Tag Archives: Orcs Must Die! Unchained
Fan Friday is back with the spotlight now on D_W_, another regular on the OMDU North American forums. You may recognize D_W_ from some of the many excellent suggestion threads and new hero ideas. Some of the hero ideas D_W_ has come up with include The Greasy Gnoll, The Elementarist, Haze and Calvin the Hobgoblin Shaman. To find about a bit more about the ideas man we sit down with D_W_ for our spotlight interview!
The Basics
- Name: David William O’Boyle (see where my clever username comes from? :D)
- Age: 28
- Home Town: Wood-Ridge NJ, USA (Currently living in Seattle WA.)
Questions
- What is day job?
Oh boy, right now I’m unemployed and have been looking for work for about a month now. It’s no fun. If anyone needs a sound designer/composer or a game designer or just wants to give me money so I can eat that would be great. Though freelancing doesn’t pay the bills unfortunately. Crappy day jobs here I come!
- Best and worst food?
I make a pretty mean chili. It’s basically the most amazing thing you could eat if you are me. I’m not a fan of eggs or fish. They just creep me out.
- Dream holiday destination?
Some place that has rad people and mini golf. You can’t go wrong with mini golf.
- Whats your taste in music?
This is like the worst question to ask a musician. The best answer is probably “yes, especially instrumental stuff.” The long answer is I literally listen to a bit of everything from pre-renaissance all the way to music so experimental that most people would not describe it as music. To me music is sound made with intention. The real long answer would probably be book length haha.
- How did you first discover Orcs Must Die! ?
I believe it was from GiantBomb.com’s Quick Look video. I bought it soon after and didn’t really like the game at first to be honest. Eventually I played through it and tried to five skull every level before OMD2 came out.
- Which of Weavers would you recommend players take into battle and why?
Steel Weaver so you can spam archer guardians.. Oh wait you mean in OMDU.
- Whats your favourite OMD trap of all time?
Brimstone and Void Walls.
- What is the one thing you wish OMDU would have that it doesn’t have right now?
Hrmm… There’s a lot of old traps/gear/Minions I’d love to see in it. Right now I think it could use some more elemental variation in minion types so I’d love to see the Elemantals from Orcs 2.
- What do you think about the hero balance, do any of the heroes stand out as OP?
I don’t think any one of them is super broken at the moment. Personally I’d rather see some heroes brought up a bit more, but perhaps I’m just bad at playing them.
- How do you feel about the new AFK / kick timer?
It’s probably too short. 2 minutes is a long time in game, but not in life. There are tons of things that could make a person go AFK. But I don’t know. Other players just have to be understanding of people AFK and keep a calm head. I don’t have solution for that sort of thing.
Shout Out
- Is there anything you would like to say to all the OMD fans out there right now?
Hi, Dwar. Hi. Baehl.
Thanks for taking part D_W_ – we hope to see you composing or designing games soon!
Earlier this week on the Twitch stream was the second of the Insider Access streams. Last week saw us chat to Robot artists Bart Tiongson and Dave Kubalak. This week, community manager SixOkay is sitting down with Robot Entertainment newbie designer “Danger Mike” to discuss the new tutorial that will soon be making its way to the beta masses.
No doubt one of the gripes at the moment from OMDU regulars is the incoming swarm of new players who have struggled to grasp some of the key things about the game before starting matchmaking. In particular things like not spending leadership points, closing gates, putting traps in the wrong places etc. As of right now it has been difficult for new players to find out how to play owing to the current tutorial being very basic. Danger Mike is new to Robot Entertainment and his task his to create a brand new, engaging tutorial system for players. On the Insider Access stream we get our first look of his hard work so far. Lets check it out!
As you can see from the video it looks like Danger Mike is doing an excellent job on the tutorial so far. We learn that the tutorial as seen above will be mandatory before players can get into their first game. However as a bonus players will gain experience as well for completing it. We also learn that there will be a number of other optional tutorials as well for players to get to grips with some of the finer details. As such the tutorial above just covers what Robot believes to be the core basic principles of the game.
What do you think about the new tutorial proposals? REF wants to know! Have your say in our poll!
To help satisfy the thirst for Orcs Must Die! Unchained mega fans, Robot Entertainment have made available detailed numbers and statistics for traps, minions, glyphs, weavers and more. Over here at REF we have created a database so that you can delve right in and start number crunching.
Open the OMDU numbers and statistics database
You can sort columns by clicking on the headings. Need to find that minion that deals the most damage? No problem! Just sort on the column header. (It’s the Order Mage, btw.)
