AOE-O patch detailed, Dusty interviewed and first Orcs Must Die video blog!
Ian Vogel the design lead at Microsoft of Age of Empires Online has announced an overview of the upcoming patch to Age of Empires Online. This patch has been in great demand of the community and the pressure has been on to develop this patch quickly. There has been some dis-content with the Age Online community about how long this patch has taken to develop and how it has potentially impacted on player numbers. Age of Empires Online was pitched as an “evergreen” game with the possibility of regular updates, its been a shame that updates thus far havent been pushed out in speedy time. Hopefully in order to ensure community continuity patches will be smaller and faster to release rather than this first patch which appears to be pretty large. There is indeed alot coming in this patch, from gear changes to PvP and Crete. Also mentioned in Ian’s latest post is that the Persians will soon be on their way as a playable civilisation, they are currently on schedule for October, so look out for them soon!
Check out the overview of the patch here:
http://forums.ageofempiresonline.com/forums/1/117693/ShowThread.aspx
Dusty Monk interviewed with Garage Games
Dusty has taken part in an interesting interview over at Garage Games who are the developers of the Torque 3D engine, which Dusty used to craft Atomic City Adventures. The interview talks about the game development and why Dusty used decided to use the Torque engine:
Jon: What software tools did you use to create the game?
Dusty: Well of course I built it on the Torque engine. I originally selected the Torque engine out of the desire to do a rapid prototype for the MMO. I really like Torque’s prototyping capabilities and I had just come from Ensemble and we were using the Unreal 3 engine at that time. Full blown, full license, professional/developer license. And I had extensive usage of that license and I was amazed even then how much easier it was to get things working in Torque. So that was a huge decider at that point. So Torque has the full engine and all the source, and it was only a hundred bucks.
Eagle eyed readers will pick up on the comment that Ensemble was using the Unreal 3 engine during its final years during their prototyping of games outside of the RTS genre, and outside of their Bang! engine. Ensemble was indeed working on more action / adventure games which sadly never saw the light of day. The interview also expands on the development history of the game. We had heard before that Dusty really wanted to create an MMO with the title, however it was unfortunate that he couldn’t get publishers on board with the idea. MMO games carry a reasonable amount of risk, and with Windstorm just a one man band it was difficult for Dusty to get things to fall in place.
Jon: So what was the development process like?
Dusty: Long. Basically when I quit, when I was laid off from Ensemble in late 2008 early 2009. I started building a prototype for an MMO at that time. I spent 6 months putting together this prototype, shipped it around to various publishers. Couldn’t get anybody to really bite off on the notion of a single man company or funding a company to build a team to build this prototype. So at that point, right around October or right around November, December 2009. I set about creating a single player game what I thought was a modest scope that would take about 11 months for production and 24 months later the game was finished.
So it took Dusty a little big longer to produce ACA than originally planned, but the time spent was well worth it. Looking back although he might have liked to do a few things differently he wouldn’t take back the time. I think its great to see someone set out and produce a game all by himself , taking up the role as programmer, producer, sound, art and everything else which goes into making a game. You really do need to be passionate about your idea to keep pushing it forward and that’s exactly what Dusty has done with Atomic City, it’s certainly an amazing accomplishment which Dusty should be very proud of. Working as a truly indie dev isnt easy and it produces a number of challenges compared to working for a publisher studio like Microsoft’s Ensemble Studios.
Jon: So you worked for Ensemble, how does it compare? Working for a big named publisher vs. indie?
Dusty: It’s like everything it’s a double edged sword. There are some huge benefits, but if you work for a studio of significant size that there are some days you just struggle to get something productive done. There are so many meetings and so many interruptions on your time and you feel like you’re being pulled so many different ways. And as a coder, programmer, and guy who makes codes it feels extraordinary liberating to sit down at your desk at 8 o’clock in the morning and crank the crap out of code until 8 o’clock at night and feel like you got a huge amount of work done. Which is one of the reasons I went indie in the first place, and it is extremely satisfying. The downside to that is you get from a company; you get less feedback, less information from your peers and you lose some of the benefits to building a cool game. And that I’ve discovered in the past two years, that is a pretty significant value in itself. I definitely some things I would do different but I would not take back the past two years.
