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New year, new Robot staffers! Today Patrick Hudson, CEO at Robot Entertainment announced on the studios blog that Paul Hellquist has now joined the team as Lead Designer. Paul has an impressive career in the industry having spent a considerable number of years at Gearbox Software and Irrational Games before that. Paul has worked on Bioshock as Lead Designer and Borderlands 2 as Creative Director. Needless to say Paul brings a great amount of experience to an already strong team.

Patrick Hudson took the company blog, posting:

I spent a considerable amount of time with Paul recently, and I was consistently impressed with his breadth of thinking, passion for great design, and humility. His remarkable portfolio of work is clearly well-earned. Paul is a great fit for Robot, and I expect him to have a profound impact on the games we make, starting with Orcs Must Die! Unchained.

Speaking to Gamasutra, Paul said:

“It’s always difficult to leave a place you’ve spent a huge chunk of your career, but it is always exciting as well. Robot has a great track record and I’m thrilled to join the talented and veteran team. I look forward to adding my perspective and skills to Orcs Must Die! Unchained and future projects.”

REF also welcomes Paul to the Robotic studio – we’re looking forward to the next phase of Orcs Must Die! Unchained due to be announced soon.

For more on Paul’s hire, check out the Robot blog and the article on Gamasutra.

Following on from part 1 of our interview with our streaming couple Cremvursti & Dubioasa we now get Dubioasa’s answers on the same questions. Without further ado, here we go!

The Basics

Name: Cristina (in-game: Dubioasa)
Age: 21
Home Town: Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Questions

• What do you both do by day?

We’re Journalism students, away from our homes to study at the university, but we are too lazy to do that. I am an intern at the European Youth Capital (Cluj-Napoca is going to be that in 2015 xD) and I sometimes go there to write articles for the websites and to promote the city. If I could, I’d sleep all day long, like our cat, Skittles.
Otherwise, we like to watch TV series while we eat. I love to cook and I`d stay all day in the kitchen preparing Italian food especially. Generally speaking, that’s our day: movies, OMDU, food and playing with the cat.

• How did you first meet?

We were in the first year at the university and we had a Facebook group. I posted an invitation to a concert I didn’t even wanted to attend, but he thought I like his kind of music and asked me out. I forgot about it and went out with my friends, and I felt embarrassed. So I asked him out next time. We dated for like a week, then he never left my house. It’s true, I have a nice apartment.

• What made you want to start streaming?

He said that it would be great, `cause I’m cute, not bitchy and annoying. Turns out that didn’t help a lot. I’m still a beginner at everything regarding games and streaming and I really feel uncomfortable being in front of the camera and talking by myself. Hope it’s not gonna be like that for too long.

• Outside of OMD and streaming, what other things do you both do for fun?

I like to dance a lot. I could dance for hours, it’s a thing I do to relax and to cheer up. Sometimes we go out with friends.

• What are your highlights of 2014?

Hmm, I think visiting Amsterdam and getting a new laptop were #1.

• What are you doing over the New Year?

Next year, we’d love to visit Germany during Gamescom. I really want to meet the OMDU community sometime. I’m very friendly and enthusiastic if it’s about people I have something in common with. Seriously, I want to make myself a Sorceress outfit and meet with everyone and play together. Ball & Chain costume may be a bit too large for me, heehee.

• How did you discover OMD?

It`s the first game I actually played recently. I used to play when I was little, but then I stopped. I have to give credits to Cremvursti for that. I said I might enjoy if he found some tower defense based games. He showed me OMD 2 and we played in co-op. Then we moved on to other games, but I just couldn’t. OMD is my love.

• Which are your favourite heroes and why?

Sorceress. I played with her in OMD 2 and I liked her. I tried Blackpaw but fed too much. Then I started with Ivy and Ball & Chain and I like them both. Still, I prefer long-ranged, otherwise I feed like a grandma.

• If there was one thing that you would most like to see phase 2 bring to Unchained, what would it be?

More maps and more heroes. And more traps. *breathing heavily.*

• When can we see you streaming next?

We’ll try to get back live from the beginning of January. Now I`m not in Cluj and my internet is not so great, but I hope asap. I love streaming and I hope to get better and less boring at it.

 

Shout out

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

I love you, guys. Devs, fans, from FaTeReLLa to Yolteotl, from Rimmon to CrystalStorm. Playing with you doesn’t feel like standing in front of the PC and wasting some time, but more like playing with friends from childhood. Hope it’s not a cheesy message to send. If it is, it’s okay, I’m a cheesy girl then.

We’re back with Fan Friday in 2015! As things start to fire back up at Robot and the new year gets into swing, its going to be an exciting next few months to be a Robot and OMD fan. We’re kicking things off with a special Fan Friday feature too with a double interview. Those in the EU community may recognize Cremvursti & Dubioasa as the couple that stream OMD over on their Twitch channel. They both found OMD together so we thought it only right to interview them both.

Today we have Part 1 of the interview with Cremvursti and on Sunday we’ll be seeing Dubioasa’s take on the same questions. So lets find out a bit about them!

The Basics

• Name: Valentin (in-game: cremvursti)
• Age: 21
• Home Town: 20k ppl lill romanian town that translates as “fir tree”; moved to Cluj-Napoca, Romania, for studying purposes.

