BFDIA 5b

Game

Gallery

Transcript

Enemies

BFDIA 5b got cancelled. "...but I have unfortunate news. BFDIA 5b is cancelled." — Announcer, "SOS (Save Our Show)" BFDIA 5b got cancelled. Be aware that future updates on this article are unlikely to be seen, and additional information should be accompanied by a source to confirm it.

Mature content ahead! "…If you know what I mean." — Tennis Ball, "Four Goes Too Far" This article or section contains content that may not be suitable for children or sensitive individuals. Proceed with discretion. Reason: The YouTube Thumbnail. This page was last edited on September 16, 2024, at 9:41:35.

This article is about a game. "Let’s play a GAME!" -Four, "Getting Teardrop to Talk and Thanks for 1,000,000 subscribers!" This article talks about a type of game in the BFDI franchise. This was put here to stop confusion.

This article contains spoilers. The information in the article below contains spoilers for the BFDI series. Please watch the episode(s) if you have not seen them yet.

BFDIA 5b
Season 2, Episode 5, Part 2
Watch on YouTube
Duration	About 40-50 minutes (to complete) Infinity 0:23 (YouTube)
Challenge	Reach the summit of Yoyle Mountain (part 2)
Death(s)	22
Special guests	Lego Brick Waffle Tune
Airdate	February 11, 2013
Written by	Cary Huang Michael Huang
Directed by	Cary Huang Michael Huang
Transcript
Previous	"Get in the Van"
Next	"No More Snow!"

“	It's not a cartoon. It's a game.	”
	— Message from the BFDIA 5b announcement video

BFDIA 5b, or simply 5b, is a Flash side-scrolling platform web game made by Michael and Cary Huang. The game was released on Monday, February 11, 2013, as announced in an update video on Thursday, January 31, 2013. BFDIA 5b is the only episode to be a game rather than an animation and acts as the 2nd part of the 5th episode of Battle for Dream Island Again. The game involves FreeSmart members traversing through Evil Leafy through several levels, trying to escape. It is the 30⅖th episode overall.

When the game debuted, it had 33 playable levels and the player could not pass Level 33 until February 19, 2013. From February 19 to 25, the game had 50 playable levels and the player could not pass Level 50 until February 25. Due to the creator of the game being very busy, the February 25 update only added 3 new playable levels. The game has 53 playable levels, but the player cannot pass Level 53. Even if the player gets past Level 53, Level 54 is empty and has no data.

A note in Level 53 says levels will be uploaded as soon as they are made, but on March 3, 2013, it was announced that the game was postponed for now due to BFDIA 5c being worked on. In BFDI's Best Hiatus Ever, Cary revealed that BFDIA 5b will be completed, possibly in the next few months, along with some other projects. However, no updates were made to the game since.

The game could be played here before Adobe ended support for Adobe Flash Player on Thursday, December 31, 2020, and restricted Flash content on Tuesday, January 12, 2021. It can currently be played through various other means, such as Flashpoint Archive or the fanmade HTML5 port.

Cary released the source files on Monday, July 4, 2022, in a GitHub repository.

Plot

Book starts out lost and forgetful of recent events. After realizing she is inside Evil Leafy, Book ventures out to find the other members of FreeSmart.

Book eventually finds Match trapped in a box in level 19 and asks if Match knows what is going on. Match recalls Pencil driving the FreeSmart Van into Evil Leafy's mouth and falling into her unpleasant box. Book and Match agree to find the other FreeSmarters.

Book and Match find the Hand-powered Recovery Center in 024. Strange discovery and Book figures it fell out of the FreeSmart Van.

Later, Match and Book enter a house in Level 31. Inside, Book finds Lego Brick, but is first scared of him and thinks he is "an armless mutant Blocky". Lego Brick denies this and asks to be Book's friend. Book asks him "Where are we?" and Lego Brick states that they are inside Evil Leafy, along with thousands of other recommended characters. Lego Brick is confused at the fact that Evil Leafy ate Book and Match, but she reassures that they are fine. Lego Brick remains confused, Book says goodbye to carry on their adventure.

Book traps Lego Brick inside a box to activate a switch to complete a level. In the next level, Lego Brick turns mad, saying that Book trapped him inside a box. Book reassures her that it was only for desperate measures, but Lego Brick is unconvinced and punishes the 2 by forcing them to fall into his underground factory, teaching them not to mess with him.