We’ll be keeping the database updated as each patch comes out so that it always stays up to date.
If you missed todays Insider Access stream you will have missed out on an excellent video between new Assistant Community Manager Kristen Fuller and Robot Entertainment artists Bart “Yellow King” Tiongson and Dave “kube” Kubalak.
The interview talked us through the early years of both Bart and Dave’s careers, who are both ex Ensemble Studios staff through to their career today at Robot Entertainment. From 12:30 in the stream a demonstration is shown of how the Ball and Chain hero was digitally concepted. The interview is well worth the watch, particularly for those interested in the art field.
Day 2
Following part 1 of the heroes on tour blog the fun continues as we look at Day 2. After waking up we met with FaTeReLLa once again outside the hotel as we began our tour around the city.
- Just woken up and ready to explore Karlsruhe!
As we travelled into the city we also met up once again with SiS and we bagan to make our way to the beautiful Botanic Gardens. Here we were able to relax in the peaceful setting and also got to see people pass in costumes as they headed to the second day of the festival.
We also managed to find an ideal place for an OMD killbox!
After a bit more walking around the gardens it was time to head to lunch. We walked through the city to an awesome pasta restaurant called Vapiano. This has become one of my most favourite Italian restaurants of all time. The meal is prepared fresh in front of your eyes and you can make your own dish by choosing the pasta and sauces you like. Its a bit like going to Subway, but for pasta instead! They also have some great pudding choices, I decided to opt for the more dangerous death by chocolate option.
Healthy options!
Following lunch, next up was to travel to the Karlsruhe Zoo. We didn’t see any Orcs, but we did see a whole host of other animals and have included a small gallery below. We had a good time at the zoo but boy, was it hot!
At the Zoo
After a nice time in the zoo it was time for us to tragically begin to think abut going home. We headed back to FaTeReLLa’s car to collect our bags. Her car is quite easy to spot, seeing as it has her name “FaTeReLLa”, engraved on it! With our bags in tow we headed back to the train station. I travelled back with Artimunor, Daeforce and Alastaire61 back to Frankfurt where we went our separate ways at the airport. Then it was back on the plane back to the UK taking back a Gameforge pack which we were all given which included a OMDU T-Shirt, comic book and buttons.
We all had a brilliant time on the Heroes on Tour trip. It was expertly organised by Gameforge and FaTeReLLa who looked after us very well. We hope that there will be another chance for a future trip. If you ever see a competition to visit Gameforge – be sure to enter!
REF would like to thank FaTeReLLa and the rest of the Gameforge team for a such a great weekend!
Robot Entertainment and GameForge are celebrating their one year old partnership this month. Although announced publicly in February 2014, the partnership has been forged a while before then. Today one of the producers on the EU side “IronFresh” posted in the OMDU EU forums about the one year anniversary and how far OMDU has come over the last year. Here is what he had to say:
It has been a long and interesting road to get here, but at long last we’ve achieved Closed Beta status! Additionally, this month the partnership between Gameforge and Robot Entertainment is officially one year old. I think I can speak for the whole team when I say that watching the project grow from early prototype to ‘almost live’ status has been a sometimes stressful, but always rewarding experience. Since our initial reveal at PAX East, player feedback has been regular, varied and passionate. The enthusiasm for our unique blend of PvP action and strategy, particularly from our most dedicated players, has been especially gratifying and validating. Now that most of the foundational back-end integration work and core game loop is established, we feel that the game is on a good trajectory to open the doors wide for Open Beta in a few months, and then Full Release towards the end of this year.
Special thanks are due to our dedicated group of loyal Founders, whose feedback has been instrumental in the ongoing evolution of the game. We may not always agree with or implement every suggestion, but the feedback is being heard and influences the day-to-day planning and prioritisation of features as well as ongoing balance and core gameplay refinement. Thank you! Things to look forward to in the short & medium term include: social management & player-reporting systems, team matchmaking, and ranked play. Our pre-release expansion content is also coming soon, and new heroes and skins will continue to be regularly released. By now, all Founders should have received their extra gold and content. We will likely see a couple more account wipes before Open Beta, so now is a perfect time to spend your gold, test out the shop, and experiment with our first wave of heroes, minions, traps, glyphs and gear!
