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.

Hey guys, I wrote a huge blog post about EBF4's journey through Steam.
Read it if you want to find out how a free* Flash game sold 250,000 copies.

In related news, EBF5 is almost done, it's mostly just translations that need to be finished off.
It'll be coming to Newgrounds a little bit after the Steam release, which should happen before Christmas!
It'll cost $15 on Steam, with owners of EBF4 getting a 20% discount, and comes with a bunch of extra dungeons and equipment. Please add it to your wishlists, and have a happy Halloween!

Hey guys! Epic Battle Fantasy 5 is ready to be publicly beta tested! BUT I need to have the Steam store page finished before then (so that people can start wish-listing it and all that).

This means it's time for me to put together the game trailer. I'm gonna go with something very similar to EBF4's trailer (shown below), so I'll need to record some footage, write a silly script, and have someone read it out for me.
If you or anyone you know might be interested in doing the trailer narration in the next week or two, send me some samples of your work and a quote please.

Josh Tomar did the voice in the EBF4 trailer, and I'm happy with how it turned out. Figured I'd give others a chance before asking him again.
 

Hey guys, I’ve been without internet for over two weeks, but I’m back now. I guess I have to start off with a write-up of the Play Expo.

It went really well! Not a single thing went wrong!

Setting up was easy. I just brought in my computer, two monitors, a poster, an old pile of Kongregate stickers I got from Mochi London, some cute business cards to give out, and that was about it. The venue was conveniently 10 minutes away from my home. At first I didn’t have anywhere to put up my poster, but the guys next to us left very early so we essentially got a 2nd table just for that. Me and Ronja took turns manning the stall, so we didn’t tire ourselves out. (I also got to try some VR stuff on my break, woop!)

EBF5 never crashed. Both days it ran non-stop for 8 hours without any problems, which was pretty cool, but also what I would have hoped for since the demo was just the most basic parts of the battle system. On the second monitor I had my YouTube videos of EBF5 running on loop forever.

The audience was a bit different from what I expected. EGX in England was mostly for gaming enthusiasts, but while this event still had some of those, it was generally much more casual and family oriented. There were a lot of really young kids, but also a lot of parents and grandparents who weren’t even into video games at all. I ended up showing off EBF5 to a huge variety of people, and it was a very educational social experience for me. I learned how to talk to kids, disabled people, and a lot of very socially-awkward people.

I’m glad I had EBF5 configured in work-safe mode, and I’m happy I made that option available in the first place. Bouncing anime breasts were not out of place at the event, but I think it would have been a bit awkward with the game’s default settings, especially when young girls came to play.

A related point that surprised me was the lack of PC gamers! I think EBF5 was one of the only mouse-controlled games there, and a lot of kids were confused when they couldn’t find the controller or keyboard. Quite a few people had trouble using the mouse accurately, and double-clicking when single-clicks were fine. But besides that people picked up the game very easily. I just told them to pick commands and hit the baddies, and that was all they needed to know really. I only intervened to tell them how to heal when their health got low.

Besides all that we also got to know some of the other exhibitors, including Mega Cat Studios, who make modern NES games, Wrench Games who make card games, and Oi Oi Games who are a store for retro games (their Mario Maker stall dominated the area at first and sort of overshadowed us – not fair!). I don’t think there was anyone particularly famous there – there wasn’t even any official presence from the big gaming companies. It was all quite local and modest. A reporter from The Sun talked to me briefly, but in the end I don’t think he actually wrote anything about me.

I had around 5 people tell me they were fans of the EBF games, and another 5 or so who said they’ve probably played them at some point in the past. So that’s not bad – I’m not a total nobody!

Anyway, it was all a lot of fun and I’d love to do it again if I get more chances to do it so cheaply. (Grand total spent on the event: £89 and around 3 days of preparation)

I'm exhibiting EBF5 at Play Expo Glasgow, so if you live in Scotland, you should come check it out this weekend!

They offer free tables to small local devs, so I've managed to get ready for the event by spending just £80. We’ll see if my cheapo stall ends up looking at all professional. It's my first time showcasing a game at an event, so I'll probably just embarass myself, but I'll let you know how it goes.

Also, I own a house now! Me and Ronja are moving in tomorrow!