Tag Archives: Justin Korthof
Patrick Hudson, Robot Entertainment’s CEO has taken to the official website to update eager fans on the current status of Orcs Must Die! Unchained and where things are heading. Its been around a year since closed beta and Patrick makes note that this process has truely been a closed beta and not akin to a “pre-release demo”. Indeed we have seen comprhensive changes from what we see today in the closed beta than what we had a year ago.
Patrick’s open letter updates fans on the plan going forward. Things are going to start to take a faster pace as the studio targets the Go Live date for OMDU to be early 2016. This means we will see an open beta between now and then. We don’t have an open beta date just yet, but it should be forthcoming soon.
In a nutshell the priorites for the game going forward are:
- Improvements to the PvP mode aimed at better combat, hero depth, crafting and general offensive gameplay breadth.
- New heroes consistently rolled out starting with the next patch.
- More PvE. We think of PvE as traditional Orcs Must Die! gameplay. We have ambitious plans for PvE that we can’t wait to unveil. The Endless mode recently released is just the beginning.
- Polish. Lots and lots of shiny polish.
In addition Robot is keen to provide regular updates and more insight for fans on the roadmap going forward, including patch dates and content. On Insider Access, Community Manager, Justin “SixOkay” Korthof hinted of a system where we can upvote certain feature requests.
We’ve got a new OrcsMustDie.com website coming soon along with some detailed updates, including another open letter from SixOkay to give us even more information on the plans ahead coming out later this week. Be sure to keep yourself in the know and look out for this on the OMDU Forums.
Meanwhile take a look at the full letter from Patrick Hudson on the website using the link below:
Hot on the heels of the 2.1 patch being released in NA, Gameforge and Robot Entertainment have been able to release the patch in the EU in less than 24 since it first landed in North America. This fast turnaround should put some of the concerns EU players have had about the delay for patches to arrive at ease. Commenting on the EU forums, Community Manager, Justin Korthof said:
There was a LOT of concern voiced about having to wait extended periods of time again for the 2.1 update to hit the EU servers. As was noted before, we’ll always do everything we can to reduce the time between the NA and EU releases, and I think you can see that in full effect today, when Gameforge has released the 2.1 patch to the EU servers less than 24 hours after it hit the NA servers.
Matchmaking changes
In other patch 2.1 related news, some players have been finding it more difficult to find PvP matches since the patch made adjustments to the grouping of PvP players by level into matchmaking “buckets” and the removal of the number of players searching counter. Robot who are attuned to community feedback have announced that they are making some further adjustments to the matchmaker taking place from now. There are now just two matchmaking buckets, one for Levels 1-6, and the other for all other levels 7+. This should help alleviate issues where players have been finding it tricky to get in games.
The final push
Its now just the last few hours until the Kickstarter campaign for the Orcs Must Die! Unchained the Board Game closes. Now sitting at over $260,000 at time of writing this has been an incredibly successful campaign. The community have spoken in volumes!
If you havn’t yet pledged, now is the time! Just head over to Kickstarter on the link below:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1816687860/orcs-must-die-the-boardgame
Patch 2.1 for Orcs Must Die! Unchained closed beta is now live and can be downloaded by opening your game client. The patch is live for the North American region only, but it will very soon be available in the EU. Stay tuned for news on the EU release. Remember to check out the patch notes to keep you informed of the changes made in this release. Robot’s Community Manager, Justin “SixOkay” Korthof has also taken to video to give us a run-down on the changes!
Official Wiki and Key Giveaway (NA and EU!)
Also launching with patch 2.1 is the Official Orcs Must Die! Unchained wiki! The wiki is full of TONS of information, numbers and statistics about heroes, traps gear and much more. The OMDU Wiki replaces Robot Fans’ old numbers and statistics pages. The wiki format is a much better presentation and enables much more detailed information to be available and searchable. This excellent community resource like all wiki’s can be edited by the community. It really is by the community, for the community!
Be sure to check out the wiki on the link below and let us know your feedback. If you would like to help out with the project, just let us know!
orcsmustdieunchained.gamepedia.com/Orcs_Must_Die_Unchained_Wiki
To celebrate the launch of the wiki, Curse have teamed up with Robot to offer up to 10,000 closed beta keys to be given away to lucky winners. The key giveaway is available for both NA and EU. Be sure to enter for your chance to play!
Did you catch this weeks Insider Access on Twitch? If not, be sure to catch up on VOD below. This week Robot community manager Justin “SixOkay” Korthof sat down with Sandy Petersen, the man with the plan to being Orcs Must Die! Unchained to tabletops!
The on-going Kickstarter campaign has raised over $100,000, far exceeding the original $40,000 goal. We are now steaming through the stretch goals for even more content for Kickstarter backers.
On Insider Access, Sandy talks us through details about how the game works, the figures and some background of the project and Sandy himself.
Remember by backing the campaign on Kickstarter you will be able to get the stretch goals at no extra cost! Visit the Kickstarter page to make your pledge.
Did you see the OMDU Insider Access stream yesterday? If not you missed out on seeing the first stream showing phase 2 game play with Drew playing War Mage, Hogarth and Smolder through three matches with other Robot’s in the playtest area. Justin “SixOkay” Korthof and Ian “Mother” Fischer were on hand as commentary and Q&A with the stream chat.
We get a look at some awesome art improvements to the two lane map, the art team at Robot have really done a fantastic job improving the already excellent visuals. New UI for various things including a new weavers pop-up selection box and war camp UI. Weavers have been re-worked where by each hero now has a set of weavers that players can choose from and the upgrades are unlocked as you a play a match. They are unlocked in levels. Its well worth checking out this in the stream.
