We here at Digital Extremes are fortunate to have a vast community of talented artists that regularly show off their work, but few collaborative projects have grown over time the way Lost Sector has. Based on a fan concept of a Warframe de-make, Lost Sector is the result of Tenno coming together from all over the world to help bring a Warframe 8-bit action platformer to life.

Lost Sector may not be complete, but its enthusiasm to capture the spirit of Warframe has kept the project running for over a year now. While there is still work to be done, the Lost Sector team is just as determined to create as authentic an 8-bit Tenno adventure as when they first started.

We'll get things started by having everyone introduce themselves:

Ben Ezard: Hi, I go by the name of Ezard in most games, including Warframe - it's my surname IRL. I do the Android programming, tools programming (stuff like map editors), website programming - basically, if there's code, then I've probably touched it at some point.

--laughs--

Reedfish: Ohai! I'm Rope or Reed, though I go by Reedfish in-game. I mostly am the concept sprite artist, making rough drafts of tiles/enemies/objects. Though I did get to make the snow tileset, which was both a blast and a bit of a pain. I also sometimes help finalize things with Chaz, when I have time.

Benjamin Priyadamkol: Hello! If we’re going by in-game names, you can call me Sakunai! At the moment I am the second 'awesome' half of the programming team. I am mainly responsible for all code relating to the PC builds of the project. Of course, like everyone here, I’ll pitch in occasionally with new suggestions and ideas.

Chaz Stroud: Huzzah! I’m Chaz the anonymous cat. Gathering people together to work on great projects is my passion. I do animation and pixel art for Lost Sector and try to ensure each team member is on the same page. Thanks to Ropefish and many others, I’ve been able to take a back seat in this adventure and focus on other (equally important) projects. I still have big plans and ambitions for this team!

Alan Weinstock: Hiya! I’m Alan, or pyr0ball as my handle for both online play and as my artist’s moniker. I do audio engineering and music production for Lost Sector including sound effects.

Where did the inspiration for Lost Sector come from?

[ALL]: An extraordinary member of the Warframe community called Typhuus. He made an animated gif for one of the Codex art competitions but sadly gifs weren't allowed. From there someone suggested that it be turned into a game, and as they say, the rest is history. Another shout out to Typhuus - without him, Lost Sector wouldn't exist!

Chaz: Lotus preserve us, where to even begin? I hadn’t slept for three days and was browsing the Fan Art forums, I was stir crazy and looking for a collaboration. The amount of talent in the WF community still takes me aback. I saw PenutReaper’s 8-bit music thread and Typhuus’ original concept thread for an 8-bit WF.

Penut and I had the same idea: to combine his music and programming skills with the artwork of Typhuus to create an 8-bit version of WF. We joined forces immediately, but unfortunately Typhuus had become inactive by this time. Starting with basic objects such as lockers and weapons I shamelessly ripped off his style and began learning how to create and animate pixels. Being a novice the going was painfully slow until Typhuus suddenly returned during the Codex Entry Competition with this submission:

We again tried to contact Typhuus, to no avail. I ripped the tiles, sprites, and animations from the gif and tried to learn from what he had done. Soon, I was creating my own sprite sheets and production picked up. Penut eventually burned out on LS production, but we were causing quite a stir and volunteers began to contact us. I did eventually talk to Typhuus and received his full compliments and blessing.

I also wanted to fill the Lore void that existed within WF at the time, so I wrote up 3 episodes covering the origins of the Lotus, hardship of life in grineer colonies, and Tenno relations with each other. These episodes DEFINITELY need to be revisited and overhauled at the moment.

Don’t get me started on design or story inspirations, I’ll talk for days. I’m barely focusing on design philosophy for LS. My goal is to first create an 8-bit platform (more so than a game) that supports multiplayer in a variety of game modes. With such a fragmented group it’s easier to create technology than it is to laser focus the entire team on the nuances of various mechanics. We’ll see where the road leads and then make serious design choices when the opportunity arises.

What made you all choose Frost as Lost Sector’s leading Warframe?

Ezard: He was the Warframe that Typhuus chose for his gif, and it worked so we left it as-is. Lost Sector is just the first episode in the 8-bit Warframe series - expect to see other 'frames in future episodes.

Benjamin: Basically what Ezard said. We didn’t really choose. If you don’t like Frost, blame Typhuus for the idea, and Chaz for sticking with it this whole time! (And yeah… I suppose there had to be someone crazy enough to try to make this a series… :P)

Chaz: Frost has always been Typhuus’ favorite frame. He has the most recognizable silhouette amongst the original roster, making him an excellent choice for 8-bit work. His abilities also translate well into 2D and I have a thing for ice/snow themed environs.

What can I say? -laughs- Frosty was the perfect candidate.

How long did it take to get Frost moving?

