Art Production

UI additions:

Player feedback provided insight into how the UI could still be improved, to help the player better understand the game. New items were created using the in-game models by drawing over them, instead of guessing the correct scale. Allowing the player to visualize the dirtiness of the bucket and mop.

Icon updated:

Player feedback also taught us that the current icons were not sufficient enough as the player had trouble knowing what icons were telling them. So all icons got a makeover.

It wasn't too much of a big deal as the icons needed some tweaking either way since there was still a lot of bleeding going on. The icons are now easier to understand, less text reliant and (most importantly) bigger.

Environment selection menu:

Only one menu needs to be Drawn, and it's a very important one - the level selection menu. Since this game was inspired by Overcooked, clearing levels and achieving 3 stars is crucial for the gameplay loop and maintaining player interest. 
The true crime/case file is used for consistency to enhance the game's vibe, and the red string suggests that the game can be expanded upon.

Itch.io page glow up:

As you probably have already seen, the Itch page has gotten a glow-up. Even the controller got a glow-up!

Isn’t it nice... :)?

Changing the banner and the background to fit the theme of the game gives it a better feeling when reading the story and getting in the mood to play the game. 

Environment makeover:

The long-awaited makeover took place for all of the environments.
Textures have a more desaturated look to them.

Outlines were removed from everything but the interactive items/furniture.
A lot more lighting was added all over the place, and some outside moonlight was added to greatly increase (In my opinion) the ambience (and finally make use of the windows).

Collision was added to some remaining items (sorry if you fell through the door). 
The walls were all tweaked. Some have increased in height others have decreased, And beams and railings were added on top to make them look more like walls. The door frames were removed as well since it was an annoyance for some of the players.

Programming Production

Range-based outline:

All the interactive objects (items and furniture) change their outline to either black or orange depending on the player's location in the level.
If the player goes into a certain room then all the interactive objects in that room will turn to the orange outline indicating that they have a function, compared to the static objects that have no outline.

This task took less time than expected and was a welcome break from working on another feature that ended up taking much longer than expected.

Range-based icons:

The icons are hidden when the player isn't near the interactive object and are visible when they get closer to the object. This was seen as a must since playtesters got easily overwhelmed by the amount of information on the screen.

So after a few long hours and a lot of cursing we now have working icons that hide and unhide when needed. it was implemented that the progress bar stays so they do have an indicator for when the next thing would be able to be destroyed.

Lowering mop:

This was one of the most challenging things to get to work. After struggling and searching all over Google, it finally worked =). 

The mop lowers to the floor when the player is using it near blood and will go back up to its position when they are done using it. 
This provides an extra visual for the player to know when they are cleaning and when they aren't. 

As a little extra, the broom now also changes texture when it is dirty. The player won't have to rely solely on being able to see the blood disappearing or eventually see it in the UI.

Main menu makeover:

The main menu got its last makeover (hopefully).
It now matches the new art assets and a sneak peek of baked lighting. The sneak peek of the lighting helps with a visual for when those lights will be baked.

Menu's and their systems:

The good old days when programmer art was still being used are over!
The whole project has officially migrated from the canvas system to the new UI Toolkit system.

the main differences are the game over win/lose menu and the main menu screens. They benefit the most from it as it allows for easy animations and keeps the coding clean and maintainable without having to do tweening.

Transition:

The abrupt switching of the scenes has also finally come to an end.
When loading in a new scene, instead of roughly loading it now plays a transition, loads the scene and plays out to reveal the level.