Tag Archives: Hero Academy

Six answers from SixOkay – Hero Academy and more
Dean
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Following up on the recent Six Questions feature we have put the most common themes to SixOkay, Robot’s Community Manager to answer your burning questions. Without further ado here are some answers to your questions:

1. Will Hero Academy have any more updates?

At this time, we are not planning any new updates to Hero Academy. As with everything, we need to balance the available resources at the studio. Currently, we’re focusing our attention on a big, exciting new project that we’ll reveal to everyone soon.

 

2. What do you think of the idea of giving fans the opportunity to participate with the further development of Hero Academy? As example Robot Entertainment could allow the community to design new maps?

This is an interesting idea. It’s a lot like creating mod tools for OMD games, however. The amount of work that would need to go into supporting community-built and distributed maps for Hero Academy is actually pretty significant. As I mentioned above, our resources are focusing currently on a new project, and we can’t focus on building UGC tools for Hero Academy at this time.

 

3. I’d like to ask what an average day at the office is for you. I can imagine that you’re in contact with a lot of different publicists after a game has been announced, and you’ll be quite busy with the community in the few months after release, but what’s your average day during down time, like now?

There’s never really “down time” around here. Even when we’re not public on new games, there’s always a ton of prep work going on to make sure we’re prepared to support everything once the game is announced. Aside from that work, there’s also all of the support work that needs to get done for released games. There are support emails that need to be answered, social media that needs to stay engaged after release, tons of discussion about how new games can support community, event planning that usually goes on for months before a major trade show, and a lot of writing and rewriting for things like websites and press releases. It’s sort of like an iceberg. There’s the small portion that you see publicly, but a massive amount of work that goes on below the surface to support that public material.

 

4. Design question for OMD2: Were The Hive and Chilled Caverns set up specifically so that the fliers could not be managed by ceiling/wall traps? The fliers in The West Wing were total cake to manage due to grinders and then you get The Hive. Yikes.

It was a deliberate decision. Because that DLC pack introduced the Dwarven Missile Launcher, the designers wanted to make it harder to kill flyers with traps, encouraging players to turn to the DML. It’s one of the most powerful flyer-killing items in the game, so we wanted to make sure we gave people a real reason to use it.

 

5. Will Orcs Must Die! and/or Orcs Must Die! 2 be linux-compatible to work on Steam Machines any time soon or at all?

This isn’t something that we’re focusing on currently.

 

6. When will we be hearing about that new game you’re working on with Gameforge? An approximate time period would be nice

Very soon. People who’ve been following Robot since we opened have probably noticed that we have a tendency to reveal new projects around PAX East. No sense changing our habits now if they’ve always worked before.

 

Hero Academy arrives on Android!
Dean
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It may have been a long time coming but Robot Entertainment have today soft launched Hero Academy on Android devices! This is obviously fantastic news for those with Android devices who have eagerly been awaiting to play the game on the move with their mobile devices.

Playing Hero Academy on Android is exactly the same as playing on your PC or Mac, you can login with your same account details and you can play your games any time anywhere! The game is available for download via the Google Play store on the link below:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.robotentertainment.heroacademy

One thing to bear in mind though, is that as Android covers a vast array of different devices on dis-similar hardware, this means that unfortunately Hero Academy is not compatible on all Android devices. A list of compatible devices can be found on Robot’s website. However for readers reference the list of compatible devices is as below:

Acer Iconia Tab
Archos 101 Titanium
Archos 80 Platinum
ASUS Google Nexus 7
ASUS Transformer
ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity
ASUS Transformer Prime
HTC Droid DNA
HTC EVO 4G LTE
HTC One
HTC One S
HTC One V
HTC One X
LG Google Nexus 4
LG Optimus F3
LG Optimus G
LG Optimus L5 II
LG Optimus L7 II
LG Optimus L9
Motorola Droid 3
Motorola Droid 4
Motorola Droid RAZR
Motorola Droid RAZR HD
Motorola XOOM
Motorola XOOM 2
NOOK HD
NOOK HD+
Samsung Galaxy Note
Samsung Galaxy Note II
Samsung Galaxy S2
Samsung Galaxy S3
Samsung Galaxy S4
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1″
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7″
Samsung Google Galaxy Nexus
Samsung Google Nexus 10
Hero Academy update for iOS 7 is out now!
Dean
5725

Great news for Hero Academy players using Apple’s latest and greatest iOS 7 on their iPhones and iPads. Robot Entertainment has just released their latest update for Hero Academy that fixes issues that some players experienced having updated to iOS 7 since its recent release. Also featured in the update is support for widescreen 16:9.

