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During my time at TennoCon, I had a chance to talk about Warframe with some of the fantastic artists and weapon designers at Digital Extremes. Specifically, we spoke to Kaz Adams (Warframe Weapons Team Lead), Mike Skyers (Character Principle Artist, Technology Supervisor), and Nikita Leshakov (Principal Weapons Artist, TennoGen Supervisor). We covered a wide assortment of topics, from cool designs to Warframe 1999.
We also spoke at length later about the TennoGen program, which is a fantastic way for fans of the game to get involved. While it might be challenging to get a design approved, it’s far from impossible. We talked about how some of them went from fans to designers, “busy” designs, and more. Like Rebb Ford and Megan Everett, it’s clear these designers all have a very strong passion for Warframe - and it shows in the character/gun designs that come to the game.
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Warframe artists Kaz Adams, Mike Skyers, and Nikita Leshakov discuss TennoGen, awesome designs, and more at TennoCon
Q. Warframe has a lot of different types of weapons - there’s the high-tech stuff, the bloated Grineer equipment, the sort of gooey, Infested stuff, and the Orokin fashionista weapons. Which ones do you guys have the most fun designing?
Kaz Adams: I really like doing the Incarnon weapons. Especially my favorite one was the Felarx. Just all the wood and the intricate little details and stuff. With the filigree stuff that we did on that. Just the flowing shapes and stuff. But I also really like Infested stuff.
Nikita Leshakov: For me, I think I like all of them. Sorry, that’s a boring answer. But each one of them has its own identity and challenges presented. Even with this 1999-themed stuff being a lot more realistic. That was a fun challenge to solve.
Kaz Adams: Choose something!
Nikita Leshakov: Prime weapons. Fine. Orokin Prime weapons. That’s my answer.
Mike Skyers: I'm a character artist. Sometimes Warframes, their special powers is a weapon. In those cases, we get to design them. I can talk about... I designed Ivara Prime's bow. That was a lot of fun. I do a lot of archery myself. I was able to take in some equipment that we used for that, into the design of her bow. The Orokin-style stuff.
Q. One of the cool things about Warframe, is that it feels like there’s a boundless scope for what a weapon can be. There’s ridiculous, awesome gear like Gun Scythes - one of my favorites personally. We’re interested to know hits the cutting room floor, for equipment designs. Cool concepts that for, one reason or another, just didn’t work out.
Nikita Leshakov: Speaking of Modular Archery!
Kaz Adams: Modular Archery? What’s that? [Laughs] We both put a lot of work into doing those Modular things. We just don’t have a place for them in the game right now. We’re not updating that sort of thing. We haven’t recently, anyway. Those sorts of things - they’re done, they’re ready to go. They might come into the game later. Just like that gun scythe did. We've had a lot of weapons like that. We didn't have a place for it at the moment. There's a new place for it years down the line. As things have been in the queue for a long time.
Nikita Leshakov: We have these backlog tasks. A few of them are complete. They’re just sitting there waiting for their time to be slotted into an update. We just have them in our pocket just in case.
Kaz Adams: The main reason why something might not get released, is just because it doesn’t fit the theme of the update for one reason or another. Maybe the update changed or something. So they’ll sit there. They’re likely to get used in the future anyway. Nothing really gets lost.
Q. As far as characters and Frames go, I would say my favorites are probably Limbo Prime, and probably Ne Zha. Do you have any favorites that you’ve contributed to? Or personally, even if it’s just the one you play in the game.
Mike Skyers: I guess I'll start with that one. Most recently Jade. An idea that I pitched to the team. It was a very out-there idea, and it helped push the design by Kaz. She challenged me with some things. I’m like “Fine. I’ll do this thing.” It’s my favorite because it was definitely a labor of love. There’s a lot of technical challenges with that one. To see how it all came together in the end was really great. That’s my favorite right now.
Kaz Adams: Well, my main is Nidus. I haven’t made anything for him yet. I guess I made the bundle for the Deluxe Nidus stuff - the Phyrke bundle. Let’s see. Sometimes we make our own Warframes. I may or may not have a design coming up soon. I can’t talk about that one. Nidus is my favorite obviously because it’s Infested. I used to play Nekros a lot too. I made a Deluxe skin for Nekros a long time ago.
Nikita Leshakov: For me, Garuda Prime and Lavos are my babies. I’m obviously very proud of how they turned out. My favorite one is something I can’t talk about yet.
Jason Parker: That’s fair. I can only assume it’s in 1999 or something after that.
Mike Skyers: Be careful!
Jason Parker: Gotta try!
Q. On that note of Warframe 1999, we’ve seen a little of it already. Since 1999 is prehistoric in Warframe standards, you’ve got guns that are similar to the Glock, Tec-9, and the Kalashnikov. This is the closest to real-life guns that we’ve seen so far - at least as far as I’m aware. In this sort of environment, is it easier to make those kinds of guns, or is it harder because you don't want them to be exactly like their real-world counterpart?
Nikita Leshakov: It's easier because we don't have anything like that yet. We don't really have to dig too deep to find a cool inspiration that we can put into the game. It's an open field, blue sky. We just come up with whatever. In that sense, it is easy. It is a bit hard in that it's not our usual workflow. We had to learn a couple of new tools to get those weapons made.
Mike Skyers: It's kind of challenging to Warframe-ify this stuff.
Kaz Adams: It's more challenging to not go too far.
Nikita Leshakov: It's not super Warframe-ified. Just a couple of flourishes here and there.
Kaz Adams: We're used to making something from nothing for everything. We're trying to find all the unexplored territory. That's why doing something in a new style, like something that's more modern, is kind of fresh for us.
