hero-academy
Latest
Humble Bundle 8: Jack Lumber, Aaaaa!!!, Little Inferno, Gemini Rue
Humble Bundle PC and Android 8 is live now with a hefty offering of games on four platforms: PC, Mac, Linux and Android. At the price of "anything," this bundle offers Little Inferno, Gemini Rue, AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! for the Awesome and Jack Lumber, but you can pay more than the average to snag Hero Academy and Anomaly 2. All games come with Steam keys if you pay more than $1. This is the Linux debut of the chess-like strategy game Hero Academy, the Android and Linux debut of Aaaaa!!!, and the Android, Mac and Linux debut of Wadjet Eye's dystopian adventure Gemini Rue. Proceeds from Humble Bundle PC and Android 8 are split among Humble Bundle, the participating developers and charity, in a formula that you get to decide. And yes, there will be more games before the bundle ends in two weeks. Guaranteed.
Hero Academy dev launches new action RPG, Echo Prime
Robot Entertainment's next game, Echo Prime, is now available on iOS and will arrive on Android in the near future. The Orcs Must Die and Hero Academy developer describes Echo Prime as a sci-fi action RPG, and has players participating in turn-based combat and "uncovering the secrets of the multiverse." Echo Prime costs $4.99 (£2.99 for UK players) and features randomly-generated missions and over a hundred pieces of equippable items. Players can also use power-ups provided by alien "Echoes," and will level up as friends make use of their power-up combinations.
Hero Academy out now on Android
Robot Entertainment's deck-building and turn-based strategy game, Hero Academy, is now available on Google Play, expanding its mobile reach for the first time since its launch for iOS platforms in 2012. Available as a free download, Hero Academy features an asynchronous multiplayer component, allowing players to duke it out on the battlefield with friends or online opponents. Hero Academy is also available for PC and Mac via Steam, and items purchased in-game are compatible across all supported platforms.
Robot Entertainment celebrates 4th birthday with catalog sale
Robot Entertainment is celebrating four years of game development with a sale highlighting library of releases: Orcs Must Die, Orcs Must Die 2, and Hero Academy.Purchase of any item from the studio's official store will net you a Steam key to activate the item on Valve's digital distribution platform. Highlights include Orcs Must Die 2 for $3.74 and Hero Academy, with all DLC, for $4.24.Robot Entertainment rose from the ashes of Ensemble Studios, the Halo Wars developer Microsoft shut down back in 2008. When Ensemble was shuttered, the founders went off and formed Robot Entertainment; others would go on to form Bonfire Studios.
Hero Academy now enrolling on Mac
Hero Academy, already available on iOS and PC, is now available on Mac via Steam. The addictive turn-based strategy game from Robot Entertainment (Orcs Must Die) pits two teams of various units against one another, tasking players with either destroying the opposing team's crystals, or eliminating all enemy units.The Steam version is $5 and works on both PC and Mac and includes the special Team Fortress 2 team. Furthermore, all purchased teams work across all versions of the game, including iOS.
Hero Academy admits students today on Steam
Robot Entertainment's delayed Steam edition of Hero Academy will be available today. The developer tells us it should be available "around midday Eastern time.""The price for the base game on Steam will be $4.99. For that, players will get the core game without ads – the ios base game is free, but is supported by ads – the Council team, the Team Fortress 2 expansion team, which can then be used on iOS devices also and the Council-inspired Ninja Cowl cosmetic item for TF2," said community manager Justin Korthof of Robot to us about the release.Korthof tells us additional pricing for expansion team packs will be revealed when the game goes live in a few hours.Update: Available now.
