Warframe’s 12 Year Evolution: Inside The Devs’ Secrets

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The upcoming significant expansion for Warframe, known as Techrot Encore, aligns with its 12th anniversary. Over the years, Warframe’s development has seen substantial transformation after being in the market for so long.

The 12th anniversary of the game “Warframe” falls officially on March 25th, but the celebration has already started in-game, offering various rewards gradually throughout this period. In addition, the Techrot Encore will debut during the anniversary (launching March 19th). Members of Digital Extremes’ team, including design director Pablo Alonso, community director Megan Everett, and creative director Rebecca Ford, have shared their experiences working on a live service game for more than a decade with Game Rant.

On The Eve Of Techrot Encore, Here’s How Warframe’s Development Has Changed Over 12 Years

Managing More And More Features

Techrot Encore will significantly enhance the popular game Warframe, which boasts over a decade of missions, adversaries, loot, and backstory for players to explore. However, when considering the challenge of navigating through all this content, Everett (while not advocating for reducing the overall amount) pointed out that “The more content we add, the harder it becomes for new players to easily join and play.” To address this challenge, she explained that the team frequently revisits older systems, and in Techrot Encore, they are streamlining the star chart specifically to help players reach The Second Dream and experience that crucial moment much faster.

Alonso delved deeper into the topic, discussing various aspects of Warframe that players should be aware of. He provided insights on concerns such as feature bloat, which is indeed a significant issue given Warframe’s extensive gameplay elements.

To put it simply, maintaining our game involves a delicate balance. One aspect that our players appreciate is our dedication to updating content from the past. For instance, we’re currently revamping how certain weapons and abilities function, which will affect nearly ten Warframes that have been part of our game for years. This process is not just about making changes, but also ensuring that our long-standing content remains relevant and doesn’t get overlooked. In essence, we want to make sure players continue to enjoy what they invested in, even if it’s been eight years since they first started playing.

In essence, we need to find a good mix of old and new content. The approach varies depending on the nature of the update at hand. Sometimes, we delve deeply into the past, while other times, we concentrate more on shaping the future.

The Rise of Echoes Updates

As a gamer, I’m always excited when there’s talk about a new ‘Echoes’ update in Warframe development. These updates are like the next chapter in a story, usually building on content from a previous one, specifically focusing on the first half. For instance, if we look at it from where Heart of Deimos left off, this trend started by introducing a follow-up expansion.

2020 saw the outbreak of COVID-19, forcing us to transform our planned physical event, Tennocon, into a digital one. We had to overhaul everything and postponed our digital COVID Tennocon. During this time, we unveiled Heart of Deimos, our third open world expansion. Due to an overwhelming amount of content that needed to be shipped with the update, we decided to rework it and called the second version Deimos Arcana – our first major follow-up release. This was a direct consequence of managing Warframe development remotely during the pandemic and adapting Tennocon to a virtual format.

Ford discussed how the New War expansion in Warframe led to the development of the subsequent Echoes updates. She explained, “Since a staff transition occurred around that time, Steve and Jeff were responsible for shipping The New War before passing the reins of Warframe over to the newly appointed leadership team.

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2025-03-14 16:11