If you’re a new player, welcome aboard! Thanks a lot for your interest and early involvement: we’re happy to have you here. While there is a lot going on in Orcs Must Die! Unchained, a bit of knowledge and practice can go a long way. Before jumping in blindly, we highly recommend you spend some quality time with the tutorial or check out our Guide and Tutorial section on the forums here:
http://board.omd.gameforge.com/board45-o…e-and-tutorial/
There are also many helpful players out there, so ask questions and follow the advice of your teammates. We all had to learn the basics at some point, so keep calm, don’t feed the enemy team and be sure to upgrade your Warcamps and minions! Usually things start to make sense after two or three matches.
As we have already seen, opening the doors wide to more players has both positive and negative impacts on the general gameplay experience, as the player population grows. While upcoming social, reporting, and matchmaking features will help ensure a better experience for all, please remember that negativity can be a vicious cycle. We all need to be aware of our individual power and influence to counteract negativity through our actions, behaviour and attitudes. It often requires much less effort to help out and coordinate with your team than to flame a new user for their ignorance. The tone we set as players has a cumulative influence on the community at large, so don’t be mean. Kill them instead with kindness!
So on this note, the gates are open and the Warcamps are maxed. Let’s all push the lane into an exciting future and ultimate victory for Orcs Must Die! Unchained!
I’m sure that fans will agree that the future looks very bright for OMDU!
Last weekend Gameforge held their first “Heroes on Tour” event for the Orcs Must Die! Unchained EU community. The event hosted by GameForge offered a raffle where by members of the community in the EU who were alpha players could enter a contest to win one of eight lucky spots on the trip. The winners of the competition were Shim, Alastaire61, Artimunor, Daeforce, apin and cptcrunch. REF was also invited to attend. Haggy was also a winner but was unfortunately unable to attend.
Day 1
From my side I flew out from Heathrow, London via Lufthansa to Frankfurt, Germany. Once in Frankfurt I had to catch a train to Karlsruhe. Luckily I managed to meet up with Artimunor and Daeforce on the train and we travelled south all the way down to Karlsruhe on the Deutsch Bahn. Upon our arrival FaTeReLLa greeted us at the station and we met up with Alastaire61 and Shim who had already arrived. From there we went to the hotel to relax for a bit before heading out to GameForge HQ!
Looking slightly tired!
GameForge have a huge office spanning multiple buildings. If you are unfamiliar about GameForge, they have over 400 employees and support a number of high profile games including Aion, TERA, Metin2, Runes of Magic, Wizard101 and S.K.I.L.L. Special Force 2. They are by no means a small operation. Founded in 2003 they have over 450 million registered users. Its well worth taking a peek at GameForge’s about us page to learn more about them.
After enjoying some pizza and learning a bit about GameForge, we sat down with some GameForge designers and talked about some of their upcoming plans for OMDU. We are bound by secrecy here so unfortunately we cannot spill the beans, but rest assured they have some cool stuff coming. It was great to be able to talk openly about their plans and OMDU in general between the heroes on tour and GameForge staff. Following our discussion we were taken on a tour of the GameForge offices which included the Community Management office and the OMDU room.
The OMDU room is where it all happens, including preparing patch releases and translation. The staff here work very hard (at all hours!) to bring us the best OMDU experience possible. After our tour it was time to get down to playing the game! We were split into two teams across the room and we battled out a few games.
This team, the team on the left did well to win two times!
Look at that level of concentration!
Following the team games we went on to do some matchmaking games. As it happens by stroke of luck one team happened to find themselves on MrOithintfb‘s Twitch stream!
Following the games it was time to return to the hotel to get ready for the evening antics. We took the time to explore Karlsruhe on the way back and did some shopping. We had fun negotiating the Karlsruhe tram system! We met up with FaTeReLLa right on time and then we proceeded to head to the Badisch Brauhaus for our evening meal and OMDU celebrations. We were joined once again by GameForge designers and ES community manager SiS.
Celebrating to the long success of OMDU!
We had a great meal here and portion sizes were certainly very big! The atmosphere was great with outside eating and biergarten feel. Following the delicious meal it was time to make our way to the evenings entertainment – the Mittelalterlich Phantasie Spectaculum. This was a fantastic festival event with many people dressed up in clothes from the middle ages. We saw some great music here and a fantastic fire spectacular act and it was a very unique experience definitely one of the highlights of the trip. Check out the gallery below to see some of the photos from the event.
We also have two short videos from the event to give you an idea what the music was like.
Following the evenings activities it was time for us to retire to bed, as you can imagine we were all very tired!
Day 2
Be on the look out for part 2 later this week where we look back on day 2 of the Heroes on Tour where the fun sure continued!