Be sure to check out the rest of the interview over at Garage Games to find out more about Dusty and the development of the game. There is even mention of possible DLC with 3 more levels in the making! Check it out here:
http://www.garagegames.com/community/blogs/view/21256
Plus don’t forget you can pick up Atomic City today from Impulse right here:
http://impulsedriven.com/atomiccityadventur
First Orcs Must Die! video blog
IGN have their hands on the very first video blog to come out of Robot Entertainment. The Orcs Must Die! video blog features a number of the bots talking about the game and the decisions made during the development. Community bots, art bots. producer bots and even the CEO bot all make an appearance. Plus there’s a ton of gameplay footage no doubt edited by video extraordinaire, Duncan Stanley. This video provides us a clear insight to things like how the UI works for upgrades and how Weavers can help the player. In case you don’t know the Weavers allows players to upgrade certain elements of the game such as improving the effectiveness of certain spells or adding bonuses like allowing the rift to help fight back against to Orcs with lighting, just in case things start to turn a little bit too close of comfort!
You can see it all in IGN’s video below – definitely worth checking out! We’re only a few weeks away from mass Orc destruction! Exciting times!
Orcs Must Die! launching October 5th on XBLA and October 12th on PC/Steam!
Robot Entertainment just announced some orktastic news! The release date for the studios highly anticipated original IP game, Orcs Must Die has just been announced! This is a big moment for many of the staff at Robot who have been itching to break away from previous strategy IP like Age. So here it comes, October 5th will see the launch of the first brand new original game from Robot Entertainment, Orcs Must Die on XBLA. For PC fans, OMD will be heading your way just one week later on October 12th. For PC the game will be available on Steam.
“The slaying hour is nigh upon us,” said Patrick Hudson, CEO of Robot Entertainment. “We can no longer restrain the enemy at the gate. We will soon turn the rift defense over to Xbox and PC gamers to beat back the mob and save the Order!”
Currently pricing for the game for both platforms is un-announced as is the possibility of any pre-order deals, but its well worth checking back for any which might appear! Along with the release date Robot has also detailed some more about the game including the amount of levels (fortresses) there are to complete. Plus with 6 weapons and 17 traps theres going to be plenty of different ways you can complete each fortress so expect plenty of re-playability per level (remember the flow chart!). Check out the stats below:
- Play as the War Mage and defend 24 fortresses from an enraged mob of orcs and 11 other villainous monsters.
- Choose from a selection of 6 weapons and magic spells and 17 traps that hack, launch, flatten, gibletize, and incinerate your enemies.
- Upgrade your traps, spells and weapons to cater the game to your personal play style.
- Cleverly combine traps and spells for higher scores on the leaderboards.
- Expertly wield your wits and your weapons through the story-driven campaign and unlock a brutal “Nightmare” campaign.
- Replay fortresses endlessly, combining different defenses and tactics every time!
System requirements
Make sure your PC is up to scratch come October 12th. You’ll need to make sure your PC meets these specs as a minimum to play. The specs are pretty reasonable for most modern day PC’s with a dedicated graphics card.
- OS:Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7
- Processor:2GHz Dual Core
- Memory:2 GB RAM
- Graphics:NVIDIA GeForce 6800 or ATI Radeon x1950 or better with 256MB VRAM
- Hard Drive:5 GB HD space
Demo upcoming
Now that the release date for the full game has been announced players will now be eagerly awaiting the announcement of a playable demo. Well the good news is there will be a demo for the game, almost certainly on XBLA. Currently the release date for the demo is unknown but with Orcs only a few weeks away, details should start surfacing on the demo soon so stay tuned!
Achievements detailed!
Everyone likes achievements on Xbox Live and now the folks over at Xbox 360 Achievements have published the full achievements list for the game so you can plan ahead on how to rack up all the points! Needless to say, all the achievements are about killing Orcs, from killing lots of them to using boom barrels and chandeliers, kill Orcs in the right way and you will be rewarded! How will the achievement hunters deal with the 35G “Legendary War Mage” achievement which requires players to beat the campaign mode on “Nightmare” mode – sounds tough!
