There's a lot to consider when creating one of Warframe's many tilesets, and whether constructing space stations for the Tenno or frozen outposts for the Corpus there's no environment challenge that isn't faced without a little bit of teamwork. Our latest tileset is no different, and with the recent release of the Grineer Underwater Laboratory tileset on PC we thought it would be fun to share a little of what goes into the design of such unique hostile territory.

Layout Artist Erwin Evegaars and Level Designer Tim Fields have been working on Warframe's tilesets for the past few years, and together have brought life to all corners of the Solar System. Both work together to find a balance between artistic stylings and gameplay mechanics, and while finding common ground isn't easy the result is the creation of a memorable and interactive world.

We were able to catch up with Tim and Erwin towards the end of the Echoes of the Sentient Update release to get a little more information behind what goes into adding so much depth to Tyl Regor's secret laboratories.

Can you tell everyone a little bit about yourselves?

Tim: I was born and raised in London Ontario, and I've been working at DE as a Level Designer for four years now. I've been at DE for a little bit longer than that (I was in QA before I did level design) and I don't know what else to say! I enjoy being active, and videogames, that kind of stuff. -laughs-

Erwin: You don't have much more than I do.

Tim: I love Star Wars!

-everyone laughs-

Erwin: I was born and raised in The Netherlands, studied Multimedia Design in Rotterdam and worked for several companies before I made the move to Canada and work for DE. I've been working here for over 5 years now, as a Layout Artist. It's pretty much exactly what I always wanted to do ever since I started college, so even though it was a big and scary step to come here, it's been the best step I've ever taken.

What are you currently working on?

Tim: I'm currently working on the Grineer Ocean levels where I've been working with Erwin as my Layout Artist, doing some of the underwater levels. The sharkwing levels, as well as the new Tyl Regor boss level, are currently what's on my plate.

Erwin: You're sticking there longer than I am because I've just been pulled off ocean.

Tim: Oh yeah?

Erwin: Yeah, as Tim mentioned, I've been working with him for the past few months on Ocean, but my part is now done and I've been shipped off to something else. I'm currently working on a really big raid level. It's basically a trench run Archwing, but completely taken over by the Infested. It's part of a series of bossfight stages which require several level designers, layout artists and a boss gameplay designer. I just got assigned to it and it's completely different from ocean, it's crazy.

It took some time for me to get used to. On ocean you get to work with little details, like placing corals and small plant life and such. In this raid level though, everything is massive! I can't afford small details. So because it's so different from ocean, it takes a whole different approach, but it's definitely interesting to work on.

Can you walk us through the collaboration process between our art and design teams?

Tim: Sure! I start with a concept that I come up with, my idea, and then I go over to and talk to the art team -- Erwin or someone else. I just discuss the idea and see if it's valuable art wise. A lot of the times I'm thinking about gameplay and design, and it's kind of nice to have a concept or theme to go with that. I talk to the art team to learn what works or what doesn’t work.

Then I go to make a design blockout. Just a design layout with all the basic gameplay elements. I talk with the art team and let them know what's going on in there, what it looks like, and I get some ideas from them. Erwin and the artists do a rough art pass and from there we're working back and forth.

I usually check every day to see how it looks and to make sure it's still following my basic design layout. We go back and forth like that. The art team goes in, then I go in and make adjustments, then art goes back in. We go back and forth until the level is complete making adjustments as we go. It's a little different now that I'm working out of office; I don't get to talk to Erwin in person. But we make sure to communicate often to be sure we're both on the same page.

Erwin: We usually send a lot of screenshots to each other. 'Theres a hole here' or 'We're gonna get bugs there'. -laughs-.

Tim: Yeah!

Erwin: Design side usually has a head start on it. Art is involved, but we're usually in the background waiting to be called in. From the Art side we're waiting for the Art Director to come up with what we call an 'Art Bible'. It's a collection of pictures and stories regarding the Art style of the new set he wants us to uphold, including architecture, color pallets and atmosphere. So while we're keeping an eye on what Design is doing, we're making little doodles based on the Art Bible and visualize it in to the work of the Designers. Kinda like when you're drunk in the bar and you take some coaster and start drawing crazy ideas on it, that's me!

That's where we come in with Tim's story. We show him our little doodles and he says 'that sucks, it doesn't work here.' Or he says 'that's cool, we'll try to merge that in here.' I think the collaboration is generally very, very flexible.

Tim: Yeah, definitely.

Erwin: You kind of have to be. You need to be proud of something you make but you also need to be flexible in letting something go. This only works if you're working together. He has an idea that I have to merge into my art direction and I have something I need to put into his design. It works back and forth, even if you're not full time on a level. Like right now I'm working on the Archwing level, but I'm getting called back to the ocean every hour because Design is still out there on the oceans. I need to go back and work on their feedback.

It's a very tight collaboration but I think that's what makes it so interesting. You get some good chemistry going on, but it works really well.

Tim: I think it works pretty well. Erwin and I have a great relationship. I'm always open to his ideas and he's always open to mine. We often make art/layout depending on different gameplay changes. I might have to say 'oh Erwin, this is happening now we have to make a big change to the art'.

Erwin: I try to struggle every time he does it, depending on how important it is…

-both laugh-

Erwin: …You've got to defend your own work every once and a while!

When it comes to the Grineer Sealabs did you have any specific influences?

Erwin: I think the biggest goal for Mat (Art Director) was to create a unique environment for a new planet. Someone wanted to make art for the planet Uranus, so he had to come up with something that would fit that planet. In this case it wound up being a gas planet. We ended up learning towards a liquid-gas kind of thing, and that's how we ended up getting into the ocean feeling.