Further into Lego Brick's dungeon, Book finds Ice Cube on an independent platform. Book asks her why she is in Lego Brick's Factory.

Ice Cube does not remember why she is in the dungeon but laments that if she had arms, she could pick up a nearby box to escape the dungeon. Fortunately, Book has arms, so she moves the box to below the other low-hanging platforms so Book, Match, and Ice Cube can escape the dungeon continue the adventure.

The trio later meet Waffle and Tune to which Match revolts due to past experiences with recommended characters like Lego Brick. Ice Cube thinks they seem nice, but Match sarcastically compares to how nice Lego Brick was. Waffle says that Lego Brick is a nice guy once one gets to know him and that he has a fear of dying, but Book and Match still reject.

Waffle and Book ask each other's group who they are. Waffle introduces Tune but is cut off by Match's impatience. Waffle directs the 3 to Evil Leafy's mouth eastward, so they leave the recommended characters to continue the quest.

As Book, Match, and Ice Cube exit the house, Waffle and Book exchange goodbyes. Waffle says they are welcome back at any time. Book asks Ice Cube if the sky looks redder to her, but Ice Cube disagrees. Farther away from the house, they encounter Waffle and Match questions why they are outside. Waffle replies that they went on a walk to get some fresh air.

In Level 53, the 3 are faced with an uncrossable wall. A message by Cary Huang appears behind the wall:

"Hi people. I've been really busy lately, so I've only been able to create three levels. :(
More levels coming soon. I will upload them as soon as I create them, so some could be out tomorrow, or in a week. I'm really sorry!!! I hope we can all understand."

In the BFDIA 5c announcement, Jacknjellify spoils the ending with simply "FreeSmart escapes Evil Leafy".

Gameplay

The player starts the game as Book and moves through 53 levels though Evil Leafy. Match and Ice Cube are present in later levels once they are met in the game. The game offers many platforming and puzzle challenges; in order to progress to the next level, all the playable characters must be in front of the exit door until it activates. Optionally, the player can collect one Win Token (called "coin" internally) each level, most of which are in hidden or difficult to reach places. Beating the level with a Win Token will turn that level green on the level select screen. Win Tokens have no real use, but the number collected is tallied on the level select screen.

Playable characters can walk left and right, and jump. Characters and certain items can be picked up, and can either be thrown or set back down. When multiple characters are playable, they are operated one at a time and can be switched between each other. Book and Match can use Hand-powered Recovery Center to revive dead characters. The game does not reset if a character dies due to the reviving mechanic. Instead, if the player is stuck in a level, they can reset the level manually to start over.

The title screen allows the player to watch the previous episode BFDIA 5a for context, start a new game (players must erase their saved progress if they have any to start a new game), or continue the game from their previous saved progress. The "LEVEL CREATOR" and "EXPLORE" options are unselectable on the title screen and were originally planned to release on March 4, 2013, but were never released.

Controls

Action	Keyboard controls
Walk	Left and right arrow keys
Jump	Space
Grab/Throw	Up arrow key
Release	Down arrow key
Change characters	Z
Reset level	R
Advance dialogue	Enter or Shift
Menu select	Left click
Scroll menu	Hover mouse cursor up and down
Highlight menu button	Tab
Select menu button	Enter

Characters

Playable characters

Book

The main character in the game. She can run and jump at normal speeds. She doesn't immediately burn when going through a heater, but she can still get burned by one rather quickly.

Match

Appears for the first time in Level 19: "Say hello". She is taller, can jump higher, and can go through smaller holes than other contestants. Match is immune to fire, so when going through a heater, her hair catches on fire and she can use the fire to burn other characters like Ice Cube. The fire can be put out by hitting a ceiling, being submerged in water, or by melting Ice Cube.

Ice Cube

Appears for the first time in Level 42: "Eye skewb". She can run faster than any other character, but jumps very low. She melts almost instantly when standing in a heater. She can cool off other characters in a heater when melting. Due to her lacking arms, she cannot hold or throw things, or operate the HPRC.