Check out the full achievement list here: http://www.xbox360achievements.org/game/orcs-must-die/achievements/
Orcs Must Die! Steam page launched
Orcs Must Die! Now has its very own space on Steam. Check out
http://store.steampowered.com/app/102600/
Release date competition winner
You may remember a little while ago Remember ES held a competition for the person who manages to guess the release date, or gets the nearest to the release date. I’ll be contacting the winner soon, detailing how they can get there hands on the sweet sweet Orcs Must Die! swag courtesy of Robot Entertainment. The winner will also be announced on here soon! Did you strike it lucky?
What the press are saying
The release date for Orcs Must Die is obviously super exciting, but don’t just take my word on it! Check out what the press are saying on some of the links below!
Tower defense meets third-person shooter. It’s becoming a popular sub-genre, and it looks like fun in Orcs Must Die. If this one is priced right, we could have a new indie darling on our hands.
Greenskin hating third person action meets tower defence game Orcs Must Die! will be released on Steam on October 12. The announcement is less than conventional however, with Robot Entertainment CEO Patrick Hudson saying “The slaying hour is nigh upon us. We can no longer restrain the enemy at the gate. We will soon turn the rift defense over to Xbox and PC gamers to beat back the mob and save the Order!” Blimey. We just thought we were going to humorously massacre Orcs with spells and traps, way to up the pressure.
Fuming! – Part 5 of the Atomic City Adventures Guide
After falling foul in the last mission Agent Pam Rodgers has alot on her mind on this mission. Pam isn’t one to let things slide, so she finds it difficult and distracting to return to policing the streets for vehicular crime. However, this mission provides the perfect time to gear up on contraband and weapons. Luckily we have RadioKenny once again to shed light on the location of all the goods! Check out part 5 of his Atomic City guide right here!
Robot Entertainment reveals Orcs Must Die interactive video!
Robot Entertainment has managed to pull out the best video game trailer I have ever seen. The latest Orcs Must Die video showcases up to 30 possible avenues when completing a single level of Orcs Must Die. In order to demonstrate the huge number of gameplay possibilities Robot has leveraged the annotations feature of YouTube which allows viewers to click and choose a path of their choice. This path might be choosing between floor traps or fighting hand to hand you can now check out the interactive Orcs Must Die video to see just how the game performs with a path of your choice.
Which path will you choose?
This is the first time I have seen a video game trailer utilise this kind of genius functionality, perhaps even the best use of annotations I have seen on YouTube ever come to think of it. If you have been waiting for an Orcs Must Die demo, rest assured this will satisfy your thirst in the meanwhile! Creating this kind of in depth video was no easy task with over 30 possible combinations to complete a single level this would result in over 100 minutes of video to record, plus these videos would need be edited and narrated for the full effect. So yeah, it probably took a *long* time! Community bot Duncan Stanley took care of all the video recording and editing along with Justin Korthof who leant his voice for the narration together meticulously crafting this outstanding marketing video which truly engages viewers just how the gameplay of Orcs Must Die works.
The latest blog on RobotEntertainment.com details just how the community bots went about starting this daring task – with a very large flowchart!
Click to enlarge
The result of all the hard-work as definitely paid off with the reaction on numerous gaming websites and even SEO websites being fantastic. Christophor Rick at ReelSEO commented:
I love it when there is convergence in my divergent coverage areas. This went even further, it not only got my work brain thinking, but it also got my gamer brain thinking. I now want to play this game, and that is exactly what they were hoping to do with this project, so I am glad to let them know, it worked.
See how far online video has come as a marketing tool? This uses everything I have been talking about lately: creativity, innovation, interaction – on video – and interesting content. They have definitely achieved what they set out to do. This is an excellent way to get gamers into the game, without giving them the game. It’s the perfect use of online video on their part, in my opinion.
http://www.reelseo.com/orcs-must-die/
Meanwhile numerous reactions from gamers at Rock Paper Shotgun praised the video for its interactiveness and how it makes viewers really want to play the game. Here is just a selection of comments:
Click to enlarge
Congratulations to Robot Entertainment for pulling this revolutionary interactive video trailer out the bag. Its going to be great to see similar reactions when Orcs Must Die launches next month in October. Meanwhile spend your time getting familiar with Orcs Must Die with the video trailer in question below!
