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Robot’s Lead Design Director, Jerome Jones has sat down to talk with The Gamer about Orcs Must Die! 3 which is still making good progress towards its launch this year despite the delays caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. The game is on track for release later this year as a timed exclusive on Stadia and then coming to other platforms a bit later after that.

So.. the question on many players might be why Stadia and what does it bring to the table? Also why might some of the problems that other games have faced might not be such a big issue OMD3? In essence they key benefit is the power of cloud computing and that now Robot will be able to greatly scale up the game. Think bigger levels, more minions, more physics. What this means in reality is that players will now be able to step more outside of the castles and place traps outdoors at much bigger scale.

“When first playing a war scenario in OMD! 3,” Jones said, “the army of orcs that comes at you is quite epic! It might even seem unwinnable.” Previously in the OMD! series, players would complete battles within the castle itself, but never had a chance to step outside. Now, the scope of the game will increase dramatically as you leave the castle, where OMD! 3‘s mousetrapping mechanics have been significantly enhanced, and battles will be bigger and more exciting than anything we’ve seen before.

Huge war machines can be set up by players taking out masses of Orcs at once. These will be some of the biggest offensive weapons in players armouries like never seen before, even in Unchained.

However does all this exciting new up scale come with a cost? What about things like lag? Jerome explains this should not be an issue with OMD3:

Stadia has found the most problems with first-person shooters, where an immediate response is expected to get the full effect of the gameplay. OMD! 3‘s tower defense-style of action isn’t as reliant on response time, and any lag that might be there is impossible to detect.

Check out the full article over at The Gamer to see more of Jerome’s thoughts on OMD3 and Stadia. Get excited for the biggest Orcs Must Die! yet, coming later this year!

PC players rejoice! You can now ready up and enter battle with ReadySet Heroes, available on the Epic Games Store! The PC version contains both the local and online modes. Compete through random dungeons and fun mini games as you race your way to the top!

Download now! https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/readyset-heroes

Happy October!  Big news – this month sees the release of Robot Entertainment’s brand new multiplayer dungeon crawler original IP game – ReadySet Heroes! Up to four players can play locally with classic split screen or online play is also available with PlayStation Plus. Players start with basic weapons and go on an adventure together to compete to see who is the better hero. 30 rooms await players, completing dungeons, challenges, looting and scavenging along the way.

A brand new, awesomely animated launch trailer is now available to show off the game. Check it out and more importantly head over to the PlayStation store where you can download the game today!

It’s a big week for Robot Entertainment as the studio bounces back with two big pieces of news! Things have been quiet on the news front for sometime, but no longer as Robot has this week announced its next brand new game in the Orcs Must Die! series…

Orcs Must Die! 3

That’s right – the Orcs are back in town! The much loved franchise is set to return to its roots as a single-player / co-op tower defence game much more akin to its predecessors OMD1 and OMD2. There has been a call from the community for sometime to return to the spirit of the first two titles and now Robot Entertainment is set to deliver on this ask thanks to a great partnership with Google and the Stadia platform!

Take a look at this sweet new trailer:

There is a brand new story mode, moving 20 years into the future our trusted heroes War Mage and Sorceress have trained up their own new apprentices to take on the Orc mob. This time however things have been majorly cranked up. Players will be taking on hordes of Orcs like never before. Huge armies now threaten the rift with the numbers of Orcs now bigger than ever compared to previous OMD games. Players will need to make use of huge traps known as war machines to help keep the mob at bay. 

This is going to be a truly explosive new game! Due to land in spring 2020 the initial launch will be on Google’s new Stadia platform. There are reasons for this and most notably because Google has been a big part in helping make OMD3 possible as Robot’s CEO, Patrick Hudson explains on Reddit:

After shutting down OMDU, Robot had to downsize our studio. We had re-sized and focused on making smaller games than an OMD game. We didn’t know when or if we would get back to the OMD franchise.

We met with Google to learn more about Stadia for our other projects. We discovered that the people at Google are big fans of OMD. That led to an exploration of what might be possible with an OMD game on Stadia. We both got excited about our ideas and decided to go after it.

OMD3 would not be possible today without Google’s support. They are behind the game in a big way. We’ve hired more developers to bring it to life. It’s the OMD game that fans of the first two games have been wanting, and we’re thrilled that we have the opportunity to make it.

