Just at Tennocon, Digital Extremes released a game demo for the next major update: Warframe 1999The edgy, Y2K-themed demo was filled with a very particular grunge vibe. Not only that, but it took Warframe to a completely unfamiliar place – a retro European city filled with modern military enemies and arcade machines, rather than the galactic sci-fi we’re all used to.
To learn more about how the team designed this compelling new chapter for the future of Warframe, I spoke with Creative Director Rebecca Ford about the design inspiration. It turns out that one of the key cornerstones of Warframe 1999 comes from an old game from Digital Extreme: Dark Sector.
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iGamesNews: This new area! It’s very European. What was the inspiration for this world in terms of design and characterization?
Rebecca Ford: Dark Sector was a really interesting inspiration, to be honest, because I never actually worked on Dark Sector. But some people on the Warframe team certainly did. So we were looking at how we could make an outdoor, slightly European-looking game for Warframe. How we could use procedural levels, how we could get outdoors. And then all the lines of thought converged on the fact that we were going to have motorcycles, we were going to have two factions. Let’s build some streets and sewers and see what happens.
From there, we really needed to pick a reason for this world to exist. So it’s 1999, the turn of the millennium, and technology is everywhere! Obviously this is an alternate Earth, so things are a little different. Ultimately, we settled on this moody, very Dark Sector-inspired (but also uniquely Warframe) Earth in 1999.
iGamesNews: Is this the only clip from Dark Sector we can expect? I know the year doesn’t quite match up with Dark Sector being set at the end of the Cold War, but even so…
Ford: Yeah. I think there might be some homages, but for a lot of people… if anyone is looking for a continuation of Dark Sector in any way, it’s not here. But certainly the elements that make up Warframe 1999 wouldn’t exist without Dark Sector.
iGamesNews: I wanted to ask about that new enemy faction we just saw. Can you tell us more about it?
Ford: “Scaldra! Yes, they are the great force of Military Rule in 1999. In Hovania. They are an anti-infection containment unit, but they are also a military unit. They are led by a Major: Major Rosuka, you got a good glimpse of her. She rules alongside Scaldra, driving the Technorotters and what she calls “Slugs” out of her cities. Usually you see a lot of chemical goo and real weapons. And of course tanks. The player must outwit this primitive military unit.
iGamesNews: What was it like fusing this 1999 technology with Warframe’s unique aesthetic?
Ford: We’ve always been in an alternate Earth game world, and luckily for us, Warframe has had contributions from a lot of people over the years. When we first presented 1999 to the art team, our original art director Minki (who has since left the team but still stays in touch) showed some sketches of what 1999 factions might look like. They were just paper sketches, and our reaction at the time was “Ah! Of course!”. So we had two sheets of potential military units, and we sent them to our team, and then we built the faction based on those results.
Their key attribute is: what would someone trying to stop an infestation look like? Well, they’d probably use a lot of goo or gas, so that’s really the key to them in terms of visual identity. Of course, take some creative liberties.
iGamesNews: They look unique, but they are also original Grineer. Is there a connection between the two?
Ford: There’s a huge connection between the two! Just in terms of how we approached that. Narratively, of course, there’s no commentary, but design-wise, we thought, okay, the Grineer are basically a military force with traditional guns and clone rot, so what would a distant cousin of the military faction from 1999 look like, and can we make that more literal from a military perspective. So they’re totally spiritual design companions to the Grineer.
Are you eager to check out the update for yourself after seeing these insights? You won’t have to wait too long, as Warframe 1999 will be released on all platforms in Fall 2024!
