I really liked the idea of this game, and love the interpretation of the theme. It was really fun figuring out what would link together, and each time you hear that little "ba bum bum dum" it's so satisfying. I liked how the board gets more chaotic, like I'm actually going crazy and investigating this. I really enjoyed playing this one.
Here are my problems with the game:
The board gets super unorganized and cluttered really quickly. I think I should be able to zoom in and out with the scroll wheel so that I have more room to put things away. The fact that evidence is locked when you link it compounds this issue, I have all these links and evidence that contribute nothing any more. It results in me not being able to tell what's linked to what, me clicking on things I don't want to click, and not being able to see if new evidence appeared.
And thank the heavens I looked at the game page and found the bug feature. I honestly really don't see the point of putting a lose state in this game, the fun is figuring it out, not racing the clock. It'd be nice if the timer was just there to show how long it took me, but the timer is so short and isn't fun to play against. What ends up happening is I just kept replaying the first part and speedrunning it so I can get back to where I was, and now I don't feel like an investigator, I feel like I'm just going through the motions.
I noticed that my writing for the negatives are a lot bigger than the positives, but I wanna emphasize that the positives really do outweigh the negatives. I finished the game and found the culprit, and it was really fun piecing it together and I liked the cute art with the animals. If you update the game, I'd say get rid of the timer and lose state entirely. The game is REALLY fun and interesting just piecing it all together.
Good job!