Hey guys, people keep asking about how much EBF5 will cost on mobile, so I figure I’d let you know what the plan is at the moment. (although all of this may still change…)
It’s going to be a free app with in-app purchases for the DLC dungeons, Newgame+, Custom Games, and Cheats/Challenges.
The free mobile version is going to be very similar to the free web version, so it will include the full story content, but it will have the balancing of the latest Steam version, and the new Monster Cards will also be available. There’s gonna be ads after every battle or two – I hear the thing you gotta do nowadays is give the player some incentive to watch the ads, so I may need to tie some extra gold or something to that.
As for the in-app purchases, it’s probably going to be $15-$20 for the full package, with the option to buy the features separately, for example, $5.99 to remove ads, $5.99 for the DLC dungeons, $5.99 for Custom Game modes, etc. So it could potentially be cheaper if you’re not interested in everything.
Anyway, I’m working on the Android version first, with iOS coming a bit later. The game will work best on a large phone with a stylus, but I’m making the interface bigger to make it more user-friendly for smaller phones and fat fingers. There’s not that much work left to do, but I’ve also not been working much lately, so who knows how long it will take. I did say I would have a beta for Patreons soon, so I should at least try to get that done… but I shouldn’t make any promises. I’m sorry for the delays though.
Hey guys, as you know, I’ve been working on the mobile version of Epic Battle Fantasy 5, and this version will be getting some new and exclusive content – an extra 5 weapons for each player, which is 25 in total!
They’re all iconic weapons from big franchises – you’ll surely recognize most of them. I spoke with a copyright lawyer, and it turns out companies can only trademark characters – they can’t trademark the likeness of a basic object such as a weapon. Therefore it’s totally fine for me to use weapons like the Master Sword or Portal Gun in my games.
I’ve always been a big mobile gamer, so I figured that my favourite gaming platform should have the best and most complete version of EBF5. Not everyone has a PC, but you all have phones, right?
Anyway, these powerful weapons will be $11.99 each, and will only be available on April 1st every year. For the rest of the year, they will vanish from your inventory.
Hey guys, I’m back to working on the mobile version of Epic Battle Fantasy 5.
I’m currently improving the interface for mobile screens, which mainly involves making everything 20-25% larger. This may not seem like much, but that translates to 40-55% more click area, so it really helps.
It may seem like a quick job, but since the UI already took up most of the screen, it’s not possible to simply make everything bigger. In many cases I need to rearrange UI elements, split stuff like Medals, Summons and Bestiary into more pages, and add a zoom-in feature to the minimap. Tooltip behaviour also had to be changed, since touchscreens don’t have roll-over and roll-out functionality like a mouse, but I’ve also added in a “Stylus Mode” option, which basically reverts to the PC mouse controls.
I also had to fix a lot of graphics to display correctly without filters, such as the status and buff icons.
Overall it’s going well, if a bit slowly. I will try to get a beta Android version out in a few weeks.
Hey guys, I refurbished my old NES consoles, so you can see some photos of that below.
Here’s a list of upgrades that I gone and done, and that you yourself can easily try:
• I took the controllers apart to replace the silicone bits inside – replacements are super cheap on eBay. They work as good as new now. The main difficulty was that the tiny screws on the controllers didn’t unscrew very well.
• Just for fun I replaced the faceplates on two of the controllers with unofficial ones from eBay. They’re not as high quality as the original ones, but they look pretty cool if you don’t inspect them closely.
• I took the game cartridges apart to clean the connectors – this requires a special screwdriver. There’s a lot of different methods for cleaning that people swear by, but I tried a regular eraser, and then rubbing alcohol.
• I took the consoles apart for cleaning – I’ve got one PAL and one NTSC. The first runs at 50 frames per second and the second at 60. I snipped their region locking chips, so they can both play pretty much any game now, but at different speeds. Apparently, this also makes dirty games more likely to start-up correctly, since they will keep resetting if they don’t satisfy this chip. The snipping is actually super easy – you can see in the circuit board close-up photo exactly which pin you need to cut. That’s all there is to it.
• Taking an NES apart is very simple, and regular screwdrivers are all you need. Putting it back together is trickier, as some parts overlap in unintuitive ways, and plastic parts may have warped a bit due to age. Luckily there’s plenty of YouTube videos that will guide you through it if you get lost.
• I took out the component that connects to cartridges and gave it a light scrub with some fine sandpaper, straightened the connectors with a pick, and then I boiled it in water. Combined with cleaning the carts, most of my games start up on the first try now!
• One of the NES consoles had an unreliable power button. I figured it was just dirty inside, so I took it apart (carefully bending some small bits of metal to get in there), and that was indeed the case. I learned how to use a multimeter to check for electrical connections, and this allowed me to test if the power button was working without needing to put it back into the console. Now it works like new!
And as a little bonus at the bottom, you can see some new NES games I bought. These were published in the last few years! I gotta say that buying new, unlicensed NES games on cartridges in 2021 isn’t exactly great value for money unless you like collecting rare novelties to show off to your friends, much like vinyl records. But that’s the point I guess, and in my opinion, it’s preferable to collecting old, official NES games, since you’re supporting the creation of new content for the NES!
Anyway…
• Micro Mages feels like a very modern platformer game with smooth controls and a reasonable difficulty level, despite being the same size as the original Super Mario Bros. And it’s multiplayer – up to 4 players if you have a multi-tap!
• Project Blue is a good-looking and polished Metroid-style game, but the difficulty is very retro – you have to beat the game in one go, 1-ups are rare, and the easiest difficulty setting is still challenging. At least it gives you unlimited continues!
• Nebs and Debs could pass as a real, early NES game. The controls are a little bit stiff, and it sends you back to the beginning when you game over. Getting better at the game is a lot like Mario – you need to memorise where all of the 1-ups and shortcuts are, to stand a chance at beating it.
Hey guys, the Newgrounds Flash Forward Game Jam is over, so I’m making this post to feature some of my favourite games from it. This jam was all about making browser Flash games that work in Ruffle – no Flashplayer plugin required. Ruffle is an open-source Flashplayer that works natively in browsers, mobile, and desktop, and currently runs ActionScript 2 games, with ActionScript 3 being worked on now.
One of the coolest features of Ruffle so far is that Flash games now run very well in fullscreen – just right click to go into fullscreen mode in any of these games!