Be sure to catch up on the video-on-demand below to see this not to be missed Insider Access.
Robot bringing OMDU phase 2 to PAX
Something that was also let slip during the stream is confirmation that Robot Entertainment will indeed be bringing Orcs Must Die! Unchained phase 2 to PAX. Good news if you are attending!
Good news for all the fans of Smolder’s previous red head look. The Orcs Must Die! Unchained! Twitter account recently revealed that she will be returning back to her original red hair look. For those who might not know Smolder had her hair colour changed to red to blonde post alpha. Here she is with her fiery red hair ready for phase 2 of the closed beta.
Community artist Moltenink celebrated the return of red hair Smolder with his own awesome fan art:
I HAD to do some hasty fanart cause of the news that smolder is getting her red hair back!! @OrcsMustDie
— Moltenink (@moltenink) February 7, 2015
Paul Hellquist on Insider Access
Last weeks Insider Access was not to be missed. If you havnt seen it already be sure to catch up with it via the link below.
Justin “SixOkay” Korthof introduces us to Paul Hellquist who recently joined Robot Entertainment as Lead Designer. Paul has previously worked on games such as Bioshock and Borderlands 2. Having had an opportunity to delve into Orcs Must Die! Unchained we hear about some of the changes that we can expect to see in phase 2 of the closed beta.
Slowing things down
One of the interesting things we find out is that Robot is trying to slow down the overall gameplay of OMDU by doing things such as adding cast times. This has been done to help players better understand what is happening in the gameplay and not feel too overwhelmed by all the things going on at once.
Bigging things up
Paul and the team of designers have also been working closely with Robot’s art department to look at making things like effects such as hero powers bigger to pack a bigger punch on screen than what they did before. For instance here is a screenshot of Ivy’s root ability which now has alot more presence.
Because hero abilities now also have a cast time players will be able see heroes like Ivy power up her root and the area of effect it will be targeting, giving players a chance to get out of the way and avoid the root.
Here we can see Smolder trying out her new visual effects for her Phoenix ability.
Another hero ability that was well in need of being amplified was of course, Hogarth’s flying hatchet “E ability”. This has often come up in conversation as the somewhat invisible attack as often it would be very difficult to see this hatchet being thrown on screen in the midst of battle with everything else going on. Now however, this has been re-worked and Hogarth will now freeze his full size axe, throw that and then re-form his axe from ice. This results in a much bigger visual display as below, which is an excellent improvement.
War Mage is having his abilities re-worked. As the main face of Orcs Must Die! it is reasonable to assume that players may well pick the War Mage when starting playing OMDU as a familiar face. However his current abilities are a little confusing, especially for new players and these were in-need of being simplified. Thus both abilities have now been changed. One of his new abilities allows him to shoot his crossbow and then the arrow will shatter into many arrows affecting a wider area.
If you check the Insider Access stream there is some video footage of these new effects for the Ivy and the War Mage around 22 minutes in.
These are of course just some of the changes coming in phase 2. It will sure be interesting to see what else we see on Insider Access over the next few weeks to see more exciting changes for Phase 2.
Over last few weeks there has been some pretty interesting Orcs Must Die! Unchained insider access streams taking place over on the OMDU Twitch channel. These shows have given fans a good insight onto what kind of things we can expect to see in phase 2 of the closed beta.
Show #1 – Tencent announcement
The first insider access was a biggie, it was where we found out that Robot has a new partnership in place with Tencent Games in China to bring OMDU to the eastern audiences. It was also where, much to fans excitement we found out that barricades are returning! Other traps were discussed along with some ideas about changes to the gameplay and in-game economy.
Show #2 – Bosses and levelling
In this Insider Access, Mother (Ian Fischer) took the hot seat to discuss the cool ideas the studio has about implementing bosses. We saw a ton of artwork for potential bosses and we learnt about the plans to introduce daily challenges, specific goals that players can work towards.
Show #3 – Meet Doug Houserman, balance designer
In this show we met Robot’s new balance designer, Doug Houserman who talked to us about some of the plans and ideas he has for game-balance. Not only that but we got to see a whole ton of new trap ideas fresh out of the box from Doug’s mind!
Show #4 – Hero rewards, experience, bosses, XP and rewards.
Shoop (Shovaen Patel) and Shade (Doug Houserman) join Justin for a detailed look at how things like experience, XP and rewards are changing in Phase 2. We learnt that there are plans to track victories for individual heroes, allowing players to level up on a per hero basis. Bosses were discussed again, and we also found out that at the end of each game players can choose a card from a random set to get a random reward.
Reveal #5 – New Map!
Something we have all been waiting eagerly to hear about, a new map, this time with a much darker Orcish map to give contrast to the two current fortress based Order maps.
Catch up show – Tuesday, January 27
With so much that has been covered in the last few weeks, it can be tricky to digest all the new ideas that Robot is working on. Luckily Robot’s community team have this covered with this weeks show going to be a “Reveals Overview” show where Justin “SixOkay” Korthof will be going through the key highlights of each of these five big reveal shows to give us the low down on the key changes that will be going into Phase 2.
Its definitely a show not to be missed so be sure to check out the next Insider Access Tuesday, January 27 at 2PM Central Time on the OMDU Twitch channel. If you have a burning question be sure to come along and ask it in the Twitch chat.
See you there!