Questions

• What do you both do by day?

Well, we’re both studying Journalism, but given the fact that our schedule is pretty relaxed, we sit around doing lazy stuff around the house. This includes things like playing video games, watching movies or just hanging around with our cat Skittles .

• How did you first meet?

Haha… Dubi actually dumped me on our first date … she totally forgot that she had to go out with me (I asked her out on Facebook after seeing that she was in the same year with me studying journo (this happened about 2 years ago). She felt bad about it tho and asked me out a few days later. It went cool. Now I’m happy xD

• What made you want to start streaming?

I’ve been long planning on streaming, and this semester@uni we have a course in which we get graded based on the number of viewers we get on a website that we had to build. Looking back at it, it may have not been such a great idea, given the fact that it’s pretty hard to convince people to watch your stream on any other website than Twitch. But still, it made me think seriously about streaming. I asked Dubioasa about her 2cents on my idea, she agreed and here we are.

• Outside of OMD and streaming, what other things do you both do for fun?

Play /w Skittles, cook and drink Cola <3

• What are your highlights of 2014?

Hmm. Dunno for sure. Maybe the fact that I got a scholarship for good grades (which was totally unexpected, usually only Dubioasa gets that)… Also, it’s the year we started our streaming project, which hopefully we will be able to continue for quite a while. And also the fact that me and Dubi celebrated two years together <3

• What are you doing over the New Year?

Celebrating with Dubi, popping some champagne (Robby Bubble ftw xD)… something along those lines.

• How did you discover OMD?

I’ve read reviews about the first game AND the second, but never really tried it until I met Dubi. I bought two copies of OMD! 2 and played it in co-op with her (it was actually our first co-op game played together <3)… that happened either late 2012 or early 2013.

• Which are your favourite heroes and why?

When I started playing I mained Hogarth. He was the type of hero that I play in MOBAs (bulky, physical, melee). Then I started noticing how OP is Stinkeye in defense and this, coupled with the fact that Dubi usually plays Sorc, made me choose him as my main. That way we can both play in defense and coordinate our actions.

• If there was one thing that you would most like to see phase 2 bring to Unchained, what would it be?

If we’re talking about game mechanics or content… I’m not quite sure… maybe more heroes. But the ONE THING I’d like to see from phase 2 is more players. This game has a huge potential of being “the next big thing” and if it reaches at least half of it, I’m going to be very happy 

• When can we see you streaming next?

Probably on the 3rd of January (I think FaTeReLLa will stream on the 2nd, so we won’t try to compete with her ). Seeing as how we had mild success with the stream, we’re probably going to try and set up a fixed schedule of OMD! Unchained streams (probably about twice per week, at least up until Phase 2).

 

Shout out

To all the OMD fans: if you haven’t played Unchained, you seriously have to. Don’t let words like “free-to-play”, “multiplayer” or “MOBA-like” stand between you and a great game.

Also, we’d like to thank everybody that has watched our stream. Hopefully you found us entertaining. If not, come again soon, we work really hard on improving the “fun factor” of our stream, but it’s a lot easier when you have viewers with whom to chat and have a laugh.

Stay tuned to see Dubioasa’s take on these interview questions on Sunday!

We wish you all a very Merry orc filled Christmas! Congratulations to all who entered our EU closed beta key give-away for Orcs Must Die! Unchained – those keys have now been sent to the winners.

As it turns out, Orc’s also like to get in the festive spirit at this time of year. Check out this excellent community art from Moltenink:

There is also a festive OMD themed poem this year from Robot Entertainment – “The night before Orgemas”, where everyone Order and Unchained alike join together to celebrate the night before Christmas, waiting for the Orc sleigh and Father Bloodspike Christmas.

Click here to read the full festive poem.

We’re feeling the festive spirit here at REF. If you are in the EU and havn’t yet scored yourself a closed beta access key and would like to play over the Christmas break, never fear! With our 100x closed beta key giveaway you can be in with a chance to check out Orcs Must Die! Unchained phase 1 over the Christmas period.

All you have to do is complete your entries below. Remember you can come back to REF each day to add another entry. The give-away runs from now until the big day itself – December 25th! We’ll be getting keys out to the winners on Christmas day. Good luck!

100x Orcs Must Die! Unchained closed beta key giveaway (EU)

Did you catch last weeks Insider Access? If not you missed out on some great behind the scenes footage showing the making of the PS4 OMDU trailer which was completed in house at Robot Entertainment. I’m sure you will agree the trailer was excellent and certainly shows the talent on hand at Robot. The making of video shown in last weeks Insider Access gives us an insight on how it was put together, and in such a short space of time! Check out the extract from the show here:

Also shown last week was a look at some of the marketing events that have been going on over in China with Tencent Games. There are some great pictures of the extravagant material Tencent put out, including a real-life Bloodspike!

The show featured Community Manager, SixOkay speaking to Robot head-honcho, CEO, Patrick Hudson and Lead Producer Chris Rippy. Be sure to catch up via the VOD below!

If you have been following Orcs Must Die! on Facebook, you may have heard the news that The Master has gone missing.

But what does this mean? Click the poster to find out. Don’t worry he is still available in-game, he’s just.. up-to something.