Hello everyone and welcome to our weekly Devlog!

Last Sunday. We talked about the conversation system and how it is a representation of Noir dialogue. This week, we worked to bring the system to life. Initially, we tried to create a system of our own to handle the highlight system, based on the one we used in the old GM demo. Until we found TextMeshPro had what we were looking for. 

It wasn't exactly what we needed, it took some modifications to do what we wanted it to in terms of tags and interface, but the foundation was there for us. We didn't need to build it all again from scratch.

The system is performing very well in separate tests. Integration into the dialogue system will be next weeks task. If it proves to be more trouble than it is worth, we will find alternative solutions. We've seen reports that it causes problems with current builds of Unity. Though we haven't found any errors as of yet that could not be fixed without collateral damage, we are proceeding with caution.

Other UI mechanics from the original demo will be implemented over the course of the next few weeks, such as the interrogation screen for more in-depth analysis of NPC dialogue.

We will also finally be able to make a working version of the evidence analysis system. We put together a small prototype before we made the move to Unity, we look forward to returning to the evidence board now we have much more experience with Unity.

The evidence board will be a crucial aspect of progression, acting as a platform on which to build the case. In Dead Heat, the structure of the case will be completely up to you. Evidence will be determined by a credibility rating, the more credible your evidence, the stronger your case will be. This is a mechanic worthy of its own devlog devoted to it, we will begin work on the evidence system in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!

For now, think of how your case will be seen in court, and know that in Dead Heat; anything can be evidence. Want to build a case where the motivation is a stained porno mag and the opportunity is an out of date subway ticket? Go ahead. But don't say we didn't warn you.

One new mechanic that we did not get the chance to implement is the camera. There is a camera built into Sonja & Lilith's badge that will allow them to photograph evidence and scan records for information.  Soon, we will be able to implement that mechanic into the demo!

Though, the camera/scanner will be the last feature to implement into the UI. The autopsy mechanic is more incidental and will be worked on at a later date. Excited as all hell about getting to that one, though!

Next week will be interesting. We will be implementing the highlight system fully into the demo; finally giving us the chance to really show the system off! And we'll pick up where we left off with the evidence board and get a working prototype running. 

I'm not even going to tempt fate by saying it should be simple.

Thank you for reading our latest devlog! Every week, we get one step closer to a working demo.