Ezard: If you mean code, then probably less than a minute. The art guys had a lot more work to do to make the animations as slick as they are now. --laughs--

Benjamin: I wasn’t around when the original build was created. Instead I have just been slowly adding features into the PC version since I joined in the summer. Correct me if I am wrong Chaz, but didn’t you get your brother to create something like a proof of concept in Unity? How long did that take?

Chaz: Good question. We got a still image of Frost moving on the first day Penut and I joined forces. The very first animated run was ripped from Typhuus’ gif and took about 5 minutes for my little brother to plug into Unity. The running animation you see today took months of my noob-y fiddling, but it’s pretty close to the original.

What are some of the challenges you’ve had in getting Lost Sector organized?

Ezard: I'd say that the biggest challenge is simply for everyone to find time to work on stuff that fits with the rest of their life. We're from all walks of life - some of us are in school, some in college, some in university, some working full time or part time. Projects like this are no small commitment and consume an obscene amount of time, so we tend to work in bursts whenever everyone is free.

Benjamin: Yeah, you basically summed up my greatest challenge on this project. I am currently in my 3rd year of college and this semester has by far been my busiest. I haven’t even had time to play Warframe recently, let alone work on this game that is based on Warframe.

Chaz: This has been a bigger challenge than any project I’ve been a part of in the past. Primarily, our production pipeline is in shambles. Like Ezard said, we are collaborating from all walks of life and parts of the world. It’s hard enough to unify the vision each person has for LS; and a plethora of external things are constantly competing for each dev’s time.

Motivating the team and maintaining the feeling that we are moving forward in some way. Fear that we will fall from the community’s attention and no new members will join. These things can keep a person up at night.

pyr0ball: One challenge I’m facing with audio production is having to basically create new melodies and themes that correspond to parts of Warframe. Currently the themes for Grineer and Infested don’t have a relatable melody, and are mainly defined by drumlines and/or creepy string section score. I could replicate those drumlines and such in 8-bit but it would be very hard to really relate it back to the original. The Corpus theme by contrast was a breeze and a lot of fun to remix and add on to.

Since Lost Sector was first announced you’ve all made some considerable updates. Is there any change that you’re particularly proud of?

Ezard: The Android port is completely new, and since I wrote that I'm obviously pretty proud of it, especially some of the bespoke physics/rendering algorithms I wrote for it - they're beautiful!

...From a geeky point of view anyway. --laughs--

Benjamin: Believe it or not, before joining the Lost Sector team, I had never worked on a game before. Even with my lack of experience, everyone openly accepted me into the team. Since then I’ve learned a lot, and I am happy to see so many people appreciating the work that I have put in! Nothing in particular really stands out. I am simply proud of myself for doing all that have even through all my uncertainties!

Chaz: Every single update we make is a miracle. I’m proud of each animation the guys get plugged and every tile that spawns. But the update to crown them all in my eyes, is that smexy, smexy Lanka. As its creator, I may be biased.

Ropefish: I would have to say my three days worth of making the ice/snow tileset would have to be my proudest achievement, though it was just sorta re-skin it still took considerable time.

Also I may or may not have made one smexy explosive barrel, probably the pinnacle of the whole project! -intensified giggle-

pyr0ball: Die Musiken und Lieder! When Chaz first brought me in, there was no audio production done at all. I’ve since created quite a few SFX and audio tracks to go along with LS.

Is the Lost Sector team looking for more talent?

Ezard: Always, always, always - the more the merrier! The guys on the team at the moment do a fantastic job of grinding out content (be it art, sound, code, etc), but more people means faster content generation! It also means more intra-team feedback, which is crucial to our development.

Benjamin: Yes, please! I would LOVE to get more programmers on board. At the moment it is only me and Ezard doing all the code, but recently we have both been pretty busy with other commitments. A third programmer would definitely make developing a little easier!

Chaz: The only reason I started this project was to get community members collaborating, so hell yeah! Let’s make something freaking awesome and show off your talents. Even if you have an interest, but no super-haxor skills, this is a great opportunity to learn. Heck, I started getting into animation through this project. Most of the team has never made a game in the past and it’s never too late to learn.

Ropefish: Ha ha, pretty much what everyone else said. The more the merrier! More artists, programmers, sound design and so on are all places we would love help. Plus it expands our little family

pyr0ball: More talent means more brains to bounce ideas off of. Working with only yourself on audio can cause stagnation, but having someone else to ditz around with can bring some fantastic results. The trick is finding someone who uses the same software / instruments so that you can collaborate seamlessly.

A huge thanks to the members of the Lost Sector team for setting aside time to chat about the project. The work everyone has done together is absolutely fantastic, and we can't wait to see what's next for 8-bit Frost.

Anyone interested in checking out their work-in-progress can visit their website at: http://8bit.wf/