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.

Hey guys, the entire EBF3 source code and assets are available on my Patreon for $2 for personal use. So if you have an old version of Adobe Flash (CS3, CS4, CS5 or CS6), you can try making some changes to it for fun, or just take a look at how the programming and animations are done. It’s ActionScript 2, so it’ll be a blast from the past, and it’s not my tidiest work. In fact it's incredibly messy, so you'll definitely need some Flash experience to make sense of it.

If people find that interesting, I may share the source files for the newer EBF games.

Anyway, I figured I'd announce this on Newgrounds since there may be some oldschool game devs on here who want to take a look at some AS2 stuff again.

Hey guys, I'll be publishing Epic Battle Fantasy 5 on Kongregate sometime next week, and hopefully on Newgrounds very soon after.

I've not been very active in the browser game scene for a few years, so I'm catching up. I've noticed that Newgrounds requires you to download their player to run Flash games, while Kongregate asks you to enable Flashplayer in your browser.

I'm taking a look at the NG player, and it seems to run my old games fine - but website links don't work!

I'd very much like to advertise my website and deluxe version of the game. So it would be a shame if I couldn't do that on Newgrounds. But I understand this might be a limitation of Adobe's desktop Flashplayer - and I'll modify my ads accordingly if I need to.

I haven't checked - but do NG medals still work on it? Cause I'd still like to implement those.

Hey, here's the first 4 winners of the EBF5 Foe Competition - these monsters are all designed by fans!

Angry chair is by Dumfro, Treagure is by ScepterDPinoy, Guoye is by Jay, and The Maw is by Mico. Additionally, the sword that Guoye summons is by Bolt Zyphyr.

I'm working on a big update for EBF5, which will include over 25 new foes, extra dungeons, and other cool stuff. It's not going to be finished any time soon, but I'll still try to make regular updates. EBF5's Steam launch has been a major success, and I'm trying not to work too hard.

I'll have to bring the free version of the game to Newgrounds soon - the series' 10 year anniversary is coming up in a month! Maybe I can convince Tom to host a fanart competition...

Hey guys, I’m not working this month, but I still wanted to do something for my patrons, so I’m sharing the entire EBF5 source code with them.

It’s just for the purposes of personal education, and datamining (for walkthroughs etc).

The code is quite messy in many places, and the comments aren’t always accurate or useful. Timeline code from the animations is not included, so some important stuff is missing, and none of the code will compile unless you edit it to stand alone. You’re best opening the files in FlashDevelop, but any code editor should do okay.

Some files are easy to read without any programming knowledge, like the lists of item stats. While other files will require you to be familiar with Actionscript, Java, or similar languages.

So if you want to see what “real” code looks like, as opposed to ideal textbook code, toss me $1 to get it. If you're an EBF fan, you might also enjoy finding bits of unused code to see what might have been.

If people find this useful or interesting, I might release some of the animation assets in .fla format later. Not many programmers are using Flash these days, but I'm sure animators would still enjoy looking through it.

Hey guys, as you might know, Epic Battle Fantasy 5 launched on Steam a couple of months ago, and has been doing very well so far. I'm currently working on more dungeons and secret content for the game, which you can see on my website or YouTube.

I'm also doing another Foe Competition, so you can design monsters for EBF5, and if I like them, I'll animate them and put them into the game! The full details and instructions are here. We're doing pixel art this time, so check it out if that sounds interesting to you.

I'm doing a Christmas EBF5 Steam Key give-away!
Just leave a short comment on my website to enter.

In related news, EBF5's Steam launch was a massive success!
The game's selling way better than I hoped for, and is getting mostly great reviews.
I've been frantically busy over the last month, but I think I'm finally ready to take a break and enjoy my holidays.

The Steam version of EBF5 is out!

Compared to the free version (coming soon-ish), it adds 48 extra equips, 5 new dungeons, and 10 new bosses, including many of the hardest ones in the game. Other perks include HD graphics and audio, a choice of screen resolutions, and Steam features, like cards, achievements, and cloud saving!

Everyone who owns EBF4 on Steam will get a 20% discount coupon for EBF5. This needs to be launched by a human from Valve, so there might be some delay getting these out.

The coupons will be valid for a month, and after that I’ll release a Steam bundle of EBF4, EBF5, and Bullet Heaven 2. This bundle gives you 20% off if you “complete the set”. If you only own EBF4, for example, you can buy the other 2 games together for 20% off. This will be a permanent deal going forward, and it works in conjunction with other discounts.

If you want to support Phyrnna directly, buying the EBF5 soundtrack on Bandcamp will give her a much bigger cut than she gets from Steam. It’s also available on most music platforms.

The EBF Discord is a good place to talk with other players, and to get help if you get stuck in the game. You can also report bugs and other problems there.

EBF5 officially only supports Windows, but Steam Play beta allows it to run normally on Linux (apparently), and the installation folder also includes the game’s Flash file and Flashplayers for different operating systems. So you can run it on a Mac or even on a mobile device with a bit of tinkering. (without Steam features though)

The free web version will be released once I’ve had a break from the Steam release. The beta will stay up on this website, but it’s already quite outdated and buggy compared to the Steam version. Saves between all versions will be compatible, and easily transferable with the save backup feature. Saves from the beta may have a few minor problems – such as permanently missing an equip or two if you save in the wrong place – so it’s better to start again.

Hey guys, Epic Battle Fantasy 5 launches on the 30th of November on Steam! 
Please add it to your wishlist. 

It'll be $15, with owners of EBF4 getting a coupon for 20% off in their Steam inventory - the coupon is activated by a human, so you might not get it immediately.

A free version of EBF5 with less content will also come to Newgrounds in early 2019.

After 3 years of full-time work, I'm really looking forward to having this huge weight off my back. Flash was already announced dead when I started working on the game, so we'll see if launching a huge Flash game in 2018 pays off. Either way, I'll finally be free to try some small projects again, and probably some different game engines too.

EBF5 took a lot out of me emotionally, and I never want to work on such a large project ever again - or at least not in such isolation. I am however incredibly happy with how the game turned out, and I hope everyone enjoys it.

It's the result of 15 years of messing around with Flash.