There are no new features affecting the game-play I’m afraid. But this much needed update keeps things smooth sailing on the latest and greatest devices. The update should be available to download now from iTunes, but it may take a little longer to reach some regions so if you don’t see it quite yet keep checking back!

Hero Academy streaming on Twitch
Elagatua
5481

Hey Robot Fans, this is Elagatua.  I’ve been a top ranked player in the league for the past few months, and I’ve noticed the difficulty and effort required to make awesome Hero Academy content.  I’d been toying around with the idea of doing a regular twitch.tv broadcast for the last few months, so it made sense to combine these two interests.

I generally stream on Saturday evenings with shows themed around a particular squad.  I accept challenges from any viewers and commentate on my strategy during the matches.  I also put up the VODs on youtube for anyone to check out after the show has ended.

If this sounds interesting to you, please check out my stream at www.twitch.tv/tuamater or my youtube channel at www.youtube.com/tuamater

Hero Academy for Android is in testing
Dean
5448

So things have been pretty quiet lately with Robot Entertainment. Never fear, this is to be expected from a relatively small studio when they are between games. Silence never means nothing is happening, quite the opposite it fact – it means they are hard at work on new games!

However in amongst working on new games the Robot’s are also working hard to being Hero Academy to Android. Porting the game to Android has long been mooted and was one of the things asked by the community in the REF Six things for SixOkay. Today however a few days ago on the RE.com forums LeWZ wrote:

So please, RE, PLEASE, port it to android. I’m sure a whole LOT of people will buy it, even though a bunch might just get it illegally and overload your servers, things will eventually settle down and your fan base will be doubled or even tripled guaranteed!

 

Community Manager, Justin “SixOkay” Korthof has today responded with some good news for budding Hero Academy fans:

We are. We’re just having to do a lot of squashing of bugs and the like to make sure that it works with all of the different systems (different store, wide variety of devices, etc). Honestly, you can blame me for the silence. I don’t want to go announcing anything specific until we know for sure what’s happening and when. But take heart – the testers sitting at the next desk over from mine are digging through it and talking about the build as I type this. As we said before, if we have to make the decision to not pursue the Android version, we will for sure let everyone know. If we’re quiet? Well, in this case, the silence means we’re still moving ahead. I’m sure it’s frustrating not to have any real updates, but I really do appreciate your patience. We want to get it out to you as soon as we can, but we also want it to meet the quality standards that we held the game to on previous platforms.

 

It looks like great news indeed for all those Android owners out there. Keep your ears to the ground as a Hero Academy for Android announcement might not be too long away now. As always, shipping a quality product is high on Robot’s to-do list, so there is a chance that if the Android version doesnt meet the standards required it might not be do-able. Hopefully though the talented bots will find a way.

Designing a Hero Academy Team (Part 2)
MNC-Dover
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When designing this team, I wanted to make them feel new and familiar at the same time.  To accomplish this, I stayed with the 4 units/1 super unit concept and tried not to add too many new mechanics so as to confuse newer players.  A lot of changes occurred during their creation and I’m pretty happy with the results.  Of course, no team is perfect.  Without a way to balance test the team it would be difficult to say whether they are fair or not versus the other teams.  Buffs and nerfs would probably happen to even things out.

Before you read further, I’d recommend downloading my design document information found here.  There you will find a statistical break down of each unit along with their special abilities.

After going with the team bonus of destroying Crystals, I next focused on a new range mechanic.  4 out of 5 units on the team are ranged.  I made an item called the Crystal Wings which would increase any attack range by +1.  To make this fair, I limited all of the unit’s starting range to 2 and made this item take place of one of the armor slots.

This one mechanic allows the player to customize the team to their distinct playstyle.  Want a three range stomp?  How about a three range heal?  The choice is yours.  With only three of the item in your deck, you can’t have all four units with the range bonus so you need to choose carefully.  Basically, this item allows a lot more flexibility when dealing with different situations.

