Orcs Must Die – new video and screen shots revealed with more to come!
Robot Entertainment has today unveiled a new Orcs Must Die video and a whole bunch of new screenshots. The latest video looks at the Arrow Wall trap and is the first in a number of upcoming videos to demonstrate other traps before the game launches this Summer. The arrow wall can be placed on most walls in each level and fires arrows towards the Orcs as they go past. These arrow walls are perfect to help reduce the size of a large wave of Orcs when they come charging towards you. Place an arrow trap on both sides of a corridor wall and you have a very nice double whammy affect! Read more
Don’t crossbow me, bro! Plus more AOE-O animations from Chazbot
Following up on the community Orcs One Liners where Robot Entertainment invited members of the community to send in their most interesting and humorous one liners as Orcs were sent to their demise has now come to a close. A whole bunch of entries were submitted and one entry was picked out above the rest. The winning entry of the competition is “Don’t crossbow me, bro!“. I think that’s a very good choice and will definitely be amusing to hear in game! Robot are also going to include some other submissions in game too. So if you submitted your one liner you’ll have to keep your ears open to see if it appears in the game! Read more
Bruce Shelley talks about the evolution of social gaming. Plus more AOE-O animations and Robot swag!
Recently the legendary Bruce Shelley has been in talks with Gamasutra along with Brian Reynolds another industry veteran about their roles at Zynga in the social gaming space. Brian Reynolds before joining Zynga worked at Big Huge Games which collaborated with Ensemble Studios on the Age of Empires 3 Asian Dynasties expansion. Bruce and Brian had also worked closely with each other in the past on Sid Meier’s civilisation games. Now they are both re-united again at Zynga where is has become clear that the company is hiring industry veterans to push their gaming business forward.
When talking to Gamasutra Bruce detailed how he was recommended to join after the company was looking for designers from the “Sid Meier School of Design” era. Read more
GRL Games announces four brand new games in development
Graeme Devine, the man behind GRL games who has recently released Clandestiny for Mac OS and Full Deck Solitaire has announced that GRL have four other game ideas in the pipeline. First up are two new ideas for the Full Deck series. We have Full Deck Poker and Full Deck Domino’s on the way for Mac OS X. These games will no doubt continue the winning formula of Full Deck Solitaire.
The other projects Graeme is working on at GRL include “Super Unicorn” and “G7” Read more
Beta NDA lifted on Age of Empires Online
Microsoft Game Studios have today removed the non disclosure agreement for current beta testers of Age of Empires Online. This means current beta users are now free to discuss the game openly with the public. In light of this the forums over at www.ageofempiresonline.com are now merged with there being no separate beta section any more. There is no news of yet as to whether this change will result in a public beta but keep your eyes peeled for any possible news.
This news can only mean the development is getting closer to launch. After Robot Entertainment completed work on the game in February, Gas Powered Games took over as lead developers to complete the final polish and features. With the NDA lifted you can be sure to expect more AOE-O previews and insights from the existing beta players. Head over to www.ageofempiesonline.com now and get involved in the discussion!
Orcs Must Die community one liners. Plus crocodiles and lions!
Robot Entertainment has lifted the lid on their latest community effort – ‘Orcs One Liners’. This is a community competition whereby community members can come up with amusing and witty one liners for the soon-to-be-killed Orcs. The best one liners will be chosen by Robot Entertainment on Monday next week (April 25th). The winning one liner will then be added to the final production version of the game for all the world to hear! So if you think you have what it takes to come up with an awesome Orc based one liner then head on over to the Orcs Must Die facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/OMDGame and then click on “Community One Liners”. Read more
Charles Tinney begins Age of Empires Online animation blogs
Charles Tinney an animator at the late Ensemble Studios who worked on Halo Wars has recently started a blog about his awesome animation work with Age of Empires Online. Charles or “chazbot” Tinney has been taking care of most of the animation on AOE-O while the game was developed at Robot Entertainment.
My initial role, once the art style was finalized, was to concept and visualize the animation style that best complimented the game’s art direction. It was great pulling reference from Looney Tunes and old Disney shorts. Through animation reference, exploration, pushing, pulling, trial, error, I eventually hit a style that was wacky and exaggerated in some circumstances, and kind of an overly animated subtlety for most cases; both with an overall defined timing and spacing that melded the extreme and subtle together
Gamespot talks to Robot on Orcs Must Die – franchise planned
Gamespot have recently had a phone interview with Robot Entertainment’s CEO Patrick Hudson, COO Harter Ryan and Lead Producer on OMD – Chris Rippy. The Gamespot article is jam packed with useful Orcs Must Die information plus a whole lot of information about the future direction of Robot Entertainment. One of the most interesting things that has been touched on is the idea that “Must Die” could become a franchise for Robot if the game is a big enough success. You may have noticed that “Orcs” is in the colour green on the logo above.. that could easily be replaced with “Sheep Must Die” or “Kittens Must Die” should Robot decide to take that path. (Obviously those names are fictional!)
Orcs Must Die preview part 3 – Art & Design
In part 3 of the Remember ES Orcs Must Die preview we look at the art style and UI design of OMD. Any Ensemble fan will quickly realise that Orcs is something very different compared to games developed at the late Ensemble Studios where many employees of Robot Entertainment have migrated from post closure. Not only is Orcs not an RTS, the game is also based off a different engine than the one used for Age games in the past. The result of this is a completely new art style and user interface, not to mention the new genre of game of course! Read more
GRL Games announces Full Deck Poker Solitaire
Continuing with the “Full Deck” theme comes poker as a variation of GRL’s existing popular game Full Deck Solitaire. The poker version of the game is a full separate release and offers a poker twist to solitaire where players can line up poker hands in the 25 squares horizontally and vertically to score points based on the poker hands arranged. Much like the first game this Full Deck features the same crisp graphics with a set of stunning photos pre-loaded. Players can challenge their friends using the Game Center along with leader boards and achievements for the competitive.
The game is being released for iPad so if you have one of those be sure to zip over to the App Store to download. Its completely free so theres no reason not to! Check out some screenshots below and the official launch text for the game.