Hero Academy delayed on Steam, will launch as soon as possible
Robot Entertainment's Hero Academy for Steam has been delayed, missing yesterday's launch date."We ran into an unexpected issue at the last minute. The issue only seems to affect a small portion of players, but we're not comfortable shipping the game until we've resolved it," Justin Korthof of Robot told Joystiq. "We know it's a nuisance for players who were excited to start playing yesterday, but it's important to us that Hero Academy is at its best when it's released."Steam now lists the game with an August 16 release date, but Korthof tells us that's a placeholder."While it could take that long to release, we're optimistic that it will be out sooner than that," he continued. "We want to release the highest quality game possible, and we're working hard to get this issue resolved quickly. We're hoping to have more info about an updated release date later today or early tomorrow, and we'll continue to keep people updated through our Twitter feed and Facebook page."[Thanks, Will]
Hero Academy's Team Fortress 2 team sounds pretty powerful
After announcing that Hero Academy would soon be making its way to Steam, developer Robot Entertainment has now revealed details surrounding the PC version's special Team Fortress 2 team. One thing Hero Academy players will notice right away is that there are a lot of different units. The Team Fortress 2 team has a whopping 9 units, as compared to every other team's 5.All the Team Fortress 2 classes are represented, each with different special abilities. The Spy, for example, is a cloaked unit that can't be targeted at range. Meanwhile the Engineer can upgrade other units' weapons, the Demoman lobs area-of-effect grenades and the Sniper can target any unit in the same row. As if all that weren't enough, the team's bonus allows them to gain an extra action point every time they stomp an enemy unit (remove it from the board).Honestly, it sounds like the team will be pretty powerful, although, in fairness, Robot hasn't announced how many of each unit will be available and the team description makes no mention of consumable items.In other news, the PC version of Hero Academy will include a map based on "Well" from Team Fortress 2. Oh, and of course purchasing other heroic teams will unlock cosmetic items in Team Fortress 2. See some new screens in the gallery below and check out the full team description after the break.%Gallery-160616%
Daily iPhone App: Outwitters is the new app from Tilt to Live creators
Tilt to Live was a fairly early hit on the iOS App Store. It used the iPhone's accelerometer to make a frantic but fun and addictive shooter. Now, developer One Man Left has released a very different game called Outwitters. We first saw the title at GDC earlier this year, and the final release version is just as nice as the one that was in development. The game offers up asynchronous turn-based strategy combat, in the same vein as Robot Entertainment's great Hero Academy. But there are a few big differences, the first being that the board is much bigger, and allows for a few new moves and turns. The backend is also built out a lot more. In addition to the usual games with friends and random players, there's a whole matchmaking league system, so the best players have a huge, well-run ladder to climb. There are three different races (one is free, and the others you'll need to buy), each with its own units and resources to deal with. In short, the game is gorgeous, perfectly designed and offers much turn-based action for players (like me, ahem) who really enjoy moving units around a board like this. Outwitters is a free, universal download, and everything in the in-game store is on sale right now for a limited time.
Hero Academy coming to Steam this August
I've had a great run here at Joystiq. It's been a wonderful six years but, this morning, Senior Reporter Ben Gilbert informed me that Hero Academy will soon be coming to Steam. It will feature a special Team Fortress 2 team of heroes, will be cross-platform compatible with the iOS version and all purchased teams will work across both versions.Hero Academy will come to Steam on August 9, which means I have about 40 days of productivity left. I can't promise I will write another word after that. Sorry.
Free for All: Why social gaming could destroy MMOs and how we can fight it
I am a huge fan of social media. Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus -- it all makes sense to me and has shown to be a very useful tool in not only communicating with friends but finding new games, developers, and websites. My Twitter feed provides enough news and information that I can skip any standard media. I haven't watched a local newscast for a long, long time. On top of that, I can communicate with readers in real time, sharing photos and tidbits of cool. Has social media affected MMO gaming? It definitely has. Watch any smart developer's Twitter feed and you will see the community team interacting directly with players, answering questions, hosting contests, and helping players feel as though the developers are actual people. Social media has also changed how we connect to our games, MMO or not. All of this means that everything is social now. Going to the dentist? Share it with your friends. Defeated a boss monster on your Xbox? Tweet it. Just picked up that epic sword in Dark Age of Camelot? Post it to your Facebook. Heck, many MMOs now have a Twitter or Facebook option built right into the client. All of this instant connectivity is nice, but it's possible that the "massively" part of MMO will soon apply to any game. What will this do to the genre?
Blatant Hero Academy rip-off on App Store is the laziest yet
It's astoundingly easy to make an app and have it published on the App Store, a fact that has helped the dreams of many developers blossom into reality and is largely regarded as A Good Thing. However, as previous, blatantly plagiarized apps have proven, some people will take A Good Thing and use it to make a quick, dirty buck.The latest scam may be the laziest yet: "Knights Fight" has stolen the screenshots, icon and dignity of Hero Academy, and is selling it for $0.99 on the App Store. Hero Academy itself is an intricate, free title from established indie developer Robot Entertainment, while "Knights Fight" is from Idea House, which exists only as a stark website and is apparently based in suburbia, Wisconsin. At least Idea House got the second half of its name correct.Robot Entertainment told Game Informer it is aware of the fake title and is waiting on a response from Apple, who we assume is too busy counting its money to respond right away, or to thoroughly check the apps it puts in its store.
Hero Academy update adds Tribe team, optimizes app for iPad
Sick and tired of the lack of variety in your team selection when playing Hero Academy? You've got three teams: the Council, the Dark Elves and the Dwarves. Three is plenty, right? Not for Robot Entertainment -- a new team known as the Tribe is coming soon.On top of the new team, Robot Entertainment is also adding a new battlefield, free to all players, and iPad support that optimizes the universal app with high-res graphics and more screen space specifically designed for iPad. For a breakdown of the new content, march on past the break.
