Tag Archives: Interview
This weeks spotlight on features RoyalFino. Royal is very active on the early access forums over at OrcsMustDie.com and often makes suggestions for the developers. So lets find out a little more about RoyalFino!
The Basics
Name: Joe
Questions
- When you’re not busy playing OMDU Alpha, what is your day job?
I work temp jobs when I can get them. Looking for a career currently.
- Is there any particular film you are most looking forward to this year?
2015 is going to be way better but probably X-men off the top of my head. Godzilla comes to mind as well. Maybe that Michael Bay movie that involves Turtles from space or whatever.
- Favourite music?
Film Soundtracks.
- Outside the gaming world – what are your hobbies?
Football (American/NFL) fan. I love surfing Reddit and learning new things from it. It’s a great source of information and given the internet is really like a 21st century library, Reddit is a nice road map for it. I also like looking at pictures of cats. Reddit is great for that.
- Aside from OMD, what other games do you enjoy playing?
Half-Life, Portal, Counter-Strike, Sim City and Age of Empires come to mind. Those are some of my most favourite games ever and those type of games are the ones I usually enjoy. OMD was my first venture into the tower defence genre and while I played others and enjoyed them, OMD is the king. If somebody asked me for my top 5 favourite game franchises, Orcs Must Die would be there. I’m really surprised how much I fell in love with the game given I had no expectations for it when it was released in October of 2011.
- How did you discover OMD?
One of my friends let me try it and I got hooked. I ended up playing it for hours till I beat it. I ended up paying it forward and introducing many others to the game as well. I felt like my eyes were opened to a completely new genre of games I can enjoy.
- Whats the best thing about Unchained?
It’s more Orcs Must Die and it introduces a new take on the franchise.
- Do you consider yourself to be more defensive or more offence in Unchained?
Defensive. I like it when the enemy comes to me. I was like that when playing Age of Empires too.
- Have you met your nemesis on the battlefield? Who stands out to you?
Those fire girls that shoot fire are a pain in the ass. As Smolder, who I mostly play as, it’s hard to kill them.
- Deck building is coming soon, what are the cards that are certain to be in your decks?
Tar. Zappers. Arrow Walls.
Shout Out
- Is there anything you would like to say to all the OMD fans out there right now?
Give the game a chance to win you over if you haven’t already. It’s great fun.
Check out the official Orcs Must Die Subreddit at www.reddit.com/r/OrcsMustDie as I am the Admin there currently and want to help grow that community to keep all the Redditors that love killing orcs connected and informed about the games, the community hot spots such as robotentertainmentfans.com and the all upcoming community events. I’d appreciate it if any Orcs Must Die fans who visit Reddit subscribe to the Orcs Must Die subreddit as it will hope grow that community.
Thanks for taking part Joe!
Following on with our “Spotlight on” feature, last week we interviewed community streamer Nananea. This week we do the same for someone who is very active on the early access forums suggesting and sharing ideas with other fans and can often be found in-game. So lets find out a little more about Blaster!
The Basics
Name: Marshall “Blaster”
Questions
- When you’re not enjoying the OMDU Alpha – what other games do you enjoy playing?
Crusader Kings II, Counter Strike: Source, Mount and Blade, Civilization V, obviously OMD:2.
- Favourite fast food restaurant?
Taco Bell maybe? I’m still pretty upset that they haven’t brought in a new Chihuahua. Maybe the fish market down the street from my house?
- Favourite music?
Old country, David Bowie, T-Rex, and that quack like a duck song on youtube.
- If you could pick anywhere in the world to go on holiday, where would you go and why?
Probably somewhere else in southeast Georgia because it’s generally preferable to where the rest of you all live.
- What do you do in your day job?
The NSA pays me to monitor the OMD:U Community.
- How did you find out about Orcs Must Die! ?
Pretty boring story I guess. I saw where a few of my friends were playing the first game on Steam, bought it during the summer sale, and got super hooked. Now I’m looking forward to bringing those folks into Unchained to whoop the rest of you.
