By Sam Chipera - [DE]Sam

On February 1, 2022, Rebecca Ford, Warframe’s former Director of Community and LiveOps, became the Creative Director of Warframe, which was later revealed at the TennoCon 2022 stage. 

And her leadership developing the massive Duviri Paradox update, alongside its ever-changing mood spirals, came to represent more than just the damage type of enemy Orowyrms.

Anytime the team felt a shift in their emotions, these spirals reflected the work they put into Duviri. Any such mood — just like the draconic Orowyrms in-game — spawns many children, whether in self-doubt or determination.

“There is this journey, this mountain, and even though I'm not climbing this metaphorical mountain alone, if I slip now, I bring people down with me,” Rebecca explained.

Self-doubt is a dangerous dragon to confront. It gives way to the tension of fear, leading one to a spiral of emotions.

“Warframe lives and dies by the community and the people that play it,” she added. But Rebecca is determined to bring the best to the community. 

And in that process over the last year, building Duviri became more than just an expansion for players to enjoy: it reflected Rebecca’s professional and personal growth.

There’s never a dull moment with game development, and Warframe isn’t any different. When the Mad King of Duviri, Dominus Thrax, slams his fist in anger or wakes up with joy, Rebecca feels those in-game emotions represent her journey over the last year.

“Duviri is like you held a mirror before me while I was learning my new job,” she said. “It was my emotional spiral.”

But Rebecca also believes Duviri shows the moods of all the teams and departments. It was a representation of their passions.

“Every department had to bring their personality and experiences to invoke joy or envy — personality built the colors, effects, sounds, art and design,” she added. “It was in those moments of design that watching each mood come to fruition was incredible.”

And seeing the culmination of Duviri rang nostalgic — bringing back memories of a time when Warframe was just beginning and of the values that pushed Rebecca to where she is today.

The 10-year anniversary of Warframe reminds the new Creative Director of when the lives of the original development crew changed forever, when Warframe began developing its early, steady player base.

“We basically started off on a raft with a paddle, and there were 20 of us trying to stay afloat,” she said. “We had people that cared about what we were doing, and I felt I had a purpose in my career now, and that's to support Warframe.”

It was an emotional time back in 2013 for those on the raft. Although they’ve upgraded the boat many times over in the years since, those decade-old experiences help ensure her creative prowess, as the teams around Rebecca continue to put their trust in her.

“The folks that have worked so hard on Warframe truly handed me the project and said, ‘You’re now a Creative Director. You know, it's up to you to continue what we started.’”

Rebecca Ford (second from the right) with the Warframe Devstream crew at TennoCon 2022.

Duviri, to her, is fundamentally Warframe. The team has 10 years of legacy to pull from, she said. And a decade of life-changing experiences gives her the path forward in making Warframe the game it is today.

With that, Rebecca and her teams aim for the best — and poke a little fun at themselves to save themselves from too much of one emotion.

“To keep our spirits high, we would joke about the spirals we were making. If we're in an anger spiral, if something made us mad, we could use the subject matter at hand so that development reflected it and informed how we made that mood.”

And anytime they would have a tough time developing something, some would say, “Oh, it’s a good thing I was testing in the joy spiral. There's a lot of internal memes about the spirals.”

Taming the spirals is something Rebecca feels is reflective of her journey a full year later. The passion and joy of development couldn’t be in greater effect.

Duviri launched on April 26, giving players access to an all-new quest alongside three post-Quest game modes: The Duviri Experience, with an emphasis on a full open-world approach, The Circuit, which is a new endless game mode, and The Lone Story, focusing purely on the bite-sized narratives of Duviri.

The Void-torn realm of Duviri is defined by the spirals of emotions that Rebecca and her teams worked diligently to implement. Whether it’s joy, anger, envy, sorrow or fear, what the player does in the new open-world changes, and so will the story.

And, of course, it’s given a rogue-like approach; whenever the player spawns into the cave before you head out on your journey, your loadouts are randomized.

“I remember the first time I loaded into the cave on the dev build, and the gear was randomly available in front of me. I was like, ‘That's the layer of delicious sauce I wanted.’”

Duviri is a mixture of what she loves about Warframe and what she loves about games in general.

Rebecca said crafting genuine moments and experiences for the community to witness will always motivate her.  And she and her team are ecstatic about the future and all they’ll be able to bring to Warframe players everywhere. 

“Everyone has these developed talents to make my vision and the team’s vision come together,” she said.

With in-studio development set in the joy spiral, every bit of development done together is to bring quality experiences to the players, and this works hand-in-hand with Rebecca as Creative Director.

“My growth has come in crafting an experience from a blank sheet of paper that turns into a real thing that players see and play. And I’m glad to be a part of something this big and this exciting.”

Rebecca, and those at Warframe, won’t be stopping anytime soon. They’re invested in keeping the content coming and keeping up with the personal growth that comes with it.

“We’re not dead yet,” she said.