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matt-likes-swords
I made Epic Battle Fantasy!
Currently working on Matt's Hidden Cats.
Using Flash for 21 years.
Matt Roszak @matt-likes-swords

Age 35, Male

Developer

Glasgow University

Glasgow, UK

Joined on 6/12/04

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75EOFC

Have you played Undertale or other games from Toby Fox?

matt-likes-swords

Undertale is fantastic. Only tried a tiny bit of Deltarune.

urban-pyramid

Would love to know your thoughts on self inserts in any form of media.

It’s obvious that the character Matt started at least as a self insert of yourself. Then I assume as you grew you slowly developed the character more into his own thing.

Your early stuff pre EBF was a huge inspiration for me when I was little. When I started making original characters, I also had a self insert (who wielded swords lol) that I kept around for a while. Normally I would have to work overtime justifying that the character and I were two different people. Eventually I just faded him out of my cast because my thoughts on it changed as I got older, probably because he no longer represented me in my mind.

I think it’s interesting too how the self insert slowly faded away and became “Sona’s” for the newer art community. But I’m more curious about the point in which the artist questions if this caricature of themself shall continue into the work that they are creating.

So yeah im interested in knowing about any inner thoughts on Matt the character as time has gone on, and any other thoughts you have had on self inserts in the past. Sorry for the whole essay, it’s an interesting topic for me I’m now realizing.

Yomuchan

Still using Flash?

matt-likes-swords (Updated )

Correct. It's actually more viable now that Adobe abandoned it and other companies took over.

Doomguy2009

What would be your most favorite and least favorite EBF game and why?

matt-likes-swords

Each one is objectively better than the last.

OfficialKius

I'm not sure if anyone asked this question before, but why was Lance's original Gunblade design replaced with a different one in EBF5?

matt-likes-swords

Because he doesn't actually know how to use a sword, and it helps distinguish him from Matt thematically.

MariaRenard

with the current world leaders (and their followers) set on ruining things, how soon until the apocalypse?

matt-likes-swords (Updated )

If America really does decide to invade Europe or Canada, then very soon.
And even if it doesn't, Western alliances falling apart is very bad.

Loopy-dooples

what would be the hardest about game dev in general in your opinion

PoorSods0

what are some things you knew while young that turned out to be lies or generally untrue assumptions?
when making flash games, is there anything you try to do to make actually creating them feel less like work that you'd rather avoid?

matt-likes-swords

I used to think that voting didn't matter, and now I think that's a pretty unhelpful outlook.
I think it's more the case that I was just totally ignorant about a lot of things, rather than knowing the wrong things.

Yeah, I try to make things I haven't done before, and preferably things that no one has done before.

CalebPulliam

Time travel doesn't seem possible in ebf but jumping inside of black holes is a casual thing, I love the goofy logic of ebf sometimes.

InfamousCheezit

Due to there being so many questions I haven’t read them all, so apologies in advance if this has been asked, but what was the hardest parts of making an rpg?

matt-likes-swords (Updated )

I think technically the most challenging part was pathfinding for mouse movement on the world map. Other than that there's no particularly complex math in the game. The battle mechanics are a bit messy in their entirety, but that's just because the code wasn't planned out as well as it could have been.

blawnode

You're great.
How's Phyrnna been doing?

matt-likes-swords (Updated )

Go ask her!
I think she's getting by.

metalsoniczombiecat

Is nolegs the cat jesus?

matt-likes-swords

The story could be interpreted that way.

Bear50

Why were mini games mostly ditched after EBF 3? After the hidden cats games, is there any other passion projects or games you have been wanting to work on? Is there any features you regret scrapping from any of the ebf series? Is there a joke or reference in any of the games you think players totally misunderstand or failed to interpret how you initially thought it would go? What was some of the hardest things for you to code in any game?

MariaRenard

whats the worst and best things your fans specifically have done?

RafaelMartinez

Would you vote for Palpatine? I mean, Lance would 100%

PoorSods0

newgrounds was supposedly related to the neo geo. ever play a neo geo game?

matt-likes-swords

Don't think so.

rejnka

Does Lance's armband being a manji instead of a swastika in EBF2 have lore significance? I have headcanons about it, but I don't know how close that was to your intention.

matt-likes-swords

It was supposed to imply that he was a dumbass, but I don't think a lot of people noticed.