That's how Mat started working on the Art Bible, asking himself what kind of ocean it will be. What kind of feel do we want it to have? It's going to be Grineer, so we need to look into the architecture and shapes of the Grineer. What kind of shapes will fit into the ground structure?

We ended up using the rock shapes that we have now. Everything is just round and curvy, and that's how we started as our base. The inner-architecture of the Grineer is more heavily influenced by lab structures or submarine hallways. Everything is very low and hangs from the ceilings. To reinfornce that we're on the ocean we also have these really thick windows with heavy framing, so that players can feel there's quite a bit of pressure going on.

That's where all our ideas come from -- you start with what you definitely need and you go from there. Whatever fits with the Grineer or Corpus or Infested.

Tim: From a design perspective, for me, I just start designing a level with gameplay in mind. Just start building a greybox. I like to start with a theme. It's hard to get inspired or excited to build a level if you don't have a theme for the level.

In this case the theme was ocean so I went online and looked up pictures underwater, like scuba diving locations. Things that could ground the level in something that people can relate to instead of it becoming too alien or too crazy. I like to look for different inspirations in the real world. Underwater wrecks, sunken ships, anything that I can use to get inspiration or a theme to help block out the gameplay.

I get an idea and I speak to Mat and Erwin and give them a general description of what I want to do. If they like it I move forward, if not I go back and do some more research, get more inspiration and flesh out a new concept.

Erwin: Another cool thing is that you have a unique perspective on where to look. You have a different way you're looking at things and what you're looking for compared to what I do. You seem to be really into the science stuff or the space things. I love the references that you come up with because they're completely different from mine but we can actually combine them pretty well.

I just like making pretty environments. Rocks and stuff. He's into all the more technical things. The gameplay of course, but he also loves all this stuff in his spare time and I think that fits perfectly for us anyway.

Tim: Yeah. Well for example the Tyl Regor boss fight, there's a piece of concept art that one of our artists did -- a big statue of Tyl. In my mind I picture those dictator or tyrant regimes with a giant statue of themselves. Like that statue of Saddam being pulled over. When I see this concept art I think about how it connects to something in the real world.

What are some of the challenges you faced working on the Underwater Lab tileset?

Tim: The big challenge is working in the water. I mean, obviously you're underwater so working with gameplay using water in a meaningful way means using it for gameplay and having it actually be fun. Working on scale and flow of the level to accommodate underwater gameplay as well.

The challenge is having it keep that scale and still be enjoyable and fun for the players.

Erwin: I think one of the biggest challenges for the artists in general is how not to make it look like Galleon 2.0. In the beginning of the set, when we first started working on it, we did not have swimming. We had levels that were technically underwater, but you never got in the water so there were hallways with windows. The big challenge was making it not look like every other Grineer hallway.

It took us a while to actually come up with an art set that would respect the Grineer architecture and at the same time not be just a normal hallway. You still had to feel like you were underwater or that there was this intense pressure all around you. It took us a lot of testing to make separate rooms and see what worked.

Eventually we came up with the egg system -- where every level is, in our head, supposed to take place in big eggs with little rooms inside of them. In the Galleon it's sort of front to back and that's how you traverse, but as soon as we figured out where the eggs would be in the ocean (we have them attached on these massive rock pillars) that kind of helped us. The rock is the base and you build around it.

As soon as we got the ability to swim it became much easier. We already had our base, and then the rest was…well ocean. There's water, there's fish, it's a whole different set of challenges but getting the Grineer architecture was the tough part.

What's been your favorite tileset to work on so far?

Tim: I get excited about anything new, so it's always the most recent tileset! -laughs- But If I had to think about all of them, it would have to be the Grineer tileset on Earth. I just enjoy the forest-y feel of that level. It was kinda neat working with real landscapes and different natural elements.

Erwin: I don't even think we worked together on forest, did we?

Tim: Uh, maybe a little.

Erwin: I don't remember…but I agree. Forest was definitely my favorite set as well for all the same reasons. I'm a big fan of anything organic. It's got all kinds of ruins as well, and I'm a big fan of ruins!

It was nice to finally place trees, let's put it that way. We had been in space for so long and when we finally reached a planet it was ice. Yay, more dead stuff. -laughs-

We finally reached a forest, a place where can plant big, blooming trees and waterfalls that weren’t frozen. As much as I loved working on Corpus Outpost, it was kind of a relief for me to go all out on organic, living things.

Unlike Tim, I'm more like a steam train. It takes me a while to warm up to a tile-set, but once I'm going, I'm going! So whenever I get a new set it's like 'aw come on, I want to do more tiles for the last one!'

Any advice for aspiring artists looking to do what you do?

Tim: I have to say dedication. It's kind of cliché, but hard work, dedication, being persistent and constantly designing. There's design all around you, whether it's online or architectural design. When I go to a skate park I look at how the park was designed, the flow of the skate park, anything like that.

If you love it, do it. I love what I do every day, but you've got to keep working at it. Design levels, build a great portfolio and keep working.

Erwin: As an artist I think it's the same answer, which is very typical but it makes sense. School teaches you the basics, which is very important, but keep trying things on your own. Get out there and build your personal portfolio!

You've got to be very open minded too. Be open to new ideas, different opinions and other cultures. Be willing to explore and learn new things, not just through the internet, but by travelling if you can. Get out of your house, or even your city. You can learn so much from visiting other cultures and environments. I find it makes it so much easier to start something new, when you have actually seen more than just what's in your own backyard. And it'll also help you become more open to other ideas.

Tim: Yeah, exactly what Erwin said about being open -- that's very important. You're not always right, and a lot of people get really frustrated at that. Just be open to other people's ideas and life experiences and you'll do great.