Orcs Must Die – interactive video:
The city within – ACA guide part 4
The time has come for another installment of RadioKenny’s guide for Atomic City Adventures. Kenny has actually had these guides written for a while, I have just been slow at posting them up, so sorry about that, but I promise I am back on the regular blogosphere now so stay tuned for a whole bunch of updates on all your favourite ex Ensemble related games!
First off here is the latest guide for Atomic City, Mission #4 “The city within”. This level is paticually interesting and revolutionary in terms of storyline as Pam discovers more about the shenanigans going on in Atomic City and the missing professor. Its also pretty tough – the Sorenburg Heavies are pretty difficult to beat until you fully master the Red Nail. Of course, for those less interested in story and more interested in points points points – RadioKenny is here to tell you how to get the (almost) top scores for this level! Why almost? As Kenny discovered there are actually a couple of bugs on this mission which sadly prevent players from getting the absolute highest of scores. For the low-down and handy map check out the latest guide on the link below:
More updates coming this week folks!
If it looks like a rat.. – Part 3 of RadioKenny’s Atomic City guide
The time has come for the third mission guide for Atomic City Adventures. Courtesy of Kenny “RadioKenny” Newell, the third guide provides players with top tips on how to deal with the large swarm of enemies and deadly lasers. As always, each AI antenna, weapons and contraband is listed – so print out your copy of the map and get treasure hunting!
Mission #3 – if it looks like a rat..
The third level of the game was definitely my favourite. Why? Because you get to unlock the awesome Red Nail. The Red Nail allows players to take to the skies and adds a whole lot of excitement to the game, fighting crime in mid-air is always a blast (quite literally, infact!) its certainly something to look forward to as you play through the game. Be warned, the Red Nail takes some getting used to control wise. Like Kenny mentions in his guide, customising the mouse sensitivity from the game options menu can help greatly fine tune the experience!
If you havnt already picked up ACA (shock!) and you need an idea of what the Red Nail is like, then check out this video from Windstorm!
Part 2 of RadioKenny’s Atomic City Guide – The Missing Professor
Kenny “RadioKenny” Newell’s second guide for Atomic City Adventures is available online today. Once again we have a detailed map showing the locations of all the contraband and AI antennas there is also a top tip for getting one of the particularly difficult AI antennas in this level.
Check out the latest guide here:
Mission #2 – The Missing Professor
Enjoy the high scores!
A complete Atomic City walk-through with RadioKenny!
Kenny “Radiokenny” Newell has followed up on his excellent review of Atomic City Adventures with a full and complete walk through for all 7 missions in the game! These walk-throughs are fully comprehensive detailing how to get all the AI Antennas, contraband and weapon caches. Using Radiokenny’s guide you can get all the items in record time, meaning you score gold for sure! Show off your amazing scores to your friends!
Each mission guide comes complete with a map and screenshots showing you how to get the most out of each mission. Where some things are particularly difficult RadioKenny’s tips and tricks will help take away the stress of those tricky AI antennas! No stone is left un-turned here!
If you read carefully the guide will make you so good.. that you can ride side saddle over water and still kill the bad guys!
RadioKennys Atomic City guides will be hitting Remember ES over the next 2 weeks so keep checking back to see new guides throughout the next few weeks. Keep on top of the Remember ES twitter and RSS feed to be in the know!
The first guide for Mission #1 “Rookie Patrol” is available right now from the link below. Enjoy the guides and good luck getting your gold scores!
GRL Games reveals “Word Chat” for iOS
Word Chat is the latest iOS game to be announced from Graeme Devine’s GRL Games. The goal of the game is to try and guess as many words as possible, perfferebly longer words before the timer counts down. Think of it as a much faster paced “Words with Friends”. The game supports video chat whilst you are playing promoting face to face chat with your friends, encouraging the social element to the game. A trailer for the game has been released as below and the game is set to launch on 1st September. Another game for your iPhones and iPads folks!
