An Interview With Soulframe Community Manager Sarah Asselin and Bonus Guests About Community, Honesty, and Lessons From Warframe

Digital Extremes has had plenty of success with Warframe and this success has contributed to the conception of Soulframe, their newest online RPG and Warframe‘s sister fantasy game. Our editor, Dave Rodriguez has thus managed to gain an audience with Sarah Asselin, Soulframe’s Community Manager. To our surprise, it wasn’t just Sarah, but Steve Sinclair (Digital Extremes CEO) and Geoff Crookes (Soulframe Creative Director) who have also joined in.

This early on, it appears Soulframe is already a gift that keeps on giving. Check out how the interview went if you need more convincing. Or just check it out regardless.

Interview With Sarah Asselin, Steve Sinclair, and Geoff Crookes of Soulframe

Dave Rodriguez, Editor for The Nerd Stash: Okay, I’ll jump right into it. Most of these questions were for Sarah– I didn’t know you guys were going to be here as well. What kind of challenges do you think you might come across fostering a community of veterans coming from Warframe and new Soulframe players who might not be aware of Warframe?

Sarah Asselin, Soulframe Community Manager: As much as we have so much interest and passion to play our game, it also comes with expectations. Soulframe is a different vibe and a different game. It’s slower-paced and has more focus on individual combat. It’s still a work in progress so I think building a community in a healthy way and slowly letting them in and start to experience the game is going to be a big journey. 

But mostly I think we’re just blown away. It makes me so happy every single day to see people enjoying the game. It means the world to me that people care.

Dave Rodriguez, Editor for The Nerd Stash: That’s awesome. On the community side of things, are you looking to Warframe in terms of guiding the community for Soulframe and how that was built over the long period?

Sarah Asselin, Soulframe Community Manager: Of course. I started working here six years ago. Rebecca and Megan taught me everything I know. I would say 100 percent, but probably in a different way. It’s going to be more reflective of Soulframe. In terms of being transparent with the community– involving them, you can already see that happening with previews and how we brought them in even if it’s a work-in-progress. 

There’s going to be a lot that we ‘steal’ from Warframe but in a different way. Different vibe.

Dave Rodriguez, Editor for The Nerd Stash: Yeah, not so much stealing? Maybe borrowing with authority? I will say, something during the presentation, it was mentioned that Soulframe isn’t necessarily a Souls-like. Has that been a challenge to communicate even to new players during the early stages? Do you see it becoming a communication issue?

Sarah Asselin, Soulframe Community Manager: Definitely. 

Geoff Crookes, Soulframe Creative Director: It is a challenge. We knew what would happen when we committed to the name. We just had to commit because it leaned into the theme. The easy part is that Warframe players kind of don’t expect a Souls game from us.

It’s the broader expectation for people coming into it. I feel like we’re pretty good at the frontal impression that the expectation fades away.

Sarah Asselin, Soulframe Community Manager: I think most people get it as soon as they start playing the game. It’s not a Souls game, it’s just the name we chose. 

Geoff Crookes, Soulframe Creative Director: We definitely have work to do. We have to keep reinforcing this. I feel like the vibe is coming through in a grimdark tone at first impression. We make sure that the optimism is just as balanced as the heavy, creepy vibe.

Steve Sinclair, Digital Extremes CEO: We did call it ‘Fantasy Frame’ for a while.

Dave Rodriguez, Editor for The Nerd Stash: Yeah, no Soulframe’s very catchy. For Sarah, the role of Community Manager is pretty common in the game industry, but I always felt that in Digital Extremes, it carries more weight. Because there’s so much visibility, you represent a lot of people. How do you feel now about assuming that front-facing role?

Sarah Asselin, Soulframe Community Manager: I think—

Steve Sinclair, Digital Extremes CEO: How do you handle the pressure?

Sarah Asselin, Soulframe Community Manager: That’s what I’ve been thinking about. Every night. We had such a great experience with our community as Warframe and we’ve seen real connections with our players and it’s created a name in the industry.

For me, I just kind of do it my own way. If there’s one thing I have, it’s passion for this company and this game, and I hope it comes through in everything we do.

Steve Sinclair, Digital Extremes CEO: We’re trying to get Sarah to be more aggressive with us. Because she’s just too nice to the development staff.

Sarah Asselin, Soulframe Community Manager: It’s my biggest problem.

Steve Sinclair, Digital Extremes CEO: The thing I’m proud of for DE is the community and creativity of what we do– the wackiness of our games and going left when others are going right and a real honest commitment to transparency and involvement to the players.

The only reason we did this is because we’re independent. We had no oversight to say, ‘Don’t be honest, you have to spin everything– damage control.’ We don’t spin or do damage control here. It doesn’t work. Players are too smart to know when they’re being managed. And so, we’re trying to do with Soulframe what we did with Warframe. Integrate the community with the development of the game.

We’re not trying to make the medicine go down with sugar, they (the community) are part of the process, the feedback loop of what’s sucking right now, what are people upset about, and what are we missing. How are we fanning them? That’s a huge part of the Community Manager role here. 

On Warframe, we have a stats team that talks about data, purpose, and pricing. One of the most involved people in that group is Megan (Warframe Community Director). Again, it’s like customer service. There are a lot of companies that hire community managers and just task them with making sure no one says anything bad and doing damage control.

Here, it’s much more integrated with everyone. That’s the exciting part for Sarah, hopefully. We give a reverence to this role.

Sarah Asselin, Soulframe Community Manager: Come back next when I’m more jaded. 

Dave Rodriguez, Editor for The Nerd Stash: You gotta have a tough Rhino skin. 

Sarah Asselin, Soulframe Community Manager: Something Rebecca (Warframe Creative Director) always tells me is we’re not just here to manage the community– we’re players as well. That’s always the mentality I keep in mind. I think it makes it a lot easier to empathize with what people are experiencing. And then I’ll talk to the developer team and say what isn’t working and I understand why they feel this way.

Dave Rodriguez, Editor for The Nerd Stash: That’s great. This is something I wanted to ask Sarah, but now I have all three of you so it’s more fun. If you could give me your best three-word description of Soulframe, what would it be?

Steve Sinclair, Digital Extremes CEO: Princess Mononoke. Game.

Sarah Asselin, Soulframe Community Manager: Poetic. Restoration. Nature. 

Geoff Crookes, Soulframe Creative Director: Retro. Optimistic. Romantic.

Dave Rodriguez, Editor for The Nerd Stash: Oooh, alright. I guess the last part of that question. If I could grab a positive snippet quote from you, what would you all say? A message you could get across to the new player? The person who hasn’t tried Warframe, or Soulframe, or has no experience with Digital Extremes.

Steve Sinclair, Digital Extremes CEO: Join us!!! Join us. We even made that a call sign. 

Geoff Crookes, Soulframe Creative Director: We are asking people to come play with us.

Steve Sinclair, Digital Extremes CEO: When we started Warframe, I remembered saying “We’re going to build a game with this community.’ And honestly, I was just pulling that one out of my a**. I had no idea what it actually meant. It just sounded cool. And we were desperate. The economy imploded. We lost publishing contracts. We laid people off. We’re running on fumes. We had 3-4 months of payroll left at the bank.

So we did a hard pivot. Let’s make something independent. We’re not going to listen to publishers. We were going to listen to players instead. We’re going to do that again with Soulframe. So join us!!!

Dave Rodriguez, Editor for The Nerd Stash: I think that’s great! That’s all I had for you guys. It was so great to speak to you. It feels great and I’m excited to see how Soulframe evolves. Thank you!