Monthly Archives: June 2014

Things are hotting up this week on the Orcs Must Die! Twitch channel. This week there is a new Thursday stream titled “Fortress Cup 2014”. Following North America’s recent loss to Germany in the World Cup, Robot Entertainment are attempting to redeem themselves by battling with Germany once again, challenging Gameforge to an OMDU face off!

Its all happening this week on the Orcs Must Die! Twitch channel on Thursday 3rd July at 2pm CDT. For conversion to your timezone check out our stream page.

Orcs Must Die! Unchained has now hit the closed beta milestone! Yes time really is flying that fast! The closed beta brings a new three lane level available to play as well as the Ball & Chain hero from the Unchained in the free weekly hero rotation. Each week Robot will chose a “Guest Hero” who players will be able to choose for that week for free regardless whether the player owns the hero in the deck. This gives players a chance to play new heroes on a weekly basis on a trial basis. If they like the hero they are then able to purchase the hero from the store.

Speaking of the store, it has been greatly improved in recent updates in particular in terms of hero cards. Players no longer have to purchase card packs in hopes of getting a hero, there is now an option to go ahead and purchase the hero you like. So if you fancy checking out the Prospector you can go ahead and purchase him with your skulls (which you earn by playing) or go ahead and purchase the hero with coin (via real money). No need to wait for random hero drops in card packs.

Now you can get the hero you want, any time!

Orcs in the news

A great thing about reaching closed beta is that the press get another round of preview testing OMDU. Press were invited to a preview play event in San Francisco. What are the press saying about OMDU? MOBA or no MOBA? We’ve collected just some of the recent media articles below which you may find interesting.

IGN – Were first up with their article Grabbing Hold of The Orcs Must Die! Unchained Beta. IGN are definetly worth checking out because if you are an IGN Prime member you can get instant access to the OMDU beta. Check that out here – IGN Prime.

PC Gamer – A good article detailing their take on the game play. They commented:

Lane pushers seem like a dime a dozen at this point, but I do think that Orcs Must Die! Unchained’s distinguishing features—emphasis on building defenses and fine tuning your team’s creeps/mobs—is promising. It’s not just a “me too” product with a couple of novel twists. It feels more like a unique game that evolved into a unique multiplayer mode that just so happens to be very similar to a MOBA.

 

Frontburnr – Orcs Must Die Unchained Preview: The Tower Defense MOBA Mashup you Never Knew you Wanted. A very detailed article, well worth the read.

A few seconds into the demo, I realized this game is everything I ever wanted from this franchise, even though I had never had a thought or desire to ask for it.

PC World – Orcs Must Die: Unchained preview: MOBA meets tower defense meets hack-and-slash.

I’m not the biggest MOBA fan, but I enjoyed my time with Orcs Must Die: Unchained. Maybe it’s the action-oriented camera, or just my fondness for bears.

Gotta admit those bears are pretty cool.

Got Game – Orcs Must Die! …And so must the other guys! Some shiny new screenshots in here as well as another detailed preview of OMDU.

For those that are fans of the series humor, let it be known that it is all still retained, and the game has a very charming tone to it because of it. I loved some of the names of the minion cards like “Eight wasn’t Enough”, as opposed to “Eight is Enough”, or my personal favorite minion card, “Da Bears”.

Its great to see such positive comments from the press who have been able play the OMDU beta and check out the new heroes. If you have not already got access to the beta you can register your interest now over at www.orcsmustdie.com. The founders packs for instant access are also still available to show your support and get some awesome in-game goodies.

Earlier today a news post on Polygon suggested that toxic players, people who worsen the community, think people who purposely cheat or make the game Out of Sync, as in Age of Empires for example, might be acceptable in the OMDU community. The article indicated:

Robot Entertainment designer Jerome K. Jones is of the opinion toxic players can be an asset to games such as the firm’s Orcs Must Die! Unchained.

 

En contre, it seems that this has been taken out of context and may have come across that toxic players are acceptable. This is, of course, not the case. The team at Robot with many having worked on Age of Empires have years of experience in dealing with toxic players and will be using their expertise to ensure all the best things they can be doing to reduce toxic players will be done in OMDU to ensure the best possible experience for players. On a new post on the Orcs Must Die! website Robot Entertainment said:

Before we get started, let us be crystal clear – toxic players that worsen the experience for the Orcs Must Die! Unchained community absolutely will not be tolerated.

