Warframe developer Digital Extremes is hard at work making its first game in nearly a decade, Soulframe, alongside the community in its early access “Preludes” form. To write the Soulframe cover story in the May issue of Game Informer, I traveled to Digital Extremes in Ontario, Canada, to learn more about the game, and it’s there that I learned this fantasy MMO is a response to the cynicism of the world.
“To appeal to the sort of aesthetic or emotional reason for why we would make [Soulframe] is kind of a response to the cynicism of the world we are finding ourselves within today,” Digital Extremes CEO Steve Sinclair tells me. “And I think that is sharper than it even was when we started it.”
He recalls reading a 2021 New York Times article about the appeal of The Lord of the Rings. It posits that the movie trilogy resonates with audiences so much because it shows men in touch with their emotions, and that people can be redeemed. “In this genre, generally speaking, it tends to be dark and sweaty and bleak and gross, and I love Game of Thrones as much as the next guy, but I think we wanted to put a little Disney Princess spin on this whole thing.”
That’s why Soulframe, despite all of its video game-isms, doesn’t celebrate all of the killing you will have to do; instead, it saves that elation for the moments when you end corruption in the wilderness and restore various Omen Beast animals to their former harmonious states. Soulframe is ultimately about a hero who wants to stop an extraterrestrial enemy race from mining the world of Alca of is precious natural resources.
If you hop into Soulframe Preludes today (reminder: Game Informer subscribers will receive a free code to do this as part of the issue rollout), you’ll find that your main quests revolve around saving those Omen Beasts and stopping Alca from polluting the natural wonder of this world with its machinery and industrialization.
“We’re not going to celebrate the destruction of human bodies and celebrate decapitations and other things you might see in the genre, but instead, try to bring a sense of touching grass,” Sinclair says, noting the irony in using that phrase, which typically means stop playing video games and go outside. “That’s kind of the big emotional push for why we think it’s worth making this game, even though Warframe is doing so well.”
Soulframe creative director and former Warframe art and animation director Geoff Crookes says he believes the themes of this fantasy MMO are “a reflection of our age.”
“It’s a reflection of how fractured we are,” Crookes adds. “There’s not a shared community anymore; there’s not a shared truth anymore. We’re not trying to heal the world, but if there are things that we can do in the game to encourage community-driven gameplay […] that’s when we start to get excited about how the game can reinforce that.”
Soulframe community lead Sarah Asselin says she sees comments all the time in Discord, on streams, and elsewhere that some players love to do “nothing” in Soulframe. “Even to just run around the forest and be immersed in this beautiful world we’re slowly building – it feels like this cozy and optimistic escape.”
Sinclair says the strength of the early access Soulframe Preludes program is that Digital Extremes gets to put out various gameplay and content additions to test the waters of these themes and determine, with the help of its player base, whether the harmony the studio is looking for is present.
Because Soulframe is the latest game to grace the cover of Game Informer, we’ll be posting behind-the-scenes stories like this alongside exclusive videos and more for the next few weeks. If you aren’t subscribed to Game Informer, you have until April 22 to do so and ensure a copy of this issue reaches your mailbox. Plus, anyone who subscribes will receive a Soulframe Preludes code to check out the game early. You can find more information about codes here.
For more exclusive Soulframe insight, head to our hub here.