Hey guys, here’s a list of what’s going to be in the upcoming Epic Battle Fantasy 4 update. As I mentioned last time, this update aims to extend EBF4’s shelf life by adding many quality-of-life features from EBF5. It'll be out on Steam and Itch in maybe a week or two.

Most of this stuff is already finished, but it’s all going to require some testing before it goes live.

Here’s the changes:

 • Removed the Steam DRM

  (the game now runs either as a .exe on Windows, or as a .swf file anywhere else)

 • The Steam overlay works now – this makes it much easier to take and share screenshots

 • Replaced the saving system with EBF5’s: .sol files are no longer used

  (unless running as a .swf)

  (Your old saved games will be converted from .sol files to the new .meow files)

  (You’ll also have access to the old version of the game on Steam, if you ever want to go back)

 • Added a confirmation prompt before overwriting save files

 • Added the option to delete save files

 • Added the backup save feature from EBF5 – you can now backup, name and share your save files

 • Added the Zero difficulty option, which offers no challenge at all

 • Added similar resolution and window options to what EBF5 has (up to 1080p, Best Fit mode, etc)

 • Added the option to re-send medals to Steam by clicking on them in-game

 • Added the option to delete all medals from the main menu

 • Added the option to reset all stat boosting items if you want to apply them differently

 • Added the ability to close most menus by right-clicking anywhere

 • Added buttons to quickly select different players in battle

 • Added buttons to quickly access the forge menu from the equips menu

 • Disabling background animations also disables screen shaking now, which improves performance

 • Smoothed out the formula for enemy damage scaling over level 32 (no spike at final boss)

 • Changed summon formula so that summon damage does not increase slower at level 33+

 • Reduced player MP growth over level 20, to prevent nearly unlimited MP

 • Foes drop more AP towards the end of the game, making it easier to max your skills

 • Forgetting a skill now refunds the AP spent on it

 • Foes have up to 12% less HP in the Temple of Godcat and onwards to Newgame+

 • Party buffs, heals, and status effects now apply to the backup player too

 • Buffed Sacrifice, Bubbles/Bubble Blast, Hyper Beam, Gaia Seed, Syphon, Debilitate, Dispel, and Dark Flare

 • Soul Arrow no longer copies stats that are lower than yours

 • Some unfair foe attacks have been nerfed (Flame wraiths only use death on hard, etc)

 • Many low-quality sound effects have been replaced with sounds from EBF5

 • Sound effects will no longer play multiple times at once, making many spells less painful

 • Music and sounds are no longer forced into mono format

 • Fixed the rough edges on text shadows – the UI looks a bit smoother now

 • Fixed a major memory leak issue that slowed the game down during long sessions

 • Fixed an exploit where you can use the summon power variable for other skills

 • Fixed some typos in equips and skills, making some broken effects work correctly

 • Fixed some broken foe behaviours and incorrect bestiary descriptions

 • Fixed some scaling issues in the Endless Battle mode

 • Fixed the alternative animations for Mighty Oak and Praetorian not being saved correctly

Hey guys, I’ve made some new community collectables for Epic Battle Fantasy 5 on Steam: animated avatars!

But you can also use these on Discord and other messaging platforms, so I thought I'd share them with ya'll.

In other news, I'm updating the Steam version of Epic Battle Fantasy 4 to increase its shelf-life. I'm fixing serious problems like memory leaks, unintended difficulty spikes, and stuff that just never worked correctly. But most importantly, I'm removing the DRM, so you will be able to run the game as a .exe, or as a .swf file, which can run in any Flashplayer of your choice, on any operating system. It should make preserving (or even modding) the game much easier. I'm also gonna release the source code eventually, as there's been some interest in that too. (The EBF5 source code is currently available to modders who I trust, but will soon be available to everyone)

Hey guys, I’m working on the launcher for the Epic Battle Fantasy Collection. It essentially functions like a Flash games website, letting you select a game, view some information, and then launch it. I think it looks pretty cool so far - it ended up looking a bit like Newgrounds.

I suspect the most frustrating part is going to be getting different game resolutions running correctly, especially since every game has a different, and often nonsensical, aspect ratio. None of them were designed to be played in full-screen mode, and will probably not perform well at higher resolutions.

Not sure how I’m gonna handle that yet. Players will probably have to tolerate some borders and blurring.

Yo.

My office was looking tidier than usual, so I figured this was a good chance to take a new photo of my work/gaming space. I'm pretty happy with how it looks now, especially the cable management. I can't think of much that I'd like to change, except for maybe getting a proper wooden table instead of this cheapo one. Maybe I could put something else in the corner instead of that fridge, as I haven't been using it for a while...

Technically I'm on a 4-display setup: 2 monitors, graphics tablet, and VR headset. I guess my next graphics card may need to support even more than that!

Anyway, I'm playing Terraria with my friends now. Between that and DIY projects, I've not been working on any games at the moment. I should probably finish off the Brawl Royale update and stick that on Patreon - it's almost done already. I've spent a lot of the last week building a fence in my garden - turns out it's a lot more work than I thought, especially when the ground is sloped and full of rocks and roots. Digging into that ain't easy!