- Whats the thing you like most about OMDU right now?
I really like being part of the development and watching the game grow. No one really has it all figured out yet so there’s a ton of cool experimentation and adapting to the new additions.
- If there is was one main thing you would like to see changed in OMDU what would it be?
I know it would involve massive balancing work and modifications to all of the levels but I really would like to see the fliers get put back in. It isn’t just nostalgia for the old titles; I really think the strategy around deciding how to balance the guys you send out and the traps you pick would be deepened as a result. It would also put more importance on picking a good mix of heros for your team.
- Whos your favourite OMDU character and why?
I’m mostly playing Hogarth even though I still really want to play the War Mage too once I figure out the new kill boxes well enough to take advantage of the trap discount. It might not be the flashiest thing in Unchained right now but there really isn’t anything much more versatile than being able to throw down a stun. Hogarth is probably aesthetically the funniest character to me as well.
- When can we catch you playing OMDU?
I’ve had to take a slow couple of weeks for finals but I pretty much make every one of the night time sessions I can. I plan on starting a regular live stream in a few weeks too but haven’t quite gotten it quite organized yet.
Shout out
- Is there anything you would like to say to all the OMD fans out there right now?
If you see me in your game lobby, go ahead and plan on not picking Hogarth because I’m calling him now. Also, if you’re not in the alpha and you’re sceptical about this game not being a simple OMD:3 game, try to be patient and optimistic. I’ve never actively played a MOBA in my life but this feels completely natural to me as an OMD player and its already way more playable than you’d expect at this stage of development.
Thanks for your time Blaster! We look forward to checking out your streams once you get set up!
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!
Robot Fans audio interview extraordinaire Kenny Newell has recently been invited to an interview by Tony Goodman in his own home over dinner. In case you don’t know, Tony Goodman one of the key founders of Ensemble Studios and served as CEO and Studio Head for the lifetime of Ensemble Studios. He then went on to head up and create Robot Entertainment after Ensemble closed its doors.
If you ever wondered how Robot Entertainment came to form, and how it came about that they started working on Age of Empires Online your going to want to check out this fantastic interview between Kenny and Tony Goodman. You can also find out about Tony’s brand new venture, PeopleFun and their first game – Word Chums!
Listen now:
Robot Fans interviews Justin Korthof about Orcs Must Die 2 and Hero Academy on Steam. Kenny tries to bribe Justin with comic books for more information about the TF2 team that will be released August 8th.
Robot Community Manager Justin “SixOkay” Korthof has popped up on the gaming podcast website Seven Day Cooldown. The hour long interview with Adam Crichton talks about a ton of stuff from both Orcs Must Die! and Hero Academy. The podcast includes details about the development of both games and what we can expect in the future. Plus some details about marketing and community management and all that goodness. Oh and our famous Hero Academy League gets a mention too :). There is also some funky intro music thrown into the mix for good measure.
Well worth listening to for all Robot Fans! Check it out on the link below: http://www.sevendaycooldown.com/site/638/
In the latest edition of Game Informer you will find an interview with Robot Entertainment’s CEO, Patrick Hudson. There is also a directors cut version of this interview available online at the Game Informer website. The interview discusses the Halo MMO that was cancelled mid-development at Ensemble Studios and then goes on to talk about the visions for Robot Entertainment including the desire to work on smaller scale products with shorter development times. This vision has been realised already with Orcs Must Die! and Hero Academy which have been markedly smaller projects than say, Halo Wars at Ensemble.
We didn’t want to go out and start pitching publishers and trying to raise money for a big game. That was a bit of a driver. But the biggest driver was, “Hey, we don’t want to sign up for another three-year slog.” It’s just tough to go through that over and over again. We were ready for something different. – Patrick Hudson
The interview is definitely worth checking out. There is also some tidbits about Hero Academy and Patrick’s thought on the App Store and mobile gaming markets. Go forth and check out Game Informer’s website!
