Hi there, I'm Balfik

I'm a frontend developer - HTML, CSS, JavaScript, web development, and site optimization.

In my free time I reverse-engineer game file formats and build tools/mods around them, currently focused on The Last Remnant and World of Warcraft 3.3.5a (WotLK) private servers - and I also build games of my own from scratch, like ASCII SLAYER.

Frontend

• Core: HTML, CSS, JavaScript
• Focus: web development, site/performance optimization

What I'm working on (free time)

ASCII SLAYER (source) - an ASCII-art idle runner, built from scratch as a single self-contained HTML file (vanilla JavaScript, no framework, no build step). Auto-battling progression, a castle you physically build over 20 stages, a Prestige system, scaling bosses, and a public leaderboard with a live activity feed, backed by Postgres (Supabase) with row-level security so each player can only ever write their own data. Ships with an original synthwave soundtrack, streamed from a companion repo.

TLR Save Editor - a save editor and file-format research project for The Last Remnant / The Last Remnant Remastered. A full GUI (gold, Battle Rank, unions, inventory, per-character equipment, save diffing) plus a CLI companion tool, built entirely by reverse-engineering the .sav format from scratch - no documentation for it existed before this project.

mod-kill-tracker - a kill-tracking NPC module for AzerothCore (WotLK 3.3.5a) with permanent tier buffs, boss/dungeon clear bonuses, daily & weekly contracts, and a server-wide leaderboard, shipped together with two companion client addons (a live HUD panel and a TomTom waypoint helper).

Stack (hobby projects)

• Languages: Python, C++, Lua, SQL
• Game dev: vanilla JS game loops & canvas rendering, no-framework single-file apps, Supabase (Postgres + RLS) as a lightweight backend
• Reverse engineering: controlled-diff analysis, binary format parsing, checksum recomputation
• Desktop tooling: tkinter GUIs, CLI utilities for search / diff / repack workflows
• Game servers: AzerothCore's module system (ScriptMgr, GameEventMgr, LFGMgr), WoW 3.3.5a Lua API

How I work

Nothing here ships with official documentation, so everything is found the same way: make one precise, known change, capture the before/after state, diff it byte-by-byte or field-by-field, and confirm the hypothesis across multiple independent samples before trusting it.