Kenny Newell reviews Atomic City Adventures – Case of the Black Dragon
Avid Age of Empires Online players will no doubt recognise Kenny as radiokenny on the AOE-O forums. You may remember Kenny as the person behind the genius Rogan Knight project which will soon be coming to a conclusion. The Rogan Knight project involved sending a figurine of a knight to Age fans all over the world and then have the knight posted to Robot Entertainment HQ for a group picture. You can follow the journey of Rogan Knight here: http://mapvivo.com/journey/15239. Rogan is currently in the hands of Kristin “BatsyBatsy” Reilly at Microsoft Studios where he is pending a photo shoot. It wont be long until Rogan‘s journey is over!
Today however, Kenny is here to share his thoughts about Windstorm Studios’ Atomic City Adventures which was released last week. Kenny is a big Ensemble Studios fan and as such has been quick to check out Atomic City Adventures, an independent game by sole employee, Dusty Monk. Check out Kenny’s thoughts on the new game below!
When choosing games to review I’m pretty picky on what I get for a couple different reasons.
#1. I usually have to pay out of pocket for many of the games.
#2. I don’t have a ton of time to play, therefore I want to make sure I pick something that is interesting.
Atomic City Adventures (Case of the Black Dragon) caught my eye months ago because it was mentioned on the twitter feed of Remember-ensemblestudios.com. Everyone understand that I was a major fan of Ensemble Studios. They made some of my favorite games of all time. With that said, I’ve been following the different groups and people that have formed studios since Microsoft dissolved Ensemble. One of the studios that was formed just after the split was Windstorm Studios.
According to Windstorm Studios website. Windstorm Studios is basically one guy. Dusty Monk, former Sr. software engineer at Ensemble Studios. When Microsoft laid him off in 2009, Dusty decided that now was the time to create games that he wanted to play. He decided to code the whole game himself and hire out art, music and voice acting. This was a one man show putting his own money at risk to make a game.
After learning the background story to the game. I was sold and my money was put back for the title. Everyone likes an underdog putting it all on the line and taking some risk. It’s what America was built on… Guts. Now let’s see what the labor and drive of one man can do. Here is my review of Atomic City Adventures.
Atomic City Adventures is set around the year 2230 A.D., but has a retro-future 1950’s look to it. I am a big fan of the game art and music. The game looks to me like “ What people in the 1950’s thought the future would look like”. You play as police officer Pam Rodgers of the Vehicular Strike Force or VSF as it’s referred to in the game.
You start the game on your hover-bike patrolling the city for thugs and criminals. You are sent on a main mission, but you can veer off on optional objectives and missions. During these missions you find hidden weapons and contraband that you seize. The weapons are then added to your inventory on the next mission. You can dismount your hover-bike at any time and deal with enemies by kicking or shooting at them. You also have to dismount the bike to open weapon caches and program computers.
Players also try to fly through blue glowing circles called AI Antenna. These circles teach you to drive as well as give you an indicator where you have been. You get points for finding all of the antennas and disabling them. The AI Antennas are optional to find in the game, but add extra points to your score. Each mission keeps your high score and gives you bonus points for how efficiently you complete it. High scores are broken into three brackets. bronze, silver, and gold. Essentially, the more of the optional objectives you complete, the more contraband you collect and AI network antennas you disable by flying through them, the closer your score will get to getting a silver or gold designation.
Atomic City Adventures is a seven part story with multiple missions contained in each of the sections. The missions have waypoints that are shown on a clean and easy to read mini map on the screen. The waypoint also shows up on the main screen as a colored square that helps you navigate. Around the third act of the game, Pam loses the hover-bike and picks up a flying-bike. This is when the fun begins. I had a great time scaling buildings and flying through the air. Arming my bike with heat seeking rockets and kicking butt. I really liked that you get right into the fun of the game and start on a mission immediately when you start.
I’m very impressed with the one man programming team “Dusty Monk”. I hope that this is the beginning of more episodes Of Atomic City Adventures in the future. The only part of the game that I didn’t get to experience was the S-110 Odaka Wraith flying bike. It came only with pre-orders and I didn’t order until a few days after the release. The game may give around 8-15 hours of play if you decide to explore the city and find all contraband and complete all side missions. It is available on Gamestop’s Impulse Online and Direct2drive for the great price of $14.99. So, download today and support an independent studio putting it all on the line.
Questions or comments?
Kenny Newell
Download Atomic City from Impulse!
Thanks for the review Kenny!