Earlier today a headline suggested that Robot Entertainment welcomes toxic players in Orcs Must Die! Unchained. In the full interview, we acknowledged that toxic players are an unfortunate facet of multiplayer gaming. We made clear that we want to hear from all players no matter how passionate they may be. Passionate but not toxic. We have an active community management team in place that will address toxic players quickly and decisively.

 

So never fear everyone, Robot have the experience, knowledge and expertise needed to deal with toxic players, and we know how awesome the community team are. We’re in good hands and the OMDU community will thrive. No doubt like in all games toxic players will be encountered, that is a given but we have the confidence that these will be handled in the best way possible.

You can read more about Robot’s position on their website:

https://orcsmustdie.com/news/toxic-players-will-be-incinerated-and-gibletized

This week for Fan Friday the spotlight is on Sevv in the North American OMDU community. Sevv who is a member of Team Cake is also streaming OMDU on his Twitch channel. Today we find out a little more about him!

The Basics

• Name: Kevin Collinsworth
• Home Town: Beavercreek, OH

Questions

• What is your day job?

I am Batman! Actually nothing nearly as exciting, I am a supervisor at FedEx Freight. I have the great and fun job of standing out in blistering heat and shivering cold to make sure people get there goods on time!

• Favourite TV programmes?

The only one there is, Game Of Thrones. I also enjoy me some Daily Show with John Stewart, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and of course who can forget South Park.

• Are you heading off on holiday anywhere nice this year?

Going down to our nation’s capitol of Washington D.C. for an extended weekend with my girlfriend and her family! Gonna be a great time!

• Aside from OMDU, what other games are you playing right now?

I have recently discovered the beauty that is Mount and Blade: Warband.

• Of all the games you have ever played which one is your all time favourite?

Easiest question on here! Fallout 3, all time favorite. Although, OMDU comes very close.

• How did find out about Orcs Must Die?

I bought it on a whim on a steam sale and fell in love. Convinced my buddy to play and we have logged a lot of drunken hours playing till 4 and 5 in the morning.

• When can we catch you streaming OMDU?

Most Mondays – Thursdays from 9-10PM EST when I get my internet and OMDU to play along :/ Twitch.tv/Sev554 for those interested.

• What do you think about the three new hero reveals?

I actually thought I was going to love the master, hate Ball and Chain, and play prospector when needed. However, it turn’s out that ol’ Big Bertha is my favorite and I love playing her. Nothing nearly as satisfying as punting someone off a bridge. The trips not to bad either, as Mother. 😛

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

Stuff already announced, sure. Otherwise I am excited to see where Robot is taking us! Maybe a chain mail Bikini for Big Bertha or a slice of cake hidden on every map.

 

Shout Out

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

Remember to have FUN. That is what gaming is about, don’t get caught up in the trolls and toxic people and cause your enjoyment levels to go. This game has one of the Best communities I have ever had the privilege to be apart of, so lets keep it that way! Good hunting out there!

The results are in from our recent poll where we asked you which one of Moltenink’s OMDU hero designs is your favourite. Well we have crunched the numbers and can reveal that the Dwarf hero is the official fan favourite hero design. Lets take a look:

Speaking about the Dwarf hero Molten commented:

Super happy the Dwarf was the winner! Always been a huge fan of Dwarves, in fact on my first board game project I was unable to do the character portraits for sheer lack of time.  But when a dwarf bezerker came across the table I DEMANDED that I be the one to do the art for it lol

Maybe one day we might see a hero like the Dwarf appear in game. Who knows!

If you havnt already seen Moltenink’s other hero ideas you can check them all out here. Great stuff!

This week we have something a little different for our Friday interview. This week we’re interviewing FaTeReLLa who is the Community Manager over at GameForge who are handling the EU side of OMDU. So without further adue let’s find out about FaTeReLLA herself!

The Basics

• Name: Martina
• Home Town: Udine, Italy (but I live in Germany for the past 4 years.

