Monthly Archives: April 2014

If you didn’t catch this weeks official OMDU stream you would have missed out on the game-play video stream of the Sorceress. She is the other hero alongside the War Mage who has been previously playable in OMD games which means all future streams will feature the brand new characters. Exciting stuff. If you missed out on the stream you can catch the replay right here:

http://www.twitch.tv/OrcsMustDie

So what did we learn about the Sorceress in OMDU? Well largely she retains the same gameplay style for her primary attack as in OMD2 with her rapid fire magical bolt from her staff. Her secondary weapon allows her to mesmerize enemy minions around her so that they stop moving or attacking, at least, until the minions take damage, then the mesmerization is broken. She also enjoys a very useful passive ability which means that enemy minions won’t attack her unless she attacks first. This is useful when she navigates across the level.

The Sorceress has two other abilities, one is teleportation which allows her to teleport backwards slightly should she find herself in a tricky position. Her second ability activates all traps in front of her regardless of whether they are enemy or friendly and regardless of any cool down state they may be in. The only point to note that when she uses this ability the traps will have a longer than usual cool down time afterwards. Oh and when she uses this ability she is also invincible for a short time which is certainly a nifty bonus allowing her to pass through safely.

She also almost had a costume face lift, below we can see one of the concepts by artist Bart Tiongson, however in game at the moment she retains a very similar look as she had in OMD2 and retains her purple get up.

Overall the Sorceress plays pretty much as you might expect considering her play style in OMD2. Her main abilities come from controlling minions and traps by means of mesmerize and setting off traps. She is a ranged character with her staff and she can be played equally well on offence or on defence however her abilities make her most effective when near traps or minions.

Following on from the War Mage the next official OMDU stream from Robot Entertainment lets the Sorceress take centre stage. The stream taking place tomorrow at 2PM ET (convert to your timezone) will show us some of the unique skills the Sorceress has to offer for Unchained. You’ll have to watch to find out – but if you miss out don’t worry, REF will be hear for the post stream summary plus all streams are re-playable on the Orcs Must Die twitch page.

Speaking of streams – did you catch Juicebags stream earlier today? It was a whole lot of fun. Be sure to catch the replay of that which will be available on Juicebags YouTube channel shortly.

As the world keeps talking about OMDU, REF is here to keep you in the loop with our second media round-up. MOBA or no MOBA, or maybe something else. There is a lot of discussion in the media about how to categorise OMDU. Sometimes it is difficult to categorise a game perhaps because it is something new and fresh, and thats what OMDU is. It’s not your average MOBA, its a card collecting fortress siege game. Lets take a look and see what the media have been discussing.

Polygon – In their article they brand OMDU a class-based, card-collecting MOBA. This article is a good read and mainly focusses around the “Is/isnt it a MOBA” discussion. Patrick Hudson and Ian Fischer are on hand to help clear up the confusion.

“MOBA’s become very much defined by what League of Legends is, which we feel is a little bit limiting for Orcs Must Die! Unchained“

Said Patrick Hudson, Robot’s numero-uno CEO.

Gau Studios – They have a cool interview with design director Ian Fischer at PAX East. They talk about the alpha and the community and some of the characters in OMDU.

Gamezone – Orcs Must Die: Unchained is a MOBA transition done right.

Orcs Must Die: Unchained is twice the game that the previous entries are. You’re more or less responsible for mastering the original defense game, while simultaneously mastering a new offensive game on the same maps with nine other players. Adding to that newfound depth is a collectible card upgrade system that allows you to develop your character.

Destructoid – Some offense, some defense.

Whatever your approach ends up being with Unchained, it’s probably going to be vastly different than what you’re used to from the other Orcs Must Die! games. Just because the namesake and art style are the same, doesn’t mean that it’s the same Orcs that you played in the past. No,Unchained is going to do all it can to make sure that you balance your playstyles, or suffer defeat as a result of your neglect.

Greenlit Gaming – PAX PREVIEW: ORCS MUST DIE! UNCHAINED. Alex Coccia talks about his time playing OMDU at the Robot Entertainment booth at PAX East.

The gameplay was simply a ton of fun. The classic lure-and-trap mechanics that made Orcs Must Die! such a success are still here, which was fantastic to see. The animations were wonderfully fluid and the art looked sharp as enemies stormed into our keep into a volley of arrows and tar pits.

Gamers Nexus – PAX East 14: Orcs Must Die! Unchained Gameplay with Chris Rippy. Some cool snippets of gamplay video of some of the heroes. Chris Rippy describes the core gameplay elements such as the card and deck building. Towards the end they cover the monetization model. Well worth the watch.

If you come across any media reports or other OMDU content be sure to let us know.

Those twitching for more OMDU streaming should prepare themselves for Nananea’s Orcs Must Die! Unchained Community Stream taking place in just under an hours time. The stream will be focussing on the War Mage gameplay.

If you haven’t picked up your Unchained instant access yet then you’ll want to check out the giveaway that Juiced Gaming are doing. Curotesy of JuiceBags they have three instant access keys to be given away at Midnight PST on April 29th. To enter just head over to the link below. Good luck!

Orcs Must Die! Unchained Instant Access Key Give Away!

Many fans joined SixOkay, Nananea and a number of bots in todays “The War Mage” stream. Two great games were played showing all of the War Mage’s capabilities who was expertly played by Mastermind (Justin Moe). If you missed out on the stream be sure to replay the stream on the Twitch channel. Its always a good idea to catch the stream live where you can as there is plenty of chat Q&A that goes on. On this occasion designer Jerome “Bugs911” Jones was in the chat helping to answer fan questions.