If you’re not planning to look at the Stadia platform, do not fear. The initial release will be a timed exclusive to the Stadia platform but other platforms are due to be announced in due course. In the meantime soak up that brand new sweet OMD3 trailer and get hyped!

ReadySet Heroes is coming!

If this big news wasn’t already enough, Robot’s other project also in development is soon to be landing on a PS4 near you. ReadySet Heroes the multiplayer party dungeon crawler is set to land on October 1st 2019! That’s just a few months away. There is a brand new trailer too. Here we can see more of the dungeon crawling and different party challenges. It won’t be long now until you’ll be picking your hero to take into battle!

Available for pre-order now on the Playstation store which includes an exclusive pre-order bonus crown, skin and more!

The time has come to see what has been cooking at the Robot Entertainment factory for the past year. The answer has been revealed today as part of PlayStation State of Play. The answer is ReadySet Heroes! A brand new and original game from Robot Entertainment featuring fast paced multiplayer dungeon crawling. Players choose their own hero who starts with nothing more than a humble wooden sword. Players then take their hero into randomly generated dungeons to do battle and solve puzzles. The twist however is that there is another team competing with the player doing the exact same dungeon with the winner being the team that finishes it the fastest!

The game features single player or co-op play against a team competing in the same dungeon. Once a team reaches the end of the dungeon, depending on their performance they will be equipped to take on the other players in a final showdown to find out who is the worthy dungeon champion and the mightiest hero. The final showdowns take the form of a variety of different activities from an all out arena battle or maybe something a bit more bizarre like snail racing!

The main mode has everything you would expect from a dungeon crawler. Players solve puzzles, grab loot, defeat enemies – all against the clock to try and beat the other team. Items you collect like armour and spells help you in the longer term once you reach the final showdown. The game is designed for short, quick play sessions with friends. One might call it a party dungeon crawler!

Trailer

Check out the brand new first look trailer below.

More information

Robot Entertainment CEO has penned a blog post on the Playstation website talking more about the game. Be sure to check that out to read more. The game will be launching in 2019 with date TBC. It will be available on PS4 for sure and there will not be a requirement for PlayStation Plus. Other consoles and platforms are to be announced and not ruled out.

Keep a close eye out for more news and information on this exciting brand new original game, fresh out of the factory from Robot! Remember this is just one of at least two games that Robot has been working on!

Unfortunately it has been announced today that online play for the original Hero Academy, Hero Academy 2 and Orcs Must Die! Unchained will be ceasing later this year, on April 8th 2019. The population of players on these games has reduced and regrettably no longer viable for Robot to provide on-going support for online play.

Orcs Must Die! 1 & 2 will continue to be available for play on Steam.

It is a challenging world for small independent developers like Robot and sometimes these tough decisions have to be made. By taking Hero Academy and Orcs Must Die! Unchained to sunset, Robot is able to focus more exclusively on TWO new exciting games which are currently in development.

Players and fans will no doubt reflect fondly on the great times they had playing these titles. Many of the community played a large part in helping to shape these games thanks to the high level of engagement Robot has with its community and its fans. We’ll remember these good times as we move into the future.

To help keep the spirit of these games going a little longer, Robot is offering active players who log in free in-game currency. Perfect if you have cards you have been wanting to unlock in Hero Academy or perhaps some heroes you have yet to try out in Orcs Must Die! Unchained. Be sure to make the most of this free in-game currency offer running until April 8th 2019.

For more information about this news, and information about the free in-game currency offer please take a look at the announcement on the Robot Entertainment website.

Future

Moving forwards Robot’s attention is firmly on the delivery of two brand new games. While there is no news to share on what these games are, be sure to stay turned for news and announcements in 2019. The bots are working hard at the factory and the studio is currently recruiting for a number of positions. We will keep you up to date, right here at REF.

You may have had trouble accessing the Robot Entertainment Fans website over the past few weeks. Unfortunately, we had some issues with our DNS provider which resulted in some regions being shown other websites instead of REF. We’re sorry about this and we expect the issue to be fully resolved in the new 48 hours.

Rest assured Robot Fans isn’t going anywhere!