Questions

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

This is a funny story. My nickname is really old and I’ve used it for around 15 years. When I was young (in my 20ies), I was chatting on a website called “Digiland” where I was the mascots of the chat group because I was the youngest member. A friend of mine started calling me “LaFatinaDeiMieiSogni” literally translating to “TheFairyOfMyDreams”. Later on I moved to IRCnet Chat and the character limit for usernames was 9, so I had to find a nickname that fit. Somehow I thought of Faterella (in Italian means something like Little Fairy). The name stuck and I registered the nickname FaTeReLLa with all consonant in caps (I prefer the aesthetics), and never stop using it.

 

• How long have you been working at GameForge?

I’ve been working for Gamforge since January 2010 as employee. Before that I was a volunteer community supporter for 5 years for some browser games such as Ogame.

• Aside from OMD – what others games do you enjoy playing?

Right now the only other game I’m playing is Metin2, but I’ll probably switch to just OMDU since I’m totally falling in love with it.

 

• Outside of gaming what are your hobbies?

I’m a passionate reader; I read an average of 60 books a year. I also love to listen to music while walking and I like to sing, but don’t ask me to sing you something unless you are prepared to bleed from your ears!  And last but not least I love to cook and to try new recipes, Italian food mainly!

 

• What excites you the most about OMDU and managing the EU community?

The thing that excite me the most about OMDU is the fact that the game offers so much. You have a PVP challenge – not my favourite thing but still if I manage to kill someone I smile a bit, strategy – I love to organize the team and manage trap placement in the perfect way to get combos, fun and excitement – so far in each match I played it didn’t matter if I won or lost, I enjoy them so much anyway!

About managing the EU community, well it’s a challenge. There are many differences between the games that I’ve managed before. First of all working with an NA partner is very different to working with a Korean partner. Also we’ve decided to change the board settings, where we usually have one board for each language, instead we decided to have one board with a Multilanguage function that allows people to read posts in every language or just to read the posts in their own language if they prefer. It’s a huge project for me and I can’t wait to see how the community will grow and see what direction it will take.

• What is an average day like for you at GameForge?

Well, that is a really hard question. Put simple, every day is different! Sometime there are calm days (once or twice per year). In general though I arrive at the office between 7 to 9am,  switch on my computer and while it’s loading go to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee (sometime when I feel a bit down, instead of using automatic coffee machine I prepare my Italian one with the Moka Pot – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moka_pot).

Then I go back to my desk, check my emails, forum messages and topics, facebook pages and I look for important topics or urgent issues. Also I’m taking care of another game called Animas Online, so I have split my time between OMDU and AO. I have a couple of meetings a day with my team (CMs) or with product teams (team that works on the product, like the OMDU Team or AO Team).

• How was PAX East?

A W E S O M E. First of all it was my first time in the US. I had some problems with Jet Lag, but luckily for me it didn’t affect my time in Pax East. The exposition itself was amazing and I had the possibility to get in touch with many people that wanted to try OMDU. Some of them were really excited whilst others got excited after trying it out. In general the feedback of the audience was surprising and I hope to get the chance to participate in such initiatives again.

• If you could pick one OMDU hero to be your favourite, who would it be and why?

This is a really hard question. From my experience I understand that the hero itself does not make you win, it’s all about team work. Sometime the hero you pick does not fit with the other heroes your teammates choose, so in the end all heroes should be your favourite.

 

• Can you give us a teaser about the kind of things the EU community can expect from GameForge?

I’d like to but right now nothing is written in stone so it’s really too early to say! What I can say as Community Manager is that I will try to be as close to the community as possible, listen to the community needs and do my best to make OMD!Unchained Europe a cool place where everyone can have fun and enjoy themselves!

 

Shout Out

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

Play fair, have fun, stay away from Mountain Trolls and feel free to poke me whenever you feel the need!

Exciting news as Robot Entertainment have today announced that Orcs Must Die! Unchained is heading into beta on June 27th! To celebrate this announcement there is also a shiny new trailer! Check this out!

Existing alpha players will no doubt be very excited and welcoming to the additional population that beta brings!