1999 Devs Talk Creating A New, Arcade-Style Minigame

Warframe will soon get itself a new expansion, that being Warframe: 1999. In addition to a huge injection of new content in the main game, Warframe will also gain a new minigame: Caliber Chicks 2.

The next big Warframe expansion will take players back to 1999, and the team behind the title is doing a lot to give fans a sense of time. One of the biggest worldbuilding elements to come as part of this update will be the Caliber Chicks 2 minigame, something that’s long been teased within the universe. To learn more about this in-depth, playable arcade minigame (inspired by retro run-and-gun titles), Game Rant sat down with Warframe creative director Rebecca Ford and Caliber Chicks 2 design director Nic Cusworth.

Devs Reveal New Insight On Warframe 1999’s Upcoming Arcade Minigame

Q: What was the impetus behind creating a new arcade minigame?

Ford: The main mission hub for Warframe: 1999’s story is the Höllvania Central Mall, which of course as a ’90s-based mall, has to have an arcade. We’ve channeled one of our favorite decades in countless ways throughout this narrative chapter for Warframe: music, fashion, tech designs, online romance, and, of course, we had to do the same for gaming in some way. Nic’s team at Sumo Digital is super talented at mastering a wide variety of gameplay design, they’ve been a fun partner to work with on Caliber Chicks and revisiting some of our favorite run-n’-gunners!

Q: What’s the scope of the minigame? If the amount of content can roughly be put into hours of play, how many?

Cusworth: Caliber Chicks 2 is very much in the mold of classic arcade games in that the core loop is around 15 minutes long, spread over three pretty extensive and varied levels. However, that doesn’t really tell the whole story. Without spoiling too much, the game ends with events that send you back to the beginning of the game—only things have changed. With each loop, the world gets a little weirder, and the challenge a lot trickier.

Q: How did the design philosophy behind Caliber Chicks 2 compare to previous Warframe minigames (i.e. Frame Fighter)?

Ford: With this story set in the ’90s, it felt like a fun time to revisit one of the biggest subgenres of the era, run-n’-gunner platformers! 1999 has a lot going on in its narrative packed with high-stakes Warframe action, so we like to give players options to take a break from that in a few different ways if they want to. Compared to something like Frame Fighter, Caliber Chicks 2 features many more assets and background systems involved since it’s an endless challenge.

The farther you get and the more stages cleared, the higher the difficulty ramps up. It’s probably the most detailed mini-game we’ve added to Warframe to date and wouldn’t have been possible without Sumo Digital’s support.

Cusworth: When Digital Extremes approached us to build an arcade minigame for the 1999 update, it just felt like one of those amazing opportunities that doesn’t come along very often.

Honestly, we went a little crazy with the pitch. We built this whole backstory, not only for the game but also for the fictional company that created it. We wanted to make something that looked authentic to the period. We chose 1995 as the time period, even though the 1999 update is, well, in 1999. The thought was that 3D games were much more common in 1999 in the arcades, and we wanted to build this well-worn, well-loved classic. Something that four years on was still bringing in the quarters.

We challenged ourselves to work within the limitations of the hardware of the time. Everything from screen resolution and color palettes to limitations such as dithering sprites instead of transparencies, and even the music and sound effects were designed around the specs of the NeoGeo sound chip. We didn’t even know if it would be possible to pull it off, but the team at Digital Extremes, and here at Sumo got behind the vision and we all pretty much willed it into existence. I couldn’t be more proud.

Q: How much does Caliber Chicks 2 play into Warframe: 1999 as a whole? Is there anything in the game that plays into the larger picture of the update?

Ford: In the larger picture of things, Caliber Chicks 2 is meant to make the Höllvania Central Mall mission hub feel more alive. The feeling of walking up to an arcade cabinet and seeing the cabinet light up creates a specific nostalgic feeling—mainly for those of us who grew up with arcades, that is! On the gameplay side, there will be global leaderboards for players to fight for the top spot for. Maybe you’ll see players crowded around the Caliber Chick cabinets in the arcade like we used to at our local childhood spots.

How Warframe’s New Minigame Was Built

Q: Why was the run-and-gun genre chosen and what specific games inspired it?

