This year's TennoCon was about more than just the future of Warframe. There was the announcement of Soulframe (see p18), and also the surprise announcement of a new update, Veilbreaker, to launch before new expansion The Duviri Paradox. This will be under a new creative director, former Warframe community director Rebecca Ford.
When Ford started out ten years ago, she could not have foreseen the bright future that lay ahead for the game and the company. She has played a vital role in shaping the special relationship Warframe has with its community, fostering stories like that of Filipino artist Lendel Fajardo, who managed to support his NE family with the money made from skins he created through the TennoGen program.
"I was a 20-year-old intern and now I'm 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 goodwill we've built up. All the rapport and all the long-term relationship building with the community is only as good as your next mistake." Though Ford feels grateful that it isn't all on her shoulders. "I know that if I trip, I'm not gonna faceplant because I have an amazing team."
Ford's move from community management to steering the Warframe ship actually started six months ago, leading April's Angels of the Zariman update-an addition that I found tantalizing in all the best ways, with a sense of place and atmosphere that elevates Warframe so high. While Ford takes pride in it, she also feels responsible for shortcomings like its bugs at launch. "I should have held it another week... but there were a lot of reasons we couldn't. And then I started to understand those reasons. Every little thing matters. You're making a hundred micro-decisions a day and then they add up. We can't move this update. By the end of the [launch] week we had a more stable build, but that's what stung the most."
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Special Report- Stacked Deck - Monster Train, a deckbuilding roguelike that firmly entrenched itself as the crown prince to the kingly Slay the Spire back in 2020, was the kind of smash success you might call Champagne Big.
Monster Train, a deckbuilding roguelike that firmly entrenched itself as the crown prince to the kingly Slay the Spire back in 2020, was the kind of smash success you might call Champagne Big. Four years later, its successor Inkbound’s launch from Early Access was looking more like Sandwich Big.I’m not just saying that because of the mountain of lamb and eggplants I ate while meeting with developer Shiny Shoe over lunch, to feel out what the aftermath of releasing a game looks like in 2024. I mean, have I thought about that sandwich every day since? Yes. But also, the indie team talked frankly about the struggle of luring Monster Train’s audience on board for its next game.
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