Monthly Archives: June 2014

Moltenink is our resident Orcs Must Die! Unchained community artist! Over the past few weeks he has used his imagination to come up with a number of brilliant possible hero designs for OMDU. They are all excellent I’m sure you will agree, but which one of these is your favourite? Is there one in particular that you think would be awesome to see in OMDU? Let us know by voting in our poll!

The designs

[Show as slideshow]

Following the success of our last alpha key give-away for the EU community we thought we’d run another one! This time we’re doubling the amount of keys to 20 giving fans more chance to win! Same rules as before, our competition is super easy to enter and has numerous means of entering. The competition will run from 15th June until 30th June at which point 20 lucky winners will receive their alpha keys via email.

You can increase your chances of winning by completing as many of entry choices as possible. You can enter once each day to score an extra entry. Follow REF and OMDU on Facebook, Twitter and Twitch bags you a further two entries each. Easy peasy!

Please remember – This competition is for EU alpha access only. It is not open to US users at this time. Also, the alpha access on offer is purely access to the alpha and does not include the founders rewards which you can find at www.orcsmustdie.com. For more information just hit the terms and conditions link below.

Good luck, Orc Slayers!

Would you believe it – its Friday again! This means its time for another Fan Friday interview. This week we’re featuring Moltenink who has had a big part in the early access forums with his numerous designs for OMDU heroes and traps all of which have been drawn by Molten’s skilful hand! Now we step behind the scenes to find out a little more about the person behind this excellent art!

The Basics

• Name: Rob Lundy
• Location: Ottawa, Ontario

Questions

• What is an average working day like for Moltenink?

It  depends on whether or not I’m working from home or in a studio at the time.  But the usually I get up as early as I can justify to myself, consume dangerous amounts of coffee and draw something quickly to get the creative juices flowing.  (Lately it’s been OMDU heroes) Then it’s check for revisions and approval status on stuff I did earlier in the week.   When all that’s out of the way it’s making new art, doing animation fixes, compositing, special effects, character rigging, whatever the current contract entails.

• How long have you been involved with animation / graphic design?

I graduated from the animation program at my local college in 2007 and I’ve been working solidly ever since.  Sometimes a couple of jobs at a time.  I’ve been dabbling in graphic design for 3 or 4 years but been doing it professionally for only a couple.  I’ve been lucky enough to have worked on a HUGE number of TV shows but as is the fate of most animators, most people won’t have heard of many of them.

• What is your dream job?

Honestly, I love games.  I’ve been slowly breaking into illustrating board games, which I love doing.  But to be perfectly honest, doing concept art or production art for video games sits at the top of my list.

• Can we find any Moltenink art in games today?

You definitely can.  I’ve been doing work for the board game company TMG.  You can find my art on Dungeon Roll, Templar Intrigue, a couple of their micro games and one new project that’s about to hit kickstarter this month called “Harbour” designed by Scott Almes.

• How did you discover OMD?

I saw a demo for it on Xbox Live and the art style drew me in.  The gameplay sealed it for me.  Then when there was co-op in OMD2… well I played hundreds of hours of it.

• We love your OMD concepts for heroes and traps. Out of all of the ones you have designed, which one is your favourite so far?

Thanks, more than anything I enjoy creating things that make people happy.  Seeing people comment and enjoying my work motivates me to make more.

I think I enjoy the process of making them the most so the lazy answer is “whichever one I’m making right now.”  But if I had to choose I would say the Satyr.  Always been partial to monstrous characters.

• What do you think of the design of the two lane OMDU map?

I love the aesthetics.  I can’t express that enough.  The architecture and lighting, the indoor and outdoor colours.  It’s fantastic.  I kind of enjoy the frantic pace it has… but you get bored of anything after a while so I’m dying to see some new ones.

• What is your favourite OMD trap and why?

That is a difficult question cause they are all so good.  But I get a ridiculous joy from seeing spike walls fling mountain trolls head over heels down a hallway.  I laugh EVERY time.

• Is there anything missing in OMDU that you would particularly like to see?

Physics traps.  Like I said they are hilarious, and I’d get a real kick out of going toe to toe with another hero and see them flung off the map when they were least expecting it.

• Do you think any of the heroes are un-balanced right now?

I’d like to see Smolder get some love… I really want her to be good and she’s the runt of the litter at the moment.  Aside from that I don’t think anyone stands out as clearly overpowered.  Some heroes are devastating in the right players hands, but I don’t think any one of them is a guaranteed win.

 

Shout out

• Is there anything you would like to say to all the OMD fans out there right now?

Don’t be afraid of the “new” play style in OMDU!  It’s a blast and while it’s a little different, it’s every bit as fun!  Plus as a living, evolving game we’re gonna get to see new stuff all the time!  Trust in the Robot… the Robot loves you.

