We here at SouthWater Games wanted to give everyone a quick update on what's happening with Flashlight.
First off, why are you all conscripted mercenaries now? In these times of zombies and dangerous fellow humans, lines have been drawn and groups have been formed. We wanted to change the faceless player characters into something with a little more background, so we have begun to implement different merc groups. We also wanted a reason for the players on different teams to wield their specifically colored flashlights, and making each of the 4 colors correspond to separate groups gave us our answer. In our Campaign Mode, the different merc groups will also grant specific perks that apply to different weapon groups. Like explosions? Join the Barium Boys for extra explosive perks! Like to use the pistol Bounce Shot? Join the Copper Corps for extra bullet bouncing fun! These groups are still being hashed out, so we'll have more to report on this in the future.
We wanted to have a little more variety in gameplay and objectives, so we are currently adding in the ability to capture, and potentially hold, vital points in our Campaign Mode. To that end, we are integrating our human bot players into the campaign, and adding new functionality for them to react accordingly in this mode. We are also adding in more variety and assets to the generated maps for more unique gameplay experiences.
Flashlight now has a marking system that can be used to notify other players in the world about important items or locations. No need to do guesswork when you're trying to figure out what healthpack your buddy is screaming about during a zombie horde!
And what would a game on Steam be without those sweet nuggets of progress called achievements? We are adding Steam achievements to Flashlight, from easy to attain goals to long-term ones.
You may have noticed our fresh new artwork attached to our announcement. We are very excited to show off our commissioned artwork from the very talented Herk Lapaduza! We think they did a fantastic job. Check out their Twitter page to see some more great artwork or to request your own commission, should you be so inclined. Here's the full artwork:
Until next time, stay safe and keep the lights on!
First Flashlight Trailer
[previewyoutube="NwE15waR48Y;full"]
Flashlight Steam Page Debut
Hello friends! Thank you for perusing our Steam page. As you are probably aware, the Community Hub for a game is a place where the developers can showcase announcements and upcoming changes and events for their game, and we will be doing just that.
Flashlight is an indie project with a small team. About a year ago we decided to begin tinkering with the Unity engine to see what we would create. Our efforts have coalesced into Flashlight.
Here's our first Youtube video that showcases many of the features described below: [previewyoutube="0fjYztaJkQs;full"]
The High-Level Overview Flashlight is a top-down 360-degree looter shooter against zombies (PVE) and other players (PVP).
The Drilldown Our survival mode (PVE) features 1-4 players acting cooperatively to fight waves of zombie hordes. We have a variety of zombie types and bosses whose abilities will cause the players to form strategies to survive. Our survival maps are procedurally generated, with randomized terrain, street layouts, and buildings being different each time you play. Loot crates from the buildings to find ammo and items to stay alive.
What We Think Makes It Interesting We're employing an old arcade-style scoring system in the survival mode, which encourages friendly competition, but also rewards the players at certain scoring milestones. Current milestones include being able to call in an airdrop with more loot and spiked barriers that can be placed on the map in order to hold a strategic point. More items are being worked on and will be available in the future. Increase your score by getting kills, and also increase your score multiplier by pulling off various special kills, such as using the pistol "bouncy bullets" to ricochet bullets off walls and kill zombies.
PVP Modes We currently have two available PVP modes: Capture the Flag and Team Deathmatch. The maps for these modes are hand-made, with maps supporting either 2 or 4 teams at a time. We have AI bots finished for both of these game modes, which can be used to fill out your matches if you don't have enough human players. We're pretty proud of our bots, and we think they make a fun addition to the game without being frustrating.
Weapons All of our weapons include a secondary fire mode. Use bounce shots from the pistol, stun an enemy with the alternate fire shotgun blast, launch a barrage of rockets at your foes!
Check back here for continuing updates as Flashlight development progresses!