After the range mechanic was done, I focused on the melee unit, the Guardian.  In order to make him stand out from the tanky Knight and the horrifyingly good Void Monk, I tweaked his design.  For starters, his base attack damage is 300.  No other fighter unit starts with an attack that high.  That means he becomes a 450 damage attacker with a Rune Crystal upgrade.  Not having a three range movement and only a +10% physical defense made him not too over powered.

To give him a unique twist on gameplay, and to keep with the Crystal theme, he gains a nice power boost when positioned on a Gem Boost tile:  +10% to both resists and unable to be moved by any push/pull mechanic (Knight’s attack, Impaler pull, Typhoon, etc).  Now you could position him to grant your team extra strength while attack Crystals, but having to sacrifice your highest damage outputting unit.

Next up was the ranged attackers, the Geomancer and the Rogue.  I’ll start with the Geomancer.

The Geomancer is basically a ranged stomp unit like the Necromancer or the Witch.  He can be upgraded to 3 range with the Crystal Wings making him awesome in team killing strategies.  His stomp is turning the KO’d unit into a small crystal which counts towards the team’s overall Crystal health.  Keeping it in line with other range stomps, I gave it 250 hp and the bamboo ability of claiming any tile it rests on.  This will typically mean an opponent will spend two AP getting rid of it, 1 if they have a 300 damage attack.  In addition, these Crystals can be used by the Golem to regenerate health and boost attack damage.

The Rogue is the AoE attacker on the team.  I wanted a variation on AoE attacks, but Robot Entertainment seemed to cover all kinds.  I ended up with a cardinal direction style splash meaning the center unit takes full damage and the units above, below, and to the sides take splash.  Diagonals are safe.  I had the splash damage do 75%, which is higher than normal for a splash attack, because it hits less units overall.  Her ability becomes much better when combined with the Purifier’s debuff attack.

Speaking of the Purifier, let’s talk healing.  Her role as a healer on the team is average at best.  I wanted to make a support unit that could do more than heal though.  Her special ability is when she hits an enemy unit, they permanently give a stackable 5% debuff to any of their Crystals they are with range of.  This is like a reverse Paladin’s aura.  Players will have to move their units away from their Crystals or risk making them more vulnerable to attacks.  If the Purifier hits two units near Crystals, that means a +30% damage bonus against them by any unit on the Crystal Keeper team.  Giving her a range boost also makes her as flexible as the Priestess in healing and attacking.

Finally we have the Golem, a walking mountain of Crystal energy come to life.  This unit is unique in that it can heal itself when attacking a Crystal as well as power up its next attack.  The Crystal Keepers as a whole don’t output a lot on non-Crystal damage so the Golem compensates by being able to juice up its next attack by attacking its teams own Crystal.  It can also use Crystals created by the Geomancer to heal/boost without retreating the front lines.  That being said, the Golem isn’t overly strong and has to be used carefully, not unlike the Council’s Ninja.

That will do it for this part of my team breakdown.  I’ll finish up with some final thoughts on the characters art design, provided by the amazing Ashely Sarroca, as well as some details on the items for the team, their map, and any questions you might have about them.

Happy 4th Birthday Robot!
Dean
5404

Today marks the 4th anniversary of Robot Entertainment. Formed back in 2009 following the closure of Ensemble Studios, Robot Entertainment is today a grand 4 years old!

In that time it is fitting that they have worked on / released four whole games, namely Age of Empires Online, Orcs Must Die!, Hero Academy and Orcs Must Die 2!

The Fabulous Four are certainly all fantastic – but which is your favourite? Let us know in our poll!

 

Whats your favourite Robot Entertainment game so far?

  • Hero Academy (49%, 104 Votes)
  • Orcs Must Die! 2 (38%, 81 Votes)
  • Age of Empires Online (7%, 15 Votes)
  • Orcs Must Die! (5%, 11 Votes)

Total Voters: 211

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To celebrate Robot Entertainment is having a 75% off offer on the official Robot Entertainment store. If you’re missing a game or some DLC you can pick it up at a mammoth 75% normal prices. Age of Empires Online is excluded as it is not a title published by Robot Entertainment. Don’t miss this great chance to complete your Robot Entertainment collection thus far!