Attributes

Character	Jump height	Run speed (blocks/s)	Jump distance	Burn time (s)	Effective width	Effective height
Book	3	5	5	2	2	2
Match	3	5	4	2 (non-lethal)	1	3
Ice Cube	2	10	6	0.5	2	2

Character	Width	Height	Weight	Carried object height	Friction	Heat speed	Jump height	Jump height (blocks)
Book	23	56	0.36	31	0.8	1.7	95.4	3.18
Match	10	86	0.26	31	0.8	1.6 (non-lethal)	113.2126492	3.77
Ice Cube	20	51	0.41	20 (armless)	0.85	5	89.03219917	2.96

Non-playable characters

Lego Brick

An NPC that can only be played by editing the game files. He doesn't have arms, but because he isn't meant to be played as, he actually can pick up items and use the HPRC. He is a little on the slow side, however, he can jump rather high compared to the average.

Waffle

An NPC that can be only played by editing the game files. An armless character, but because Waffle isn't meant to be played as, they actually can hold and throw items and use the HPRC. They have a pitiful jump, and their speed isn't too great either.

Tune

An NPC that can be only played by editing the game files. She is always seen bobbing to a rhythm, likely to the music in her headphones. She walks faster than both of the other RCs, but she is a little slower than Book.

Unintroduced characters

Bubble

Does not appear in any level. She has the highest jump, along with the ability to float. She, however, when in contact with a wall, pops. This includes the edges of a level.

Ruby

Ruby has the 3rd-lowest jump, after Ice Cube and Waffle. She is the widest character out of the ones intended to be played as, and is also the shortest, as Ice Cube is taller than her.

Pencil

Does not appear in any level. She can fit through narrow spaces like Match.

Other characters

• Evil Leafy - Her role is the game's setting, she is mentioned, and she appears at the bottom of the level select screen.
• Firey and Coiny - They aren't in the game, only in the updated thumbnail of the BFDIA 5b announcement video.
• Announcer - He isn't in the game, but he uniquely appears as the game's favicon, because the game is located on the bfdi.tv domain.
• Blocky - He is mentioned by Book, who at first believed Lego Brick was an "armless mutant" version of him.

Enemies

Main article: BFDIA 5b/Enemies

List of levels

53 levels were released. There are a total of 133 levels planned; 100 main levels and 33 bonus levels.

• 001. Time to explore
• 002. First danger
• 003. Pillar
• 004. Going under
• 005. Small packages
• 006. Landfill
• 007. Rock bottom
• 008. A friend
• 009. A companion
• 010. A sad goodbye
• 011. A change of terrain
• 012. Pillar 2
• 013. On the edge
• 014. High
• 015. Zoom
• 016. Zoom zoom
• 017. Switch
• 018. Living life on the edge
• 019. Say hello
• 020. Working together
• 021. Pick me up
• 022. Horrifically tall
• 023. Ground level
• 024. Strange discovery
• 025. Would you die for me?
• 026. Jump off a cliff
• 027. Cross the uncrossable
• 028. Build my pathway
• 029. Don't look back
• 030. Civilization!
• 031. Encounter
• 032. I need you for something
• 033. The Drop
• 034. Dungeon
• 035. Thirst for acid
• 036. Checkpoint!
• 037. Match filter
• 038. Gimme my boxes
• 039. Oceanic divide
• 040. Bridge
• 041. Liquify
• 042. Eye skewb
• 043. A cool new addition
• 044. Nice and toasty
• 045. We are different
• 046. Stranger strangers
• 047. Heading out
• 048. Weapon transport
• 049. Take the plunge
• 050. I didn't want to see you
• 051. Those things scare me
• 052. Never look back
• 053. I'm sorry
• 054. undefined

Level 53 is the last playable level, but Level 52 is the last level that is intended to be beaten and the last that can be beaten without exploits. Once Level 53 is completed, because the game does not know how to handle non-existent levels, it shows "undefined" as the title, and quickly cycles through all of the backgrounds in the game.

Video

A video announcing BFDIA 5b's release, titled under the same name, was released on February 11th, 2013. Additionally, BFDIA 5b's background music is "The Fiber" (the music in the video) but paulstretched to 1/8 speed.

The 2024 music album Battle for BFDI (Original Soundtrack) has an extended version of the BFDIA 5b video's theme "The Fiber" in the track "The Fiber OK". The game's background music was released as "The Fiber (Ambient)", the penultimate track on the album.

Update history

BFDIA 5b was updated many times in 2013 after its initial release on February 11, 2013.