AriesLiver

What's something your fans probably don't know about you?

WahooYahooOhHoNo

Might be some hard questions ahead, fair warning. Feel free to decline answer. Bombing run initiated.

Will the games' animations ever be reconfigured to 60fps in the future, given modern gamers' expectations, Flash working off of tweens, and Ruffle's improved technical capabilities? It's a recurring complaint like with Nitro Express which is releasing soon.

Do you ever think back to your high school relationship beyond annoying fans like me bugging you about it?

Flash back to when you were, say, developing EBF2, did you ever expect your games to develop such a large cult following then?

What are your tips for handling networking of talent for a larger-scale production, given your experience? I wonder because Newgrounds is no longer such a centralized area where talent congregates and the internet is much more commercial and distrustful than it was a decade ago.

How are your thirties?

Do you ever deal with people being unkind towards you in public due to having long hair? I also choose to have long hair and my experiences have varied based on the region I reside in in the United States, especially with the current climate (ironic given my leanings).

How do you handle prejudice towards your hobbies at your age, given some people still treat them with a certain stigma? It's probably much easier to handle considering it's your employment, but I'm curious.

Do you think there will be less corruption in the politician class over time in the near future?

What are some specific tips you would give to high school age gamedevs who are ambitious and are serious about making their hobby their living? I know circumstances happened to fall in your favor that don't exist today and it's not exactly reproducible but I'm still curious.

Did you ever have work-life conflicts and struggles to overcome as EBF grew in your life?

Are you still interested in power metal considering Stratovarius figured into your early work?

What art resources did you look to to learn from as a young lad? It's been much easier and simultaneously much harder with advances in the Internet.

Do you think mobile, PC, and console games will converge and consolidate giving the popularity of cross-platform and the diminishing returns on high-end silicon while miniaturization hits new strides, combined with the growing Asian market? I think that's directly relevant considering your new project and that web gaming has a potential avenue to come roaring back provided the conditions are right.

Given how much soft sex appeal has grown in the cultural zeitgeist, what are your thoughts on the push and pull of the VISA/Mastercard controversies in Japan and the ripple effects, like Japan pulling out of the UN? Thoughts on the culture clash?

What do you think of the "browser game" stigma since many browser games have started porting themselves as standalone experiences?

Thoughts on licensing and all that fun IP cross-media milking jazz /sarcasm? Would you ever approve of artists making official media like manga and stuff or do you prefer to keep stuff in the fanwork space? If somebody tried to steal your trademark would you take the route of being "forced to sell out," as what ultimately happened with ZUN and Touhou given how dumb IP law is at the moment?

Has AI increased your worth as an artist considering the techbros found out about scarcity economics?

Do you support Ross Freeman's "Stop Killing Games" effort considering its recent rejection by the United Kingdom?

matt-likes-swords

I don't think going to 60fps will be worth the hassle - I'd have to manually adjust every animation - and even if it works on PC it might not be ideal for mobile devices.

I don't leave the house much so people don't bother me, but I find that people were more ready to annoy me about my hair when I was younger. Less so in my 30s. More or less the same with hobbies. I live in a bubble of cool people.

I think politics will only improve when there's a serious effort to stop politicians and news outlets from taking bribes, especially from billionaires and foreign governments, and only Bernie Sanders was really talking about stuff like that. Social media outlets also need to be banned from doing their current business model of making people addicted to low-quality, engagement-farming content. I don't think it's going to happen any time soon.

Finish and publish the projects you work on. Maybe something will stick.

I don't listen to as much metal these days.

I've never really needed any art resources other than looking at what other people are making, and just practicing. My art isn't really advanced enough for serious study, it's pretty cartoony.

The main barrier to cross platform development for me seems to be just that most of my games are designed for a mouse. If I supported mouse and controller all the time, it would be easier, but I don't really want to do the extra work. Also Flash and Ruffle aren't perfect, but they're gradually making progress on more platforms.

I don't follow the ZUN stuff, seems like an interesting story to read up on later.

AI hasn't effected me other than making the quality of online content much worse. Maybe I can eventually find a way for it to help me with some coding tasks, but I dunno yet.

I dunno about that movement, but I support piracy and I think it's important for preserving old games.

ShweetMagnet

What's Natalie's BMI? Asking for a friend.

matt-likes-swords (Updated )

Slightly above the recommended number.

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