Cusworth: The team at DE had already come up with character designs for the Caliber Chicks and had a vision for the game being a run-and-gun. It was down to us at Sumo what direction to take it. Looking at the time period we wanted to place the game, I went back to the games I was playing at the time. That was a lot of Contra 3 on the SNES and Gunstar Heroes on the Megadrive. Gunstar particularly used to be my ‘cool down’ game.

I’d come home from work and just play it through. Something my aging reflexes are no longer able to do. Of course, being an arcade game, Metal Slug was also a big influence and was the guiding light on what the cutting edge in 2D arcade games were at the time.

Q: Where did the game’s own narrative and art direction come from?

Cusworth: The narrative really came from Rebecca being a self-confessed anglophile. That gave us the idea to think, “What would a British arcade game manufacturer create in 1995?” Going back to the culture at that time, The Prodigy had gone all punk, and the ‘big beat’ sound of bands like The Chemical Brothers and Meat Beat Manifesto was rising in popularity.

That really set the template of this story of Anna Ki and her Anarchist terrorist group, the Genesis of Bedlam kidnapping the President of the Unified Kingdoms brings about a future of chaotic nihilism. Of course, the Caliber Chicks—Lillian and Gillian—are there to take chase and stop Anna Ki’s plans.

All of this cultural setting and backstory was used to inform the look of the game, with the art team doing an incredible job of translating it into a beautiful 2D world. Most of the team had never made a 2D game before, and those of us that had—it was a long time ago. So, we had to develop new techniques and processes that allowed the art team to use their expertise in 3D to build the core assets and then develop a sophisticated post-processing pipeline for the assets to create an authentic-looking 2D game.

Q: Are there any rewards or accolades players can expect from playing Caliber Chicks 2?

Ford: Yes! Anyone investing time and effort into side content should be rewarded in some way. If players get far enough in Caliber Chicks they can earn a couple of glyphs and an emblem as rewards to use anywhere in the Origin System. Also, as you rank up in The Hex Syndicate with the Protoframes, Aoi will start offering Somachord tracks from Caliber Chicks to unlock.

Q: There are a number of examples of games that incorporate these arcade minigames (or even minigames generally) and bar some progress behind them (even if that progress is just an extra collectible for completion). These often become points of frustration for fans thanks to the required shift in genre, was this of any concern for Warframe 1999‘s minigame?

Ford: Caliber Chicks is purely side content for Warframe, totally optional. This has always been our approach to mini-games for Warframe: make sure the core experience stays consistent with lots of scenic routes to take along the way. Frame Fighter, Happy Zephyr, Wyrmius, the Shawzin rhythm game, etc. are all self-contained fun side ventures that do not impact Warframe progression. Caliber Chicks is no different.

Yes, there are small pieces of cosmetic content behind the mini-game, but we want people who feel invested in those side experiences to be rewarded fairly. Warframe is a very, very big game; it has options for everyone, and we will always do what we can to reward players who want to deep dive into the optional corners.

Q: Some fans have noticed arcade cabinets for Caliber Chicks as far back as last year. Was the minigame conceptualized back then, or did the minigame being developed now arise from that background detail?

Ford: It was always in the plans! We brainstormed a number of ideas for some ’90s-themed minigames—Caliber Chicks was among them. We may or may not have more cooking in the background for our “Echoes Update” where we revisit our last big update with more content. The name is still TBD, but we promise to have some surprises in store next year.

Q: Do you see Caliber Chicks 2 being updated/expanded in the future?

Ford: That entirely depends on what the community wants and gravitates towards after the update launches. Our priorities for side content like this and how much we invest are 100% determined by the Warframe community after they get their hands on it. If they say, “Caliber Chicks was a nice break from the action between each mission,” then we would probably leave it as is, but if we hear a lot of “We have been fighting each other for the top spot on the leaderboards for two months straight and so we started a subreddit for the best tech on how to get better clears, etc., etc.,” then yeah, we would definitely want to explore what fleshing it out further might look like!

Cusworth: We loved building Caliber Chicks 2, and naturally discussions about where it could go if players wanted to see more have already happened on the team. It’s really down to the amazing Warframe community to let us know if that is something they want to see!

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