Warframe’s next big update — Warframe 1999 — was apparently inspired by Dark Sector according to game director Rebecca Ford.
Just now at Tennocon, Digital Extremes revealed a gameplay demo for its next big update: Warframe 1999. This edgy, Y2K-themed demo was bleeding with a very particular grungy vibe. Not only that, but it brought Warframe somewhere totally unfamiliar — a retro European city filled with a modern military enemies and arcade machines rather than the galactic sci-fi we’re all used to.
To speak more on how the team arrived at this striking new slice of Warframe’s future, I spoke to creative director Rebecca Ford about the inspirations for the design. It turns out, one of the key cornerstones for Warframe 1999 came from one of Digital Extreme’s older titles: Dark Sector.
VG247: This new area! It’s very European. What were the inspirations for that world in terms of design and identity?
Rebecca Ford: Honestly, Dark Sector was and it’s a very interesting inspiration because I wasn’t actually ever involved in the Dark Sector. But some people on the Warframe team were of course. So we were looking at how we could make an outdoor, vaguely European feel, but for Warframe now. How do we use procedural levels, how do we get outside. Then all the streams converged on that fact we’d have motorcycles, and we’d have two factions out there. Let’s just build some streets and sewers and see what happens.