Hey guys, I’ve been working on new stuff for Adventure Story, which will be part of the Epic Battle Fantasy Collection on Steam. Here’s what I've got so far:

• Controller support: should work with same controllers as Bullet Heaven 2, including Xbox 360, Xbone, PS4, and maybe others
• Extreme difficulty: everything does 999 damage, progress is tracked on the level-select screen, but you get nothing for beating this, it's just for fun
• 4 new levels and 4 new bosses: one at the end of each world, unlocked for collecting everything – these are pretty hard but also quite cool
• 6 new equips and higher level cap: to make the new content slightly more beatable
• new boss rush level!

Adventure Story is the longest game in the EBF Collection, and it never got a sequel, so it seems fair to give it the most new content.

Hey guys, I’m still working on the Epic Battle Fantasy Collection, which is 8 of my older games, and a bunch of extras, packaged up for a Steam release.

I'm almost finished updating Mecha Dress Up Game.

I completely remade the interface, and it almost feels like a new game.

A lot of sounds are new, because the old ones were painful. There’s a couple of new parts and backgrounds. An export to jpeg button. A bunch of pre-made mechs to give you ideas and help you find some cool color schemes. And a new soundtrack with 4 tracks!

EBF1 and 2 have sequels, so there’s not much I wanted to add there, and Brawl Royale is such a simple game that there isn’t much you can change. But Mecha Dress Up definitely had a lot of stuff I’ve wanted to add ever since I first published it.

The Epic Battle Fantasy Collection will also include a folder of old prototypes and unused stuff. A lot of it was only published on DeviantArt, and nowhere else, so there’s sure to be plenty of people who haven’t seen it.

Either way, it’s a little look into how I learned to code and animate, and a chance to think about what might have been. Nothing too exciting, but there may be one or two things in there that I’ve never shared.

Hey guys, I'm currently working on updating Brawl Royale for the Epic Battle Fantasy Collection.

This game was made when I didn't know how to program, so it's basically an animated slide-show. It's getting some cool new features in this update, the biggest one being difficulty options; hopefully this gives it some more replay-value, and allows almost anyone to beat it. It's also getting a new techno soundtrack by Phyrnna, and the timing of the levels is randomized slightly, so you can't cheese the game like before.

Oh yeah, all the copyrighted characters have been re-designed too.

Due to some minor file corruption, I actually had to reprogram the game in ActionScript 3, which luckily didn't take long. The nice part about this is that it can now run on mobile using Adobe AIR, and since it only requires one button to play, this might be a quick little practice game for me to put onto phones.

Of course the original game will also continue to float around the internet forever, if you ever want to play that again.

Hey guys, after slacking off and playing Age of Empires 2 for a few months, I’ve gotten back to work – on the Epic Battle Fantasy Collection!

I’m re-releasing 8 of my very old games on Steam, which involves censoring a lot of copyrighted stuff. So here’s some new creatures for Epic Battle Fantasy 1, which are definitely not Pokemon. EBF1 is also getting a new soundtrack, since all of the original music was stolen from other games.

The other games that will be in included in the collection are: EBF2, Adventure Story, Bullet Heaven, Brawl Royale, Mecha Dress Up, The Kitten Game and Cat Cafe. Some of those are pretty much good to go already, but a few of them will need some changes. Besides removing copyright infringement, I'm also adding some Quality of Life features, like volume controls, easy modes, bug fixes, and Steam achievements!

Hey guys, it’s the end of an era.

Kongregate.com is going into archive mode and no longer accepting new games. A lot of the main staff already left a while ago, but there was still some really good web games being published there, so I’m a bit surprised that it’s no longer working out for them. They were even doing the monthly cash prizes for games up until the end, which I appreciate. I guess now they’re gonna be focusing on publishing mobile games, and on their store, Kartridge.

When I published Epic Battle Fantasy 3 on Kongregate 10 years ago, it got a million plays in the first week, and eventually 11 million in total. I think that was the biggest long-term boost to my reputation and career. The people at Kongregate were a lot of fun to work with, especially Greg the badge guy, and I don’t think any indie game platform today has anywhere near the same influence. I’m glad I published Epic Battle Fantasy 5 on there while I still could – it’ll be one of the last games to ever get badges!

Personally, I’m gonna keep checking the site every once in a while. There’s still lots of fun badges that I’ve missed. Even when the Flashplayer plugin is disabled, there’s still browser extensions to get around that.

A lot of the popular Flash games I’m sure will eventually make their way onto other platforms like Steam, but there’s also preservation projects like BlueMaxima’s Flashpoint to keep these games alive.

Anyway, you should go have a browse through Kongregate’s badge categories. I’m sure you’ll find something fun to play every time you have an hour or two to spare. This news also motivates me to be more active on Newgrounds, as I'd really love for this website to stay alive for as long as possible!

Hey guys, I’ve added Epic Battle Fantasy 4 to Itch.io’s massive charity bundle. For $5 you get 1,000+ games – mostly obscure stuff, but there’s a few well known indie games in there too, including Celeste, Night in the Woods, Minit, Nuclear Throne, Super Hexagon, Oxenfree, OneShot, Octodad and GNOG. Some hidden gems I’ve noticed include Water's Fine, Blitz Breaker, Lenna’s Inception, Heavy Bullets, The Floor is Jelly, Tiny Dangerous Dungeons, and Cuckoo Castle. I’m sure there’s much more in there that’s worth checking out, and if you agree with the cause, you should probably chip in a bit more than the minimum price.

Anyway, all of the games are DRM-free, no Steam keys.

Good luck, have fun.