Hey, Emperors! 👋
We hope the cheese on your pizza has been gooey and the fries with your burger extra crispy! It's been a bit over a month since our last blog, so we thought we'd give you a tasty update on what the team have been cooking up recently.
Alongside all the gameplay and environment improvements we’ve been working on, we’re also currently in the middle of a graphical overhaul for Food Truck Empire. We felt the game’s visual style leaned a little too heavily into the “cozy” direction, while our goal is for Food Truck Empire to feel closer to a more traditional management/simulation game. However, we do still want to keep the charm and personality that you've all been loving so far!
A lot of what you’ll see in this blog reflects that ongoing visual shift. We'd love to hear your thoughts on the new direction! Please keep in mind we are still working on the graphical revamp, so everything shown here is still work in progress and will continue to evolve before launch.
Here's a behind-the-scenes look at what's coming to Food Truck Empire! 🍔
We've planted some new trees! 🌲
Trees can bring a map to life, and we've enjoyed experimenting with different designs. They now have a more realistic feel to them with more defined leaves, and there's different types of tree too!
NEW VISUAL STYLE (Work In Progress)
How a tree came to be....
Consumer portraits 🖼️
Know where your clientele are at all times! The neighbourhoods are packed with people all with different culinary preferences, and now we've made it easier for you to determine where to park your truck and what cuisine to serve. We think this not only makes everything look more organized, but also will help you get ahead of the competition.
OLDER VISUAL STYLE (for comparison!)
Navigate the neighbourhoods 🏘️
Find your way around even easier. We've been working on readability and making it so you can highlight different areas of the map and see exactly what they are. 
The Town Hall is under construction! 🏛️
A neighbourhood isn't complete until there's a town hall ready for important meetings! Here's the progress we've made on the Pine Hills Town Hall. 
Control the clouds ☁️
It's the little things! We've added cloud shadows - and you'll be able to adjust the style and intensity of them.
The water is more water-y 💧
We've been playing about with the water slider and experimenting with more realistic textures for lakes, rivers, and the sea! Here's a sneak peek at where we're at with this so far.
Inspiration for a new level... 🍟
The team recently gathered together to brainstorm ideas for a new level, and we chatted about POIs, city layouts, and events. It's early days, but there will be more to show on this soon... 
And that just about rounds up another FTE dev blog! We'll be back next month with another deep dive into the latest with our game, but for now, you can check out our demo if you haven't already!
What are your thoughts on the graphical overhaul so far? We’d love to hear what you think about the new direction. We’ll also have much more to show and talk about regarding this update in the next dev blog!
On a final note, if you have any questions for us about Food Truck Empire and what we're working on, do let us know in the comments! We'd be happy to answer anything you're curious about.
Talk soon!
Lichthund