So what did we learn about the War Mage in this stream? Lets dig into the details:

• The War Mage brings his trusty crossbow into the action as in previous OMD games. The left click shoots energy while the right click allows him to stun others with a reasonable area of effect.
• His primary ability is called “Trust Me” which protects friendly units against traps allowing them to pass through enemy traps safely. Meanwhile it also affects enemy units who become more vulnerable to friendly traps.
• The secondary ability is used to target other heroes or minions and damage done to the War Mage will instead be transferred to the targeted unit. Sneaky.
• His stats make him a great choice for defending.
• Other than that he is the same old trusty War Mage, complete with witty remarks!

In other news..

Moltenink has shared some awesome art on Twitter today. Moltenink is a digital animator who happens to be an OMDU alpha tester and shared this brilliant OMD inspired piece.

You can find out more about Moltenink at his website to see more of his art for other games and comics. http://www.moltenink.com/ 

Great news for those twitching for more OMDU streams. We’ve got a double whammay of streams happening tomorrow. Here’s what we have:

• Juicebags streaming at 9PM PST / 11PM CDT / 4AM GMT.
• Robot Entertainment’s “The War Mage” stream focussing on everyones much loved dimwitted hero at 12PM PST / 2PM CDT / 7.00PM GMT.

Check out our Twitch Streams page for the details and additional time-zone conversion. See you there!

Introducing the new “Spotlight on” posts here at REF. This is a new feature where we will be interviewing some of the Orcs Must Die! community over the next few months. This is to help introduce newcomers to some of the key people in the OMD community. We’ll also be interviewing community staff as well.

What better way to start of this brand new feature no other than with Orcs Must Die!’s premier community video producer, modder and streamer – Nananea! Anyone who has been following the OMD community will surely be aware of Nananea’s fantastic contribution to the community. Infact, Nananea’s Hawkeye Archers were voted the best OMD2 steam workshop mod right here on REF! In light of her hard work Robot went on to create a new skin for the Sorceress in OMD2 the “Skull Ninja” in her honour!

So what can we learn about the mystery behind the skull ninja herself? The spotlights on as we ask some questions to learn more!

The Basics

Name: – Anonymous

Home Town: Kansas City, Missouri USA

Questions

• Can you tell us a little about your username? Why Nananea?

Nananea was my first MMO user name, coming mainly from the EverQuest random name generator. It spit out Nanana and I added the E. The rest is history!

• OMD modder, streamer and video producer by night, but what about by day? Can you tell us a bit about your day job?

Up until recently, I was all of those by day as well. I stopped producing videos for YouTube in March and have moved on to a “day job” where I do SEO (search engine optimization) contract work. It let’s me stay at home, make okay money, and indulge in music while I work.

• Aside from Orcs Must Die! What other games do you enjoy playing?

I really love all kinds of games. A younger me especially enjoyed the RPGs from the SNES era but more and more I find myself enjoying action beat’em up games. There is just something visceral about slashing bad guys into multiple pieces as a super powered hero.

• Whats your favourite music?

Another one of those “all kinds”. I guess I’m starting to get older because a lot of new music doesn’t make sense to me lyrically…but I can still enjoy the beats from most. I love upbeat, poppy songs that sound fun and cheery, dance music that you can’t help but get up and move to, or real hard driving rock (like in Orcs Must Die!).

• Favourite TV show?

“Scrubs”, hands down. It was cancelled years ago but it still makes me smile every time I watch it. In production still? “Psych”. It has the same feeling to me as “Scrubs” did, but a little less magic.

• Favourite food?

Pizza. I can’t help it! It’s such an amazing, all encompassing food! Used to be purely pepperoni but have moved towards a more “supreme” vibe lately.

• How did you discover Orcs Must Die! ?

Orcs Must Die! was one of the first free games given away by Machinima Realm to it’s directors IF they did videos on it. I hadn’t heard anything about it before, but FREE GAMES right? I went to Steam, watched the videos for it and knew instantly that I was going to love it…and I did! I spent so much time on it that I had to ask the guys over at Realm if they wanted Nightmare videos instead of just the first level on normal, because I knew most people would be doing that. They said, “yes” and that was that.

• Of all the Steam workshop mods for OMD2 you have crafted – which is your favourite?

I still love Hawkeye Archers the most. The versatility and time I put into them, searching files for particles, changing the textures slightly, thinking of cool things to give them…yeah definitely Hawkeye Archers. My next in line would be Fryedegg’s Kindling Creator because it’s just so fun. Constant “spin to win” and it drops baby coins when you hit stuff? Just too funny!

• Best OMD moment so far?

It’s really easy for me to say, “Having the Skull Ninja skin made in my honor!” but that’s really my “Best Gaming Moment of All Time”…Gameplay wise in OMD it was NOT being able to 5 skull Chilled Caverns on Nightmare without a barricade trick. I spent hours and hours trying different strategies to perfect and I got VERY close a few times…but never finished. Once Stabby Narwhal posted that he had done it, I gave up and moved on. It was pretty humbling but it was my favorite because it told me that Robot was listening to us as a community and giving us very hard levels like we wanted.

• What excites you most about Unchained?

Playing  with multiple friends! One thing I had to shy away from in OMD!2 was inviting tons of people onto my Steam friend list because there was a cap and I didn’t want to have a lot of people I didn’t know on there. Unchained will let me queue up and meet tons of new people that love the franchise as much as I do, all while playing with my friends!

Shout out

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

Get excited about Orcs Must Die! Unchained! Don’t listen to the people just glancing at it and saying, “Oh, it’s a free-to-play MOBA”! This is Orcs Must Die! in overdrive! Have faith in Robot; they know what they are doing with the free-to-play model! Everything will come together soon!

Thanks for your time Nananea! Who should we interview next? If you have someone in mind you would like to find out more about drop us a message in the comments box below!