Be on the lookout! Over the next few days we’ll be featuring some of Moltenink’s fantastic OMDU designs for heroes and traps right here on REF. Check back often!

Just a quick update on OMDU Twitch Streams. Tonight was the second Orcs After Dark feature was held this time for the EU community. It was a ton of fun and saw both SixOkay and FaTeReLLa hosting the stream whilst the EU community fought against Robot staff in a number of matches. Its great to see developers taking the time to play with the community. Robot pretty much won hands down versus the community, EU will need to try harder to beat them next time!

A TON of alpha access codes were given away on the chat. Congratulations to everyone who scored access codes. It’ll be great to see you in-game. If you didnt manage to get a key this time always keep an eye out on upcoming streams as keys are often given-away. Don’t forget – for anyone who took part and played a match tonight during the Orcs After Dark event you will be getting an alpha access code sent to you via email shortly to be shared with a friend!

If you missed out you can catch up on the stream below.

Watch live video from OrcsMustDie on TwitchTV

Thursday Stream

Nananea’s Thursday stream is currently scheduled to go ahead, subject to the servers being available. If you tuned into the Tuesday stream it was indicated that the Thursday stream would not be going ahead. Never fear, Nananea is back in action and all going well the stream should be going ahead this Thursday as normal.

This weeks character focus has been on Temper. As you can see from his card, he often has a bit of a temper. A strong hero specialising in physical attacks with reasonably high health. On the armour front Temper enjoys 25% armour against all types except frost at -25%.

Temper wields 2x large hammers which make up his primary weapon. The hammers pack a very decent punch as he swings them. These hammers as his primary weapon make him squarely fit into the “attacker” category of heroes. Temper is best played in the thick of combat. When Temper does score a kill he also gets a boost of double damage for a short while afterwards making him a menacing hero in battle.

For his secondary weapon Temper can make use of a ranged attack to throw his hammer forward dealing damage to anything it comes into contact with, aptly named “Hammer Toss”! In addition the ranged hammer attack can also disable traps it comes into contact with and enemies suffer from reduced armour.

When it comes to abilities his primary called “Mad Cow” gives Temper a huge speed boost, enemies in Temper’s path are knocked back and take damage. The only downside is that Temper cannot attack while in this state, so use this ability wisely.

His secondary ability “Forged” is quite unique. When triggered this causes his hammers to become red hot increasing the damage they deal. However, there is a catch, Temper also takes a small amount of damage while dealing with these red hot hammers. Make sure you have enough health to use this ability! As an added bonus any near by giant minions also are enraged by this ability and deal extra damage.

To summarise, Temper is a great hero for those who like to get up close and personal in combat and like to push forward as attackers. Temper is a great hero killer and when used well can be a fierce hero on the battlefield. His trap disable with his ranged attack also makes him suitable for escorting minions.

Hero Card

This weeks spotlight is shining on Taroth. One of the members of “Team Cake” and active in the early access forums, here we can find out a little more about Taroth outside of OMD. Lets get started!

The Basics

Name: Chris

Home Town: New York

Questions

• What sports do you like to play?

• Who is your favourite comedian?

The late, great, George Carlin. Pure genius.

• Orcs by night, but what do you do by day? School / Work?

• Most exciting thing you have ever done?

• What was the last game you purchased?

The last game I purchased was pre-ordering The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt. This has been an excellent series based off of some fantastic novels and a rich, deep intellectual property. Luckily, the novels are in the process of being translated to English if that is the only language you read.

• Aside from OMD what other games do you enjoy playing?

Right now I’m slightly addicted to the King’s Bounty Series; however, if I judge solely on my steam hours played counters Mass Effect, The Witcher Series, and The Civilization series win out.

• Which OMDU character do you play best with?

At this time I would say Stinkeye. I’ve never been much of a PvPer and I think defending was a natural transition from OMD2 to Unchained for me. I’ve been branching out into other characters, but I don’t nearly have the time on them that I do with Stink.

• Do you prefer to play offence, defense or a bit of both?

Both now, but I still tend to be more defensively oriented.

• What are your thoughts on Glory Seekers? Good or bad idea?

Well….. as a defender I love them! Any time I can get an advantage over an attacking group as a solo defender is appreciated, although my attacking buddies aren’t too pleased with them.

• In your opinion which hero is the strongest and which is the weakest and why?

If you’re looking for a chance to score some sweet alpha access for Orcs Must Die! Unchained be sure to check out the OMDU subreddit! All you need to do is post a comment on the link below naming your favourite map of any previous OMD game and a winner will be chosen randomly from the entries.

Good luck everyone!

Submit your favourite map.