• February 11, 2013 (initial release)
  • Levels 1-33
    • 033. The Drop couldn't be passed until February 19, 2013.
  • Characters: Book, Match, and Lego Brick (NPC)
• February 19, 2013
  • Levels 34-50 were added.
    • 050. I didn't want to see you couldn't be passed until February 25, 2013.
  • Ice Cube, Waffle (NPC), and Tune (NPC) were added.
  • 033. The Drop was updated to be beatable.
• February 25, 2013
  • Levels 51-53 were added.
    • 053. I'm sorry has a wall blocking the exit door and wasn't intended to be beaten. This makes 052. Never look back the last level that was intended to be beatable.
  • 050. I didn't want to see you was updated to be beatable.
• March 4, 2013 (canceled) - Level Creator and Explore mode were planned to release.
• June 5, 2013 (minor update) - In Part 4 of Ni Hao Guylan's blind let's play of BFDIA 5b, he struggled on the early version of 029. Don't look back. On June 5, 2013, shortly after the video as uploaded, Carykh said in a comment on the video, "...I also just made Level 29 a bit easier." This suggests he updated the game that day, which would make June 5, 2013 the date of the last known update to BFDIA 5b, months after the last levels were added.

Bugs and glitches

Block clipping

The block clip glitch works by a quirk in the games collision detection for blocks where collision essentially only extends up to 0.01 pixels away from the left edge of a block. If a character is lined up correctly when landing on the left corner of a block, they will clip into it. It is not possible to clip into the right side of a block.

Wall clipping

This works by the same mechanism as the block clip. If a character's right edge is between 0 and 0.01 pixels (exclusive) from the left edge of a block and have a horizontal velocity of 0, they will clip continuously into the wall and can at any point move to the right to go through it. This was originally thought to be TAS only, but it was later found to be humanly possible to set up.

Thin warp

Characters can warp through 1 block thick walls by grabbing entities thinner than a block on the other side of the wall.

Stretchy arms glitch

When exiting to the menu while a character is using the recovery center, their arms will stretch to the recovery center forever. In levels without a recovery center, the players have no arms (and for Ice Cube's case, her body goes missing so she's just legs). Note that this breaks the ability to use the recovery center and the game will have to be reloaded.

Invisible corpse holding

Match holding an invisible corpse.

If a character dies, and another character picks the dying character up during their death animation, they will continue to be holding the dead character when their death animation finishes. The effects of this are the same as holding the character if they were living, but the invisible dead character has no collision. The holding character still inherits the additional weight of the held character, and pressing up or down releases them from the character's grip, and can not be picked up again until they're recovered.

Level editing

Main article: BFDIA 5b/Level editing

It is possible to modify the game's code to change its levels. Level editing and its methods were discovered by the YouTuber JC7146, with videos as early as January 2016

Mods

Main article: BFDIA 5b/Mods

Some mods have been created for 5b.

Potential return

On August 13, 2021, Some Guy On The Internet donated a message to Cary about porting BFDIA 5b on Newgrounds during a stream. The stream cut off but Cary later answered the question in a comment about the question being unanswered. He said that it would be cool to bring an old Flash game into the modern era, but it would have to take a lot of work to do that, especially since he hasn't done game development in years. He's thinking about contacting game developers to make this a reality.

Pre-release and unused content

• The Clubhouse of Awesomeness, which appears in "Get in the Van", makes an appearance in Level 6 (Landfill) as one of the stages in the trailer. However, the Clubhouse of Awesomeness didn't appear in the official release.
• In the trailer, Book had a rainbow-colored background icon in the text box when she talked, but in the final game, all characters had a megenta background.
• Level 29 was originally named "Toss Toss", but it was renamed to "Don't Look Back".
• In the files of the SWF, there some elements that don't appear in the game, such as an asset for a running Bubble.
• Changing characters was originally going to be done with the Q key. In the source code the variables used to keep track of presses and timers weren't renamed to use Z instead, as found by Poley Magik on August 12, 2020.
• No "B" levels were ever added to the game, but they were originally intended to be rewards for getting win tokens. This was confirmed by Michael in the August 2013 Jacknjellify livestream.

