Hello everybody,
We cannot wait to release next week's Flashing Lights update! Today, we are announcing the update and its content, which is focused on new character models.
We understand that this is an area which is front and centre for the game and so it's vital to not only improve the character models but to offer more player character options. We are also striving to improve the game technically as well as adding to gameplay, but next week's update focuses on this visual upgrade. Thank you all once again for all of your support.
So, onto our plans! We are using a piece of software titled Adobe Fuse to create a diverse set of characters.This is just the first step in improving the quality of the character models.
The new models are still technically in development, as we've disabled some of the customization options such as hats and head wear. We anticipate these customisation options to return soon with the ability to choose your own hair-style too.
We're hoping to launch these new models next week alongside several major bug fixes - plus some added variety to one of the police callouts.
Changes to Police Callout Logic
We are currently working on a new system that will randomise the location of one of the police callouts. Technically under the new system, this callout can spawn in one of over 10,000 places on the map. Once we iron out many of the issues with this system, we do plan to introduce this to other callouts, increasing gameplay variety.
We will definitely need help from the community to spot any issues where the callout spawns in an odd place! Look out for that next week!
The Adobe Fuse Community Character Creation
As we mentioned earlier in this post, we are using Adobe Fuse to create several characters. We have access to new clothing textures for all three departments, and also will have access to a database of new animations. We are investigating the system fully over the next several months.
Creating a character in this software is incredibly simple, as you are able to click and drag characters' features, altering the the face and body. It is an incredibly versatile system and anyone, regardless of modelling experience, can create a model.
We're looking into creating a competition for you all to create your own characters, some of which could end up in the game for everyone to see!
We shared just a few of the characters we have made in this post, but we have a total of 18 female and male player character models waiting to go for next week's update. We'll show more of them over the coming week!
That's it for this week's announcement! Thank you for being patient as we continue development of the game. We anticipate the next update to release next week, with an unstable beta test happening in the middle of next week.
Thanks,
The Flashing Lights Team