Orcs Must Die: Unchained developer on making adjustments to keep players happy

Making free-to-play games isn’t always about getting players to spend money. A big challenge is ensuring you can keep the people who never spend anything feeling satisfied with their experience. And that’s what developer Robot Entertainment is focusing its efforts on right now.

Robot Entertainment recently released its Orcs Must Die: Unchained free-to-play game on Steam in an open-beta test, and it’s already getting a ton of feedback that is helping to shape its future. This is the third entry in the series, and — for the first time — it combines freemium elements and competitive elements to the originals tower-defense action. The core of Unchained is still the same with players setting up traps and using weapons to fight off waves of computer-controlled enemies. But now it also has a competitive mode similar to multiplayer online arena battlers like Dota 2 and League of Legends. Robot is planning to use this game as its latest attempt to generate long-term steady revenue from the $99.6 billion gaming industry.