By Sam Chipera - [DE]Sam

Warframe Art Director Kary Black believes the challenges of developing Warframe match the gratification that comes with it, and that pushing for the best — challenges and all — has helped guide the aesthetic vision of the game since taking over his current role in February 2022.

At Digital Extremes, Kary leads the art of what makes Warframe, well, Warframe. When the game was released, he worked with the weapons and cosmetic team, and later moved toward the environment team.

"I was very close to things that people were using early on, like the Vasto, and seeing how people reacted to new weapons was bonkers," Kary said during our interview.

"We’ve been doing much bigger things since,” he continued. “From the Plains of Eidolon to the Murex and Praghasa of the Sentients." From the beginning, his professional journey and Warframe itself have scaled in tandem.

Years later, Kary led the artistic overview of the Zariman and Duviri.

For Kary, experiencing life while working with Warframe and Digital Extremes for over 10 years has been an unbelievable climb. 

The beginning of Warframe was rocky, too. Kary saw firsthand the struggle and the hopes stacked upon Warframe and the growing future of Digital Extremes.

"It was quite an intimidating time when you're freshly married, and you're settling into this area before Warframe started to succeed."

He's seen it all: whether that's the wonky implementation of a mechanic or the hype and excitement of players who know the effort that he and his art teams create.

"I've been overloaded with good luck to stumble my way to being Art Director on a project like Warframe,” he said. “But often, I'm not sure if everything has clicked. A healthy dose of Imposter Syndrome is always in play, and Warframe is my definition of a 'team sport.'"

Kary also finds it hard to imagine life without the ebb and flow of building Warframe. This “team sport” is unlike anything else in game development.

"We're on the shoulders of some amazingly talented folks, and we get to build one of the most interesting projects in entertainment. The places we can go are amazing with Warframe."

He ensures the right people get the right jobs. It's the livelihood of many at Digital Extremes to take Warframe in the right direction to give players the best of their abilities. 

"There are players who've put so much into the game, and we've gotta make sure they're happy giving us their time. They've given us their time for our ideas and what we want to show, and we gotta keep that going. It's an investment in both directions."

Even now, unexpected ideas form and are implemented late into the planning of new updates. Big or small, magical moments aren't always immediately formed.

One such encounter was the creation of the Rablit: Teshin Dax's animal companion seen in The Duviri Paradox, which wasn't something initially on the team’s radar.

"We had the wild rabbit versus the Teshin Rablit, where one is a frightening skeletal creature who would probably gnaw your face off, and the other is a happy-looking, adorable creature that actually does go and gnaw somebody's face off," he said.

Fun moments like those are unexpected and often wind up sticking out. Even pet projects, like the Corpus Domestik Drones, which are Roomba-like cleaning robots players can use for decoration, blew up in a way Kary didn't think anyone expected.

Directing moments that “pop” to the community is a wonderful experience, and it’s a responsibility he holds dear.

Even with TennoCon 2023 on the horizon, watching everything come together — whether it’s his own direction or the direction of others — is an extension of Kary’s passion at Digital Extremes.

"They blend together, but the relief that things work out for TennoCon and the people involved sticks out,” he said. “It's often some of the hardest times of the year together and having that roar of the crowd in person is quite visceral. It's quite a relief.”

For now, he’s focusing on keeping the ship from rocking too much after Digital Extremes swapped employees around many of its leadership roles at TennoCon 2022. 

"It's too important to screw up something now,” Kary concluded. “Many good people are attached, both as the folks working on it and the audience building this."