Oops, I'm innocent!

ADDED THE MAIN MENU AND SOME FINISHING TOUCHES TO THE GAME!!
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You can now play the game on itch.io!! :O

This one's gonna be a longer devlog, brace yourselves..
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Finally finished all endings, complete with narrator dialogue, CGs and one-liners on the end screen. Also replaced the play again icon on the end screen with a flashing piece of text that reads click anywhere to play again.
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Super excited about this one: I designed and added end credits to the game. Achieved the final effect using an Animation Player node which even allowed me to add cool copyright-free music to the end credits. The end credits only play once the player finds 7/7 endings, but it's sooo rewarding.
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Also made some slight tweaks to the intro animation and made slight tweaks to dialogue here and there.
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I think the game is as polished as it'll get now. I can't wait to add the main menu next and be done!! :DD

Finished scripting the endings system. Also added a 'play again' button to the end screen, so players can play again to find all the endings. The label that shows the player how many endings they've found is fully functional. Above the label is a label containing a one-liner that's different for each ending.
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I still haven't finished the narrator dialogue for all 7 endings so I'll do that next. :/

Thought it would be fun to experiment with shaders for special effects on the intro scene. I have absolutely NO idea how shaders work so I got chatgpt to help me on with the .gdshader script but I had to spend time setting it up myself and tweaking the values to get the effect I wanted. >:D
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The shader creates this drunk pov effect that makes the scene feel more alive.

Created an animated intro scene for the game, using Godot's built in animation player. I made sure to add sound effects and plenty of movement as well.
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Attached is a recording of me scrolling through the animation player's timeline and showcasing the animated intro. Slight changes might be made to the intro animation later on but I'm happy with the result for now. :0

Added an autoload EndingsManager script that I can later use to keep track of how many endings the player has found. Also cleaned up the code deployed the smooth transition I made earlier.
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Below is a screenshot of what happens when the player clicks on an item that leads to a police encounter and ending.

Added police dialogue for all 6 endings to the game!! You'll have to play the game to see these yourself. :>
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The Dialogic plugin came in clutch fr, this took wayyy less time than expected.
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Next I'll have to add the narrator bits and CGs to each ending, and create a script to keep track of which endings the player has found.

Completed the dialogue for 1/6 endings we'll have in-game.
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This took a whiiiiiile because I first had to import all the character sprites Z made and manually add them one by one to the characters. Using the Dialogic plugin definitely made everything way easier but there was still a fair bit of set up. Work on the next dialogue bits should be way faster though!
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I've attached a screenshot of what the dialogue looks like when complete. :d

I previously had this hole in the tree that when clicked would lead to a cutscene showing a rubber duck with a narrator dialogue box explaining it's a duck. I then decided to modify it so that the rubber duck could be picked up and lead to a unique ending.
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I faced a bunch of unexpected problems while trying to make this work. E.g.
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‎-> The collision boxes of the items on the crime scene still being on and interfering with the ability to click on the rubber duck.
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-> The player being able to bypass the timer by not exiting the tree scene.
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After a lot of work I was able to fix these and now everything works perfectly. I'm hoping to add the dialogue me and Z created to the game next!! :DD

Worked on adding a countdown timer. If the player doesn't pick an item before the time runs out, the police arrive and mock the player and arrest them. If the player picks an item before the time runs out, the timer smoothly fades away.
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This was actually my first time working with the timer node in Godot and linking it to a label so it was a bit of a challenge but after following a quick tutorial I got it working!

Hovering over the car's hood now reveals it can be clicked for more info. This is currently just placeholder text but will later hint that one of your tires are flat.
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Clicking the spare wheel at the back of the car causes the player to appear in the driver seat and drive away. I achieved this effect using the built-in tween tool in Godot. There are also sound effects that you'll be able to hear when you play the game. :)

Added animated police siren lights (with a sound effect!) that approach when you interact with an item on the crime scene.
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Also added smooth fade transition between crime scene and ending scene.
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The main challenge so far has been working with my messy scripts and fixing bugs as I discover them. There was also a weird grey flash while transitioning between scenes which I fixed by changing the default environment colour in Godot to black. :p

Came up with the concept for this game with my friend Z. I started work on making the game in Godot while Z made the game's assets and art.
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I completely forgot to make devlogs, I'll make sure future ones are more frequent. BUT, here's a summary of what I worked on.‎
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I started by implementing a dialogue system. After experimenting with a few different plugins and considering making my own dialogue system from scratch, I settled on the Dialogic plugin for this game. I then spent some time customising the dialogue boxes and styles.
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I then got to work on the actual game mechanics. I made certain objects on the crime scene clickable so that either the police encounter with specific dialogue to that item could be triggered or more information could be given. I also made it so that the truck drives over the guy the player hit with his car (added sound effects for this!!) at the start.
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I had an absolute blast working on this so far and I can't wait to continue working on this game. I promise I'll post frequent devlogs moving forward. :>