This year’s Tenocon, the annual event built around Warframe, was about much more than the future of the game. The announcement of a new game, Soulframe, and Digital Extremes publications are headed to places beyond the point. But even in the midst of all this big news, Warframe remained the focus. As well as the unveiling of the long-awaited The DuVry Paradox — first teased back in 2019 — the expansion was preceded by the surprise announcement of a new update, Wheelbreaker. And it will all be under a new creative director, former Warframe community director Rebecca Ford.
When Ford started 10 years ago, it couldn’t imagine the bright future that lay ahead for the sport and the company. He has been instrumental in shaping Warframe’s special relationship with his community, promoting stories such as Filipino artist Lendel Fajardo, who managed to support his family with money made from skins created through the Tenogen program. .
(image credit: Digital Extremes)
“I was a 20-year-old intern and now I am the creative director of Warframe,” she says. “I’m sitting in this new hot seat where I need to be really careful about all the good I create. All the rapport with the community, and all the long-term relationship building, is just as good as your next mistake. ” Though Ford feels grateful that it’s not all on his shoulders. “I know that if I travel, I’m not going to put face to face because I have an amazing team.”
Ford’s move from community management to steer the Warframe ship actually began six months ago, leading up to April’s Angels of the Gerryman update—an addition that I found tantalizing in all the best ways, including the place and atmosphere. It was the spirit that elevates Warframe so high. While Ford takes pride in it, it also feels responsible for its shortcomings like its shortcomings at launch. “I should have held it another week… but there were many reasons we couldn’t. And then I started to understand those reasons. Every little thing matters. You’re making a hundred subtle decisions a day.” And then they add up. We can’t move this update. Until the end of [launch] We had a more stable build for the week, but that’s what affected the most.”
primetime
The game’s near future was already touched upon by Tenokon, declaring the next war to get the major treatment: Khora, along with his pet Venari. Digital Extremes also teased an entirely new battle-frame: a werewolf-inspired design by Joe Madureira of Darksiders fame. Though Ford was sure to emphasize that just doing a Lycan-esque Warframe wouldn’t be weird enough for the game and promises they’re going to do something different.
(image credit: Digital Extremes)
Another update will fill the void before DuVri arrives, the surprise announcement that’s a wheelbreaker. The update is split in two: on the one hand you have the experience of a single player in the role of Kahl-175, who is nominally busting while leading a rebellion against Narmer’s forces. Vealbreaker, on the other hand, will also bring back deadly arcans from The New War in the form of weekly missions, which will take players on one of the formidable foes in exchange for rewards towards a new progression path.
More than anything, The DuVry Paradox has been at the fore of fans’ minds, and Digital Extremes has finally pulled back the curtain to show a slew of huge open-world updates. After years of speculation, fans are finally starting to understand what DuVrie is about. At least, some of it. The thing still sounds absolutely wild.
“It’s the story of the Drifter,” says Ford, confirming the player character’s return to the alternate reality self, first introduced in The New War. “The theme and personal story for this is one of making sense of a life that you feel you have no control over. We’re really playing with the dark … a lot of people think trying to has no meaning because someone else is in control, someone else is responsible for removing all the color from your life and all the color from the world.And sometimes you may not realize it, but people want to help and it It’s up to you to accept that help.”
(image credit: Digital Extremes)
The expansion will see players taking the Drifter (possibly some time in their past) through DuVri, a strange, colorless area in a near void where they are trapped in an endless cycle. They cannot die but they cannot survive. Time loops are definitely getting popular in games, huh? DuVri is ruled by Dominus Thrax, a king whose moods shape the world every day and the man who puts the Drifter out there, which Ford hints at may be more familiar than they seem.
“If Drifter is Tenno’s version that hasn’t been saved, what else could be out there?”
out of frame
Whoever they are, their kingdom is an outlandish landscape, made up of floating islands, giant statues and ‘dragons’ that resemble giant serpents made from clockwork parts. Even though most of the color has been sucked out of it, some still bleed. What Warframe could be and how it could look has expanded a lot over the decade but it’s the boldest departure ever.
“I don’t know if we could have made DuVri three years ago,” Ford says. “But because of all the technology and customization we do now, we make this weird island an open world where you’ll have all this space… the portals too, so there’s going to be a lot of battle-friendly areas.” However, progress eventually comes at some cost, with legacy graphics options holding the game back and soon becoming obsolete, so it can keep going. “We’re not quite there yet, but maybe, maybe, this year.”
(image credit: Digital Extremes)
Runes through Duviri are built on roguelite elements, keeping players away from their powerful battle-frames and introducing fresh, combination abilities on each new day—though there’ll be extensive progress to make you more capable. . “The idea of resetting times and times and days was always very integral to DuVery,” Ford explains. “And roguelite came when we realized that if we’re playing with time in a weird way, and the players have all this arsenal, we can give them access to their builds and the systems they know whereby DuVrie time-slices giving them a unique every day experience by choosing what will work for whatever the game asks of them.”
past present present future
You have a few assistants to help you through this ethereal landscape. First and foremost is your horse, a mountain that can take you not only on land but also in the air as it soars majestically across the sky. Then there’s a, erm… disorganized hand? Your guess is as good as mine (is it Lotus’ hand?), but it allows you to add color back to the world to claim checkpoints to progress and solve completely hidden puzzles Gives, such as the one where you have to open a window for your little ones. / Optional to perform self matching actions. It also seems to have played a role in Duviri’s use of portals. Of all the wild departures Warframe has made over the years, this feels like one of the most significant. The new combat paved the way for controlling other characters and, together with Vealbreaker, is set to become a major part of Warframe going forward.
Everything about DuVri feels ambitious and expansive, like building another game inside Warframe. Narratively it feels like it’s reaching for the stars too, weaving a time-bending story that will focus on the idea of a paradox and what it will mean, with players continuing the story from both new battles. Revisit events that take place before the player character, Tenno, is even awakened.
(image credit: Digital Extremes)
“Chronologically, technically The Duvery Paradox happened first. But it didn’t happen either. Because there couldn’t have been a new war then. So it’s a very funny paradox.”
It’s not just for story, as the time-bending nature will allow players to play The Douvry Paradox even if they haven’t accessed Warframe’s later content. This is still being finalized, but Ford mentioned that it is accessible only after completing the Second Dream quest, which is one of the first significant core quests in the game.
For Digital Extremes, its future seems to be brimming with possibilities, as 10 years of growing success put them on the brink of even bigger things. So this bridge between the past and the future seems fitting for the DuVrie paradox. In Ford’s capable hands, I feel more excited than ever about Warframe.
“My true dream, and my heart, is just to want to make awesome stuff with the people who have given Warframe everything,” Ford concluded. “I want to work with him and I want to make it great. Well done. That’s it.”
