Warframe: 1999 – Receiving The New Millennium With Rebb Ford

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home December 13, 2024 2 Views 10 Min Read
Warframe: 1999 - Receiving The New Millennium With Rebb Ford

Warframe: 1999 is coming soon, and we’re excited to meet the colorful characters of The Hex while trying to find Doctor Entrati in the city of Höllvania, full of infested beings and malicious factions in conflict, as we explore the past and learn about the mysterious events that led to our present predicament.

We couldn’t help but ask some pressing questions to Rebecca Ford, Warframe’s Creative Director. There was a lot to discuss — from the possible long-term effects on the Origin System to the struggles behind the development of this new chapter.

Lettie, Quincy, Aoi, Amir, and Eleanor posing together in Warframe.

“Getting new players interested in Warframe: 1999 was the largest struggle,” explains Ford. “How can we make something feel fresh but still grounded in a world we’ve been building out for nearly 12 years? And then once we do, how do we keep them invested throughout 20-30 hours of story content before they get to 1999?”

“To tackle that, we had to ask ourselves what we wanted to play ourselves as a team. What would draw us back in as creatives and get us excited for new players to dive into? That’s where my favorite aspect of this narrative chapter comes in,” she adds. ”The ‘90s setting is close to my heart, I was a huge goth trying to be as edgy as possible while still plastering my walls with Backstreet Boys posters. Leaning back into the fashion and musical inspirations from the team’s memories of that decade has been a blast.”

Digital Extremes has recently released a comic book and a short animated film that serve as prequels to 1999, where you can see the members of the Hex at odds with each other in constant tension. As players, will we be able to develop the relationship between them as we once did with the Entrati family in Deimos?

Arthur Nightingale riding his Atomicycle in Warframe.

“What is a found family without some tension, right? Our writing team’s approach to The Hex members was to ensure they responded like people; flawed, messy, and indecisive, but also full of love and common goals, and they all have different morals, priorities, and weaknesses,” Ford explains.

“You’ll likely be drawn toward friendships and possible relationships with some of the members, but maybe not all of them! That’s why we developed this system as a way to not only grow more attached to these characters but also to learn their backstories, likes, dislikes, fears, and hopes; more importantly, none of the choices you make are permanent unless you want them to be”.

It was mentioned in the past that there are plans for more Protoframe characters besides the initial six in 1999, and the fandom has already concocted several theories. Could the romance system come back in the future for those characters, or will it remain as an exclusive part of the Hex syndicate?

“We are officially calling it the ‘Relationships And Romance System’ because we don’t want players to feel like it’s a romance-only type of feature. Ideally, everyone will feel drawn to get to know all six members of The Hex, and actual romance will always be entirely optional,” Ford says. “That aspect should feel organic and natural to gravitate towards! In regards to the future, we aren’t ready to talk about what to expect after 1999 yet, but we sure do have some fun stuff in the cooker.”

The Drifter about to kiss Arthur Nightingale in Warframe.

During these last few weeks, an ARG (Alternate Reality Game) was also launched as part of the lead-up to 1999, involving a lot of collaboration from the community. The Warframe team is no stranger to ARGs since they’ve done a few in the past, and the players are always eager to play through them no matter how hard they might be to solve. What drives the community to get involved and interact this much with Warframe, even outside the game?

“I think when you get a large group like that in one place and give them a problem to solve that they can only do together surrounding a topic they are passionate about, you see some amazing things happen!” she explains. “There’s also something to be said about the amount of effort that goes into these things from so many different team members at Digital Extremes. Every puzzle is designed with incredible care to promote community collaboration and create a moment they will hopefully remember for years to come.”

“Also,” Ford adds, “the reward for that collaborative effort needs to feel worth it. For this ARG they were able to unlock a new On-lyne boyband song ‘The Great Despair’ and the free Dark Sector Steam giveaway, which seemed to resonate well!”

The six Hex members standing together in Warframe.

In the past, several alternate mediums have already provided more insight into some Warframe characters, like the case of Rell’s comic book that accompanied the Chains of Harrow chapter. Would it make sense for DE to use other mediums to revisit some parts of the lore that we haven’t seen, like the Altra insurgency or Margulis’ execution?

“We are always looking for more ways to take Warframe into new mediums; take our approach to the in-universe boyband On-lyne for example. We’ve even produced two of their singles to listen to in-game and in real life, and we want to keep trying things like that,” Ford says.

“Whether or not we go back to older moments in Warframe’s story? It has to make sense for the story we are telling currently in the game,” she adds. “We wouldn’t go back and flesh out something like Margulis’ execution just to do it, we need those lore extensions to make sense.”

Frost And Excalibur playing Faceoff in Warframe.

The New War expansion was released in 2021, and after finishing the story, players could observe the long-lasting influence of the main villain Narmer in the Origin System, with some changes remaining to this day, from mere aesthetic changes to permanent game modes reflecting that. Will our choices during 1999 affect the game on such a grand scale?

“When adding something like a choice in a live service game, you have to be careful about how they impact the stakes on a grand scale,” Ford explains. “We always want players to be able to have the option of rolling back decisions for new outcomes as they could in a single-player experience, so we wanted to make sure that was possible specifically with the relationship and romance system.”

“There are other ripple effects gameplay-wise as well, like the Atomicycle; you can bring that new vehicle mount back from 1999 into the modern day to use it in places like the Plains of Eidolon, Orb Vallis, or Deimos,” she adds. “That being said, there are narrative moments in the Quest that will set us up for what’s next in the Origin System and the struggle against The Man In The Wall once the Drifter gets back from 1999. No spoilers from me though!”

As we head to the new millennium in the Origin System, all that remains is to wait for the release of Warframe: 1999. With a little bit of luck, this glimpse of the past could help the Tenno to solve the problems of the present, and face the villainous Man In The Wall.

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