The other day at TennoCon, Digital Extremes announced that the founders, Steve Sinclair and Jeff Ross, as well as other people, are now moving on to focus on a brand-new game, titled Soulframe. In the meantime, Rebecca Ford is transitioning to “Creative Director” on the Warframe-side of things – and frankly, I’m incredibly excited about what’s to come from now on, especially given Ford’s achievements within the company but also because of DE now possibly having two big MMOs to their name!
Note: You’ll already be able to secure your username by registering over here on the game’s website. Yes, “Magi” was already taken.
As one might figure out pretty quickly based on the name, Soulframe is a different title from Warframe but it has some similarities in a way. Playing in a sister universe, Soulframe won’t be a spiritual successor or a sequel or anything like that. In fact, while Warframe is more Science-Fiction-oriented with guns and space ships and whatnot, Soulframe will focus on a story set in a Fantasy world of might, magic and some tech.
Where Warframe is a fast-paced game with a focus on guns (and some melee combat), Soulframe will reportedly have a focus on slow and heavy melee combat as well as some magic and some steampunk-level technologies. I’m honestly excited about that, not only because of the fantasy setting but also because of how appealing more melee-centric combat sounds!
The world of Digital Extremes’ new game is inspired by works like The Neverending Story and Princess Mononoke. Nature is not having it anymore and is incredibly angry at what humans are doing to it. That’s why nature and industry are now at odds – which is something I love and adore as a concept. There isn’t much else known about the game just yet, although Sinclair did say that it’s partially about the destruction of the environment!
The conceit is that the world itself is a little angry about what’s been done to it, and the grounds underneath tend to shift throughout the day. So there’s going to be proceduralism within the cave networks and crevasses and so on underneath the world.
Geoff Crookes, Creative Director of Soulframe
As Sinclair and Crooke have already previously confirmed, though, the game is at a very early stage of development at the moment, meaning that it’s technically “too early” to announce it but they wanted to be transparent with their community. The game itself might have a playable demo or an early version ready in a year, even, meaning that there’s plenty of time to build up hype, especially knowing how great the lore and writing in Warframe have been in the past. In the meantime, as mentioned previously, you’ll be able to secure your username by registering over here on the game’s website!
Personally, I’m incredibly excited about all of this. Not only is made by Digital Extremes who have more than 20 years of experience in the gaming industry and who’ve been doing a fantastic job with Warframe over the last ten years but it’s also inspired by great works such as Studio Ghibli’s “Princess Mononoke”! The idea of nature and industry clashing is amazing and I can’t wait to see how it’s handled in an open-world MMO such as this one. Moreover, I’d love to see what side we take in this!
At the same time, though, the prospect of slower-paced and heavier melee-centric combat with some magic sounds incredibly cool, even if it may feel too slow depending on its execution. More than anything, I can’t wait to see how the procedural generation underneath the face of the world is going to work out in the core gameplay loop. I can’t wait to play it myself!
This post was first published on Indiecator by Dan Indiecator aka MagiWasTaken. If you like what you see here and want to see more, you can check me out on Twitch and YouTube as well.
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