after launch and showcase their expertise. “It really became an art for the team. Everyone was ready, the sound, the art, the animation. It was an updated genre, very tight, and everyone could show their experience.” That’s why you Special, unique bits and pieces will be seen on the frame, and the Styanax have unique audio effects on their walks that make them sound more like a centurion warrior.
Styanax represents a lot about Warframe. It’s the cake at the big sci-fi party, an opportunity for the team to show their developmental strength, a better indicator of Digital Extremes’ financial stability, and a new toy that players play with and eventually incorporate. With the above in mind, Styanax stands out as a reminder that Warframe is still in good hands.
If you want to learn more about Veilbreaker updates, you can check out our overview of everything in Veilbreaker here!
