Monthly Archives: January 2020

Looking for Advice on PC Hardware

Hey guys, my current PC is 8 years old, and it’s time for me to buy a new one. Technology has obviously changed a lot in that time, so I was hoping that any PC experts could chime in with some tips for me. I plan to spend as much as I need to before I run into obviously diminishing returns – I’m thinking that’ll be around £2,000, which I think is similar to $2,300 after factoring in sales tax. I’ll mainly be using this PC for programming/animation/indie game dev, and VR games. I’m still researching, but here’s my thoughts so far:

CPU: I currently have an i5-3570K, and it looks like any mid-range CPU I get today should be a decent upgrade. I’m concerned that a lot of my software might not take full advantage of all the CPU cores. But if it’s worth it, I’m prepared to go all out on an overclocked i9 with liquid cooling.

The slowest task for me is compiling game code/assets – Adobe Flash uses all 4 of my CPU cores to do this, but only at around 30-60% each. Does that mean something else is the bottleneck? My CPU never seems to reach max usage unless multiple apps are running. I’m not sure what to make of this.

SSD: Looks like the new PCIe SSDs are WAY faster than the SATA ones from a few years ago. I’ll be getting enough space to put all of my work and applications on one of those 3,500Mbps PCIe SSDs.

RAM: I’m currently on 16GB, and I’ve rarely come close to using all of it. But maybe I’ll add some more so I’m future-proof. From what I understand, RAM speeds haven’t changed much over the years?

GPU: My current Radeon HD 6870 card barely runs Doom 2016 at minimum settings, so that’s definitely the part most in need of an upgrade. I won’t be doing a lot of AAA gaming, and I’m not too picky about playing games on max settings, BUT I would like to buy a Valve Index and play a bunch of VR stuff, so maybe it’s worth spending a bit more. It looks like there’s a lot of brands and options here… and it’s kind of overwhelming. The PC I was looking at has a 8GB EVGA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER. Something like that? Gamers will tell me I should spend as much as I can afford… but that sounds like overkill.

The most I’ve ever spent on a PC is £1,000, and it’s always felt like a worthwhile purchase (especially if it serves me for 8 years). So I’m sure I’ll be impressed no matter what I go with.

Here’s what I’ve been considering. Thoughts?

Project Roadmap

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Hey guys, I figured I’d do an update about what I’ll be working on next. So here’s a list, roughly in order of priority…

• Publishing EBF5 on Armor Games – almost done!
• Finishing EBF5 version 2.0 – This has been delayed slightly because of several small issues, including Windows 7 being discontinued, Phyrnna being quite busy with exams, and some translations needing a bit of extra time. It may still be finished by the end of the month, but it could take a bit longer. We’ll see.
• New PC – My current PC is 8 years old, and I’ve mostly been keeping it around so I can keep using Windows 7. So now that I’ve been forced to upgrade, it’s time for me to do some research and drop some big money on a new workstation (and VR setup).
• Publishing EBF5 on more PC stores – When version 2.0 is done, I’ll put EBF5 on more storefronts, probably including GOG and Humble Store. I’d love to do Epic Games Store, but I don’t have much control over that unless they contact me.
• Publishing EBF5 on mobile – The game already runs on my phone, just not very well. This one is a question about whether or not I can optimize it enough to run well on most phones. I’ll give it a try, but I’m not promising that this will be successful.
• Publishing my old games on Steam – Sometime before Flash is killed off in browsers, I’ll put my old game library up on Steam as a single application. I’ll need to remove some copyrighted content and make a few minor changes, but the games will otherwise be the same as before. This includes: EBF1, EBF2, Adventure Story, Bullet Heaven, Brawl Royale, Mecha Dress Up, The Kitten Game, and Cat Cafe.
• YouTube Livestreams – I’m gonna finish up the EBF5 livestreams, and stream other Flash games that I like. I’m not sticking to any sort of schedule since this is just a hobby.

EBF5 is live on Kongregate and Newgrounds!

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Hey guys, the free version of Epic Battle Fantasy 5 is now live on Kongregate and Newgrounds! If you use either of these sites, please give me some good ratings and reviews! Tell your friends they can play for free now!

Even without all the bonus dungeons, it’s still a massive game that can easily keep you busy for 30 hours.

For anyone wondering what the Steam Deluxe Version adds, here’s a list:
• 8 new dungeons, including the Battle Arena for 1 player combat, the Library Dungeon with paper-themed foes, and the Temple of Trials.
• 20+ new bosses, including harder versions of story bosses, bosses from previous games, evil versions of the players, and completely new secret bosses.
• 60+ new equips, including a bit of everything, but especially flairs with completely new effects. There’s also some new skills, including 2 Limit Breaks!
• Collectable monster cards, which look cool and boost your stats.
• Custom Game modes, which allow you to replay the game with different settings, such as 1-player mode, or alternative monster encounters.
• Boss Rush modes, for some of the hardest achievements in the game.
• Newgame+ mode, which allows you to rush through the game again after beating it.
• Cheats and Challenges, which allow you to customize the difficulty to an extreme degree.
• Higher quality music and graphics, including more screen resolution settings, and an expanded art gallery.
• Many balancing changes, that make the game more fair to play.
• And plenty of other things I haven’t even mentioned here!

(I should also mention that the Steam version officially only supports Windows, but shoot me an email if you’re a Mac or Linux user, and I’ll send you a .swf file instead of a .exe file)

Fanart: Natalie

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Hiya Folks!

Here’s a very cool fanart of Natalie from CorytheC.

In other news the v2 update is almost finished and yet Matt keeps finding more fanart he needs to add to the game. Someone please tell him to stop or the game will never be finished.

Epic Battle Fantasy 5 is coming to Kongregate!

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Hey guys, I’m finally getting round to putting EBF5 on Kongregate, and Newgrounds soon afterwards.

It’s gonna be equivalent to Steam version 1.5.2, minus all of the Deluxe features – which means no bonus dungeons, challenge modes, Newgame+, etc. Also all the recent balancing changes won’t be in there. Which may be good or bad, depending on how you feel about them.

Anyway, it’ll be out some time next week! Maybe Friday! Maybe earlier!
Sorry that it took about 6 months longer than I originally planned!

This is gonna be a pretty rare game – it’ll only work for 11 months before browser Flash is discontinued!