Hero Academy Dwarves update coming Feb 22, for $1.99
Hero Academy has fallen a bit out of my gaming attention lately (truth be told, Triple Town is stealing most of my iOS gaming time these days, probably more than is healthy), but it's still an excellent free-to-play title, and I still have about 15 games going on at any given moment. Currently, the turn-based strategy multiplayer title boasts two different teams, the Humans and the Dark Elves, but later this month the game is getting a third team to play with: The Dwarves. The new race will go in a steampunk direction, with rocket launchers and firearms, and will not only specialize in area-of-effect attacks, but gain nice bonuses from the on-board power-ups. The Dwarves will be available via an in-app purchase of $1.99. A few players have complained about the game's balance, saying that the Dark Elves seemed slightly more powerful than the core Human fighters, and that Robot Entertainment was just trying to sell in-app purchases for a more powerful team. And while I'm sure we'll see that argument again, I'm also sure Robot Entertainment is trying as best they can to balance the teams out. Robot also says that it's working on making sure the title doesn't eat up the iPhone's battery any more than any other games, so we might see some performance updates in this release as well. Game Center integration for leaderboards and achievements should also be coming with this release, but there's no mention of a universal build, so iPad users will have to wait on that one. The new update should be out on February 22.
Portabliss: Hero Academy (iOS)
Did you know that you can download handheld games now? That's amazingly convenient! The only inconvenient part of it is finding the right games to buy -- and that's where we come in, with our Portabliss column. In each installment, we'll tell you about a downloadable game on the iPhone, iPad, Android device, DSi, 3DS, PSP, etc. Today: Hero Academy from Robot Entertainment. Remember that scene in Star Wars where R2 and Chewie are playing a weird, virtual Chess-type game? Hero Academy is perhaps the closest we'll ever come to experiencing such a distraction firsthand.%Gallery-139655%
Daily iPhone App: Hero Academy
Honestly, I'm not very good at Hero Academy. It's a deep game, slow to develop (asychronous multiplayer mode dictates the pace) and tough to learn. Still, I've enjoyed it. It's the first iOS title from Robot Entertainment, the company behind the Steam and console hit Orcs Must Die! (In fact, most of Robot's developers came from the old Ensemble Studios camp that made Halo Wars and Age of Empires). The game's both casual and tactical. You are given a certain number of characters or power-ups to play with per turn, and you can use your limited action points to do things like deploy soldiers on the grid-based battlefield, power them up with more attack or defense, move them around, and of course attack the enemy soldiers. Both teams have gems on the battlefield in different places, and the goal is to destroy the enemy's gems while defending your own. The game's depth comes from the various classes. Warriors, mages, archers, priests, and rogues offer several different characters to play with, each with unique abilities and specs. Archers move fast and strike quickly, but go down easily. A priest can hang back and heal others, keeping them in the game. Unfortunately, the game doesn't exactly explain all of this very well, but Robot's working on telling players how it all works, including with a tips video like this. My biggest complaining with Hero Academy is the game's ads. Robot uses a freemium model, which is fine, as you can spend money on in-app purchases for more teams to play with, extra custom colors, or completely optional "taunts" you can send at opponents. Some players have had issue with the in-app purchases, claiming that they're unbalanced, but that's actually not true. Robot's made sure that spending money all goes towards optional customization, not anything that affects gameplay. The ads, however, are a problem for sure. If you don't buy the second team, you're left with very distracting ads in the game menus. Plus, you're forced to watch ads on every turn you play. If, like me, you're playing about 15 or 20 games at a time, that's a lot of really annoying ads to watch. I ended up buying the second team just to get rid of them, which was actually the wrong thing to do. I probably shouldn't have rewarded Robot for annoying me so much. I also wish the title had used Game Center for its login instead of Robot's own clunky system. But despite all of that frustration and the confusion over how the game itself plays, I will say that there is a really nice, well-made game here once you get it. The turn-based battles offer up an excellent mix of deep strategy in very casual and easy-to-control bites, and the game's balanced enough that you can turn the tide of a close battle with some clever moves. Hopefully Robot will work out all of the issues with the game, and balance out those in-app purchases and ads to a point where they support the title instead of overwhelming it. The bonus, of course, is that Hero Academy is a free download, available right now.
Hero Academy available now on iOS, free
Robot Entertainment, developers of the polished tower defense action game Orcs Must Die, launched Hero Academy today for iOS. The strategy game is "free," but if you enjoy the experience at all, you'll find yourself paying the $1 to make the intrusive ads popping up after every turn go away. There are also more heroic teams, avatars, uniforms and taunts to buy at $1+ apiece. The strategy title features asynchronous play, allowing you to keep up with several matches against friends or strangers while on the go. Robot clearly has plans to expand on this property, its first foray into the mobile market, with more teams and a la carte items. %Gallery-139655%
Robot Entertainment reveals iOS game, Hero Academy
Orcs Must Die developer Robot Entertainment recently revealed to us the identity of its next opus: A two-player competitive iOS board game titled Hero Academy. It's a tactics game in which players move heroes across a staging area in an attempt to destroy their competitor's home base crystal before theirs, in turn, gets smashed. If that sounds a little too intense for your usual iOS gaming tastes, don't fret -- the action all takes place asynchronously. Check out the screens below for a first look at the downloadable title, and keep an eye out for the debut trailer in the coming days! %Gallery-139655%
