Remembering Michael 'Mynki' Brennan, the first art director of Warframe, and an example of how a single dev can have a monumental impact
"Sometimes people thought it was too weird - that's fine! Mynki never did."
On October 15, Michael "Mynki" James Brennen died after a hard-fought battle with cancer. He is best known for his work at Digital Extremes and Warframe, on which he was the first art director. Even after his departure from the company in 2017, he retained contact with the team and contributed to the games art direction and overall style. Warframe, with all its merits, has never been lacking in that department.
Video games are an amalgamation of often hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people's colossal effort. But there are some that manage to leave a distinct mark on the passion projects they dedicate a portion of their lives to. Not an auteur, but a foundational voice that provides insight, wisdom, inspiration, and support as solid as the ground the office is built on. Judging by Digital Extreme's own mournful but celebratory segment of a recent Devstream, Mynki was one-such person.
Late last month, I sat down and spoke to game director Rebecca Ford and Kat Kingsley about Warframe's future, specifically the relationship system coming to the game. But I also wanted to sit down and talk about what it was like working with Mynki over the years, and how the team will move forward in his absence. Hopefully, Ford's answers help portray the impact a sole developer can have on what is now one of the industry's most popular MMO developers.
Ford: "I think the one thing everyone has kept coming back to is how humble and gracious he was. I can speak of that from my first day at Digital Extremes and my experience seeing him working at his craft. It really was the first visual moment I had seeing someone who was so capable and kind. Putting stylus to tablet, or pen to paper in his case as he was always doodling."
"I had this experience at DE where we were really a traditional games studio at the time. We hadn't released The Darkness 2 yet, nor had we released other games. Then the Warframe hail mary was cooking. I remember talking to Steve and Geoff and trying to understand how this would happen. They would always say, "oh Mynki will make some warframes". I was like, but the game's called Warframe. What do you mean he's just gonna make some warframes? They had the Excalibur blueprint of course, but I got to watch in a matter of months the team just follow Mynki's vision on what a Warframe is [...] He just delivered right away."
"I can't say enough about how watching him interact with the world reacting to his work put me in a position to understand what it meant to be grateful. It's irreplaceable for the rest of my life. Nothing will ever compare."
What some may not know is how Mynki - who left the company after 14 years - continued to have an impact on designs and direction for the game you see today. Usually when you leave a company, that's it. The door closes. Friendships persist, sure. But the inner workings are beyond your reach. This was explicitly not the case with Mynki, according to Ford, who states he's had an influence on an upcoming content, even some seven years post-departure.
Ford: "We stayed in touch, and when the new leadership took over it really became an interesting option to connect with Mynki again and learn what he thought about a Man in the Wall faction? What did he think about Warframe 1999? The reason 1999 exists - I mean this in every credible sense of the word - is because of a conversation with Mynki."
"He'd been away from working on Warframe for so long I wondered what he thought - we all did! For the past 2-3 years of my career I would still have monthly or bi-monthly calls with him to find out what's up! What was he working on, whether he had ideas for an infested boy band? Did he have any ideas for a concrete warframe? Every time, he would just be like 'yep, let's see'. The loss is still not really settling in, because I don't think as a person I would be sitting here in the creative director position if it wasn't for those calls with him. I can't emphasize enough how instrumental he has been through the entirety of Warframe. It's too much, it's too great a loss."
One quote from Rebecca kind of encapsulated the overwhelming sentiment about Mynki's approach to art in Warframe: "Sometimes people thought it was too weird - that's fine! Mynki never did".
And there's seemingly not an end in sight as far as Mynki's involvement, thanks to a lone document he wrote filled with ideas from the late artist. This, according to Ford, is something that'll likely remain a source of guidance for the rest of Warframe's life.
"When we were having our bi-mointhly calls with Kary Black - our current art director - one of them ended with Mynki writing a document. I have that document bookmarked. If everything goes well with Warframe and we're still here next year making the game, I don't think that doc will be un-bookmarked for the rest of Warframe's life. For him to have impact all it needs to be is a word, and I can still say this wouldn't be here without that doc. That's where the truth lies, I think."
It can be hard to appreciate the human factor when enjoying video games. As the player, you interact with systems, fictional characters, and far-flung worlds. Long-time Warframe players will know Mynki, but how could they possibly know how deep his work was rooted in the game they have today, and how important his own actions were to those who make it? Only those who worked with him, who talked with him on the regular, could.
"I think one story speaks to even adding the romance system, it even makes me think that we've barely scratched the surface of Warframe" Ford reminisces. "When I was like 23 years old working on Warframe, I was this young female community manager that didn't know how to draw. All I knew was Warframe. I remember my desk was really close to his for the first 4-5 years of my career. I could just turn around, walk four desks, and he'd be right there. I remember thinking that I had to talk to him about fashion and femininity, and wondered if he'd be open to discussing bringing high-fashion to Warframe in some way.
I think I was holding an Alexander McQueen book, and hoped I wasn't bothering Mynki - he was so busy! I remember how seriously he took the idea of high fashion, and of course he was already thinking of these things! He knew it, and was inspired by those things. The fact he gave me the time of day when it came to very passionate topics about Warframes that lean into this stuff... I remember what came from it and where we ended up, and I felt so heard and seen. He didn't turn me away just because I wanted to talk about fashion as an inspiration, and for me that meant something. I got to tell him.