Q. I wanted to talk about the Infested Military Sisters [Warframe 1999] as well, and their design. What was the inspiration behind the costume design for these characters?
Mike Skyers: For those? It's a tricky one because we're going back to a more contemporary time. Our design started off being contemporary military dudes. We had a challenge of Warframe-ifying that stuff and trying to get to a weird, unique place. Essentially, the world is dealing with this infestation. We went to hazmat suits and things like that. Some characters, like the Major, have a very specific personality.
We wanted to show that with how she dresses and how she custom-tailors her uniform. For the Major, that came from one of our concept artists. For the military, it was a whole team, a lot of back and forth. Like, how weird do we go? We also have to give them their own identity and separate them from Grineer, which has a more traditional military look. It was a lot of looking at things. We looked at firefighter outfits, hazmat suits, all these kinds of things to bring it in - put some Warframe spice on it.
Q. Also on the topic of inspiration, we saw Cyte-09 a few hours ago. I was looking at him, and he has a really cool, but familiar design. He reminds me visually of Raul Julia’s portrayal of M. Bison in the Street Fighter II movie. Was this intended?
Mike Skyers: We talked to Keith Thompson about that. He supplies us with a lot of designs. When we're looking for something new, we'll dig into that pile for something unique. For the era, they wanted something more of a weapon specialist.
The M. Bison thing is something we realized much later when we started building it in 3D. It wasn't intentional, but it's there. That's just a happy coincidence. You want a really military-imposing-looking dude. You put those elements together, and you get close to that.
Jason Parker: It’s only a matter of time before someone puts the Red and Blue on him.
Mike Skyers: I’ve done it myself! [Laughs]
Post TennoCon interview
We didn’t get as much time to chat with the Digital Extremes artists as I’d like, and I had several questions remaining about the TennoGen program. So we coordinated with their team, and got those questions answered as well!
Q. Has the TennoGen system also been used as a way to recruit new talent for the Digital Extremes team at any level?
Kaz Adams: We’ve done so in the past. I came from the TennoGen program (early days!) but there’s a lot of qualities we look for in addition to those Warframe-centric process/style skills when hiring, so it can only be one piece of the puzzle.
Nikita Leshakov: Very informally. Something like Tennogen obviously serves as a decent benchmark for an artist’s ability to match our art style, and a good indicator of overall enthusiasm, which are both great to have. However, there is no “official Tennogen -> DE employee” pipeline.
Q. What was it like to go from a fan and TennoGen artist, into creating official works alongside the team? How did it feel as a player to join the team?
Kaz Adams: One of my first experiences with these two worlds colliding was during the Second Dream Quest when I had gotten work into the game but was doing off-site contract work. I put the first helmet I ever got into the game onto my Warframe and stood in front of my Operator to show each other. Being here was a dream in itself, and it’s still humbling and exciting to be a part of such an insane machine making this game.
Nikita Leshakov: Artistically and professionally, I learned a lot, thanks to direct mentorship and guidance from my superiors and my peers, and I’m still learning. Being on the development team is very different from, like, a freelance artist. Personally, I’m just thinking about how I managed to get a job and move countries all thanks to a game I like, not so much the “player to developer” transition - it’s been a while now, but I was excited back then!
Q. Warframe received a higher barrier for system requirements with the Enhanced Graphic Engine. There’s some new GI Lighting Tech and things of that nature, but also probably higher overall poly count and such without running into optimization problems. Does this affect how TennoGen designers are able to create more detailed, ornate, or interesting designs?
Kaz Adams: We have “safe” limits on our requirements that still gives enough room for creativity, but doesn’t require too much support from other teams. So far none of those new pieces of tech have affected the TennoGen program, and we don’t expect them to because we’re already pretty frugal to begin with.
Nikita Leshakov: In short, it does not. Newer tech mostly affects things that were never within the purview of the TennoGen program, to begin with. We still ship to older hardware, so polycounts and texture resolutions need to stay as conservative as possible.
Q. On that note, do you think there’s greater incentive for “busy” designs with TennoGen or Deluxe skins? Like, after so many years of alternate designs and extra bells-and-whistles on your new skins, is there the possibility of a 180 where more simplistic, minimalistic skins will become a preferred cosmetic look?
Kaz Adams: “Busy” and “minimalist” designs can both be fun and challenging to work on. That said though, pulling off “simple” and still making it look special enough for capturing that “deluxe” feeling can be pretty difficult. Is there still room for this though? Absolutely.
Nikita Leshakov: Generally minimalist designs are harder to pull off. The best opportunities to try them are cases where the base Warframe design is quite busy on its own. Cosmetic creation is always about offering options that stand out from the rest, and “minimalism” can be a compelling trait in that regard.
Q. The TennoGen concept/system is a really incredible idea. While not every idea gets accepted, have there been any ideas (Skins, for example), that were at first rejected, that perhaps inspired something else in the game?
Kaz Adams: If the idea is strong enough that we see potential but the skill level or execution don’t fit, we take time to give deeper feedback to help the artist get their work into the game. TennoGen has creators of many skill levels and we’re always looking to lift up newer creators whose ideas show potential.
Q. On that note, there are only so many entries that get accepted. Do any of you have favorite concepts that were brought to life?
Kaz Adams: It’s always rewarding watching our creators grow so this is kind of a difficult question…I’ve always loved Mz-3’s Wings Nova Helmet from forever ago. More recently, I’d have to say Erneix’s Kuvael Monarch for Gyre has been one of my faves.
TennoCon was an incredible experience, and it was a pleasure to be able to pull these amazing artists and designers away from the floor for a few minutes to chat with them about what they do. While TennoCon 2025 is a long way away, our coverage isn’t. Make sure to stay tuned to Sportskeeda for the latest Warframe content.