Trivia

• BFDIA 5b loads the levels in from a text file called "levels.txt" which contains all of the levels. Upon starting the game, levels.txt is parsed and loaded into the game. If either levels.txt does not exist, or could not be parsed, the game will freeze indefinitely.
  • This makes level editing easy as editing the game itself is not necessary to edit levels.
• BFDIA 5b is the first game to feature BFDIA characters, and the 8th game made by Michael and Cary Huang.
• The thumbnail for the "BFDIA 5b is here" video, after being changed at one point, shows Coiny and Firey, with modified assets that include their huge posteriors.
• Carykh said on YouTube that Tennis Ball has "ELER" in the game. Cary said that he'll find out what it means later, stating that "he wouldn't like it."
• The Easter egg at the bottom of the level select screen is the first time Evil Leafy has opened her mouth. (This does not count BFDIA 5a, when her mouth was just a bunch of scribbles at the time when she ate some of the contestants.)
• The "LEVEL CREATOR" and "EXPLORE" options on the home screen are blocked off with a sign stating "MARCH 4", meaning the modes were planned to release on March 4, 2013. Every March 4 from the game's release to the end of Flash support passed without an update. However, March 4 has now turned into a joke and a holiday within the community.
• In Level 31, Lego Brick said that there are thousands of recommended characters who are also inside of Evil Leafy, but it is unknown how they got into her mouth.
• In the game, letters appear to be hanging from a tree in the background. For example, Level 1 has an "E" hanging from a tree. Level 11 has a "V". Level 26 has an "I". These are the only 3 letters but it is speculated that it is supposed to spell "EVIL".
• Level 53 is clearable with exploits, but Level 54 has no data and only shows the background and "undefined" in place of the level's title.
• The game has a speedrunning community.
• Adobe announced in July 2017 that Flash will stop being supported at the end of 2020. Cary Huang has talked about converting HTwins.net's Flash media to HTML 5, and said he's thought about (but hasn't worked on) porting BFDIA 5b to another system.
  • It is still possible to play the game using the desktop version of Adobe Flash Player, as long as the "levels.txt" file is in the same directory of the game file.
  • There has also been a fan-made port of the game into HTML5 which reuses nearly all of the same code from the Flash version and is identical in gameplay.
• For an unknown reason, jumping is broken for some players using Chromebooks and Macbook Pros.
• In the source files released by Cary, the .fla files are titled "FSELA", though it is unknown what this stands for, though one guess is that is stands for "FreeSmart Evil Leafy Adventure".
• The Win Tokens are never referred to by name in the game and are called "coins" in the game's code.
• Get Well Card for Jacknjellify is the only 1st place recommended character who does not appear in this game, who placed 1st in "Zeeky Boogy Doog".
• The game did have the other FreeSmart members as playable characters, as seen in "5b Update" but it was never used.

Continuity references

• The title of 049. Take the plunge references the first BFDI episode's title, "Take the Plunge".

Cultural references

• The Weighted Companion Cube from the Portal series makes a cameo appearance in levels 8–10 as a box to be used as a kind of platform. It even referred to how it "dies" as in the level 010. A sad goodbye.
• In 033. The Drop, Lego Brick says "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" This is a reference to a quote from Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, which became an internet meme.

References in later media

• The game is mentioned in Book's biography in the book Battle for Dream Island: Official Character Guide.
• The game was recommended by bubblegumbeanie in "The Escape from Four".
• The game is referenced in Lo-Fi Beats to Yoyle To — BFB 21 on Friday, July 3. Lego Brick listens to music from a boombox trapped in the box in 032. I need you for something.
• The NPCs, Lego Brick, Waffle, and Tune appear in UNREAL BFDI — Thanks for 1 Billion Views!. The only other recommended characters to appear were up for debut for The Power of Two.
• The game is referenced in "Insectophobe's Nightmare 4" in a poster in the auditorium, referencing Waffle, Lego Brick, and Tune.
• Lego Brick, Waffle, and Tune appear in Theatre Etiquette - Golf Ball NOW AVAILABLE!.

External links

• Official website
• Playlist for BFDIdubita23's Guide of Levels 1-52 plus Win Tokens
• BFDIA 5b on speedrun.com
• BFDIA 5b Wiki
• Fan-made HTML5 port

Levels of BFDIA 5b (Category)
001 - 002 - 003 - 004 - 005 - 006 - 007 - 008 009 - 010 - 011 - 012 - 013 - 014 - 015 - 016 017 - 018 - 019 - 020 - 021 - 022 - 023 - 024 025 - 026 - 027 - 028 - 029 - 030 - 031 - 032 033 - 034 - 035 - 036 - 037 - 038 - 039 - 040 041 - 042 - 043 - 044 - 045 - 046 - 047 - 048 049 - 050 - 051 - 052 - 053 - 054 - 055+ (Levels 55 and beyond are not yet released)