MMM - The Robot Progress Report

If anyone knows how we got this far into the year so quickly, please let us know in the comments. We've been hard at work over here on some amazing games and game updates, and over the next few months, things are only going to get more exciting. Earlier this year, we posted a blog outlining 12 things to expect from Robot in 2012. Now that we're a few more months into the year, we thought it would be good to check in with that list and see how we're progressing toward all of those promises. 

1. New Games – We’re currently hard at work on new, unannounced games (yes, plural!). You’re going to hear about them this year.
   As promised, we've we're hard at work on new games. One of those new games was announced earlier this year. You might have heard a little something about it. 

    

2. More Blogs – In 2011, we were a bit light on the blogging front. That’s going to change. Expect weekly blogs directly from the Robot Entertainment community team with updates about everything going on around our company, our games, and our community.
   We have been hard at work bringing you mostly weekly blog updates with coverage and insights about all of our games, and we'll continue to do so through the summer. If you are yearning for more, please be sure to let us know what you're looking for in the comments.

    

3. More Free Content – We have an incredibly loyal community, and we love to give back to them as often as we can. Last year we gave PAX booth visitors a free costume for Orcs Must Die! and we gave all of our newsletter subscribers the Dark Elves team for Hero Academy absolutely free. Watch for more free content for our devoted fans in 2012.
   We've already reached deep into the goodie bag to reward our community. During PAX East this year, we gave away codes for the Dark Elves and the Dwarves to booth attendees, and we've frequently give away codes via our twitter accounts and in weekend raffles right here on the blog. Be sure to check the blog regularly for raffles and follow us for more code giveaways of Twitter (@RobotEnt | @OrcsMustDie | @HeroAcademy)

   And we're not through yet. We've got some amaizng free content coming up for players who own the original Orcs Must Die! on Steam and purchase the sequel this summer.

    

4. Insider Access – We’re currently working with RobotEntertainmentFans.com to give our community an insider look at the development of our upcoming games.
   If you haven't had a chance to listen in yet, check out Robot Radio, the podcast created by RobotEntertainmentFans.com. We've had them into the office a few times already to check out what we're working on and get you interviews with our developers. We're planning for more interviews in the future, too, so be sure to subscribe via itunes!

    

5. Community Moderated Awesomeness – You may have already noticed, but we have enlisted the help of some of our most dedicated community members to help moderate the forums. When the ‘bots aren’t around, turn to these local experts for help with spambots, forums trolls, or game questions.
   Kenny and Dean have been been hard at work helping to make your lives (and mine!) easier. We can't thank them enough for the work they're doing to keep the Robot community healthy!

    

6. Newsletter Exclusives – Make sure that you’re signed up for the Robot Newsletter, because this year we’ll be giving our subscribers exclusive screenshots and art that you won’t see anywhere else.
   We haven't sent out any exclusive looks just yet, but we're planning to very soon. Make sure that you're signed up for the Robot Newsletter to be the first to know when big news comes out!

    

7. More Contests  - We’re going to start running contests more regularly on the Robot Blog – caption contests, raffles, and more. We’re also going to give away more codes on our Twitter accounts, so make sure that you’re following us!
   As we noted above, we've already been doing a ton of raffles and giveaways via the blog and twitter. More are on the way, including chances to win rare game content like the Cardboard Tube Samurai costume in Orcs Must Die! (Steam).

    

8. Ten Ton Gorilla – Our brilliant artists have started an independent art blog to showcase a little behind the scenes look at all of their amazing work here, as well as some side projects. Keep an eye on Ten Ton Gorilla this year.
   If you haven't checked out Ten Ton Gorilla yet, then I'm going to have to revoke your Robot Entertainment Fan Club membership card. Our artists have posted a ton of amaizng work over there. They recently wrapped up their Game of Thrones art challenge, and many of our artists have posted never-before-seen concept art from the original Orcs Must Die! 

    

9. We’ll Do It Live – We’re planning live video events where you’ll be able to interact directly with developers and get your first look at exciting new gameplay.
   Plans are afoot. We're going to be hosting some live video events to show off many of the brand new features in Orcs Must Die! 2 and give you a chance to talk to the developers directly and ask questions about the game. We're very close to launching these, and you can expect to hear more in the next week or two. This will be the best place for you to get a first-hand look at all of the amazing work going into the sequel. 

    

10. More Teams for Hero Academy – We’re already hard at work on more teams for Hero Academy. The third team is in the final stages of development right now, and the fourth team is already under way.
    Since the writing of the original post, we've already delivered you two more teams - the Dwarves and the Tribe - and we're working on the next team as I write this. Feel free to post your guesses about the nedt team in the comments! We love to hear what you guys think!

     

11. Red Pod – You already know about the Green, Yellow, Blue, and Orange Pods at Robot Entertainment. This year we’ll introduce you to the Red Pod.
    You may not know it yet, but some quiet progress has already been made with Red Pod. Unfortunately, that's about all we can say about that right now. ;)

     

12. PAX East 2012 – Robot Entertainment will be returning to PAX East this year, and it will be your first chance to play our next game. Plan accordingly.
    PAX East was a huge success for us this year, and we used the event to show off Orcs Must Die! 2 for the first time! If you missed out on PAX, though, you'll still have a chance to play the game early. We've added another show to our schedule this summer. Come play Orcs Must Die! 2 (and a bunch of other cool games) and this year's RTX event in Austin, Texas on July 7th and 8th!

     

It's been a while since we've done any general updates on where we are, and we realize that things have been a little quiet on the southern front. Here's a look at where we are around the studio:

How about some new decorations?

When you look back through photos of our office's early days, you'll notice that there's not a lot of original Robot artwork on the walls. We had a handful of decals up from classic games made by other people, but very little to call our own. We have a couple of games under our belts now, and with them a couple of trade shows, too. A nice side effect of all of our marketing efforts is that we finally have some great art to call our own that we can put up around the studio. Check out these images of some of our brand new office decorations featuring Orcs Must Die! and Hero Academy

Hero Academy

Last week I let you know that we were hard at work on a new Hero Academy team, and I've spoken a bit about some other new features that we're working on. We've heard from many of you that you'd like more options for offline content and training or tutorials, and I'm happy to be able to say that we're currently working on some fun ideas to address both of those requests. The new content will likely be available with the next update, and we'll have more info to share about it as we're closer to the update's release.

Hero Academy League  Update

The Hero Academy League over at REF is still going very strong, and over the weekend they hit their 5000^th game played by league members! Not too shabby for just three-and-a-half months worth of operation. Congratulations to those guys for all of the hard work they're doing to manage that group and their various tournaments. If you're looking for some great community and ranked competition, be sure to check them out at the link above and join up. Many HA League players are also available on our forums to help our newer players. If you're looking for gameplay tips and tricks, be sure to check out the league-run New Player Assistance Thread on our official forums.

Orcs Must Die!

This summer we're going to be talking a lot more about Orcs Must Die! 2, but in the meantime you can still work to hone your Maging skills in the original game. Forum member VvT76, one of our loyal Rainbow Chasers, put together an enormous post about how to make the most of setting up your killboxes. You can read all of the gory details right here. After reading the thread and learning how to build up the best combo killboxes, check out VvT76's video featureing his favorite killbox locations in each of the original OMD levels: