user: How do I instantiate a scene in the Godot 3.5 game engine?

assistant: To instantiate a scene in Godot 3.5 game engine, you can follow these steps:

1. Create the scene you want to instantiate as a separate .tscn file.
2. In the scene where you want to instantiate the other scene, add a Node2D or other node that will serve as the parent for the instantiated scene.
3. Select the parent node and click the "Add Child Node" button in the bottom right corner of the screen.
4. In the "Create Node" dialog, select "Load" and navigate to the .tscn file of the scene you want to instantiate.
5. Select the .tscn file and click "Load."
6. The instantiated scene will now appear in the scene tree as a child of the parent node you selected.

You can now customize the instantiated scene as needed. You can also use scripting to dynamically instantiate scenes at runtime using the <code>load</code> and <code>instance</code> methods. For example:

    # Load the scene as a PackedScene
    var scene = load("res://scenes/MyScene.tscn")
    
    # Instance the scene as a Node
    var instance = scene.instance()
    
    # Add the instance as a child of the current node
    add_child(instance)

Note that you'll need to replace "res://scenes/MyScene.tscn" with the path to your own scene file.

user: Thank you this was really helpful.

assistant: No problem! Glad it helped. I can  help you with anything else if you have any questions, such as how to create a new scene from scratch.

user: I'm currently making a 2d platform, how would I go about making a menu that contains an inventory, and a list of how many enemies destroyed and how many lives are left.

assistant: To create a menu with an inventory, enemy count, and lives count in a 2D platformer using Godot, follow these steps:

1. Create a new scene for the menu:
   - Click on "Scene" > "New Scene" in the top-left corner.
   - Add a "CanvasLayer" node as the root node. This will ensure that the menu is drawn on top of the game scene.
   - Save the scene as "Menu.tscn" or another name of your choice.

2. Design the menu layout:
   - Add a "Control" node as a child of the "CanvasLayer" node. This will serve as a container for the menu elements.
   - Add a "VBoxContainer" node as a child of the "Control" node. This will automatically arrange the menu elements vertically.
   - Add "Label" nodes as children of the "VBoxContainer" node for each menu element (inventory, enemy count, and lives count). Name them accordingly (e.g., "InventoryLabel", "EnemyCountLabel", "LivesCountLabel").

3. Create a script for the menu:
   - Select the "Control" node and click the "Attach Script" button in the top-right corner.
   - Choose a name and location for the script (e.g., "Menu.gd") and click "Create".
   - In the script, create variables to store the references to the "Label" nodes:

```gdscript
onready var inventory_label = $VBoxContainer/InventoryLabel
onready var enemy_count_label = $VBoxContainer/EnemyCountLabel
onready var lives_count_label = $VBoxContainer/LivesCountLabel
```

4. Update the menu with game data:
   - In the script, create a function to update the menu with the current inventory, enemy count, and lives count. You can pass these values as arguments to the function:

```gdscript
func update_menu(inventory: Array, enemy_count: int, lives_count: int):
    inventory_label.text = "Inventory: " + ", ".join([str(item) for item in inventory])
    enemy_count_label.text = "Enemies Destroyed: " + str(enemy_count)
    lives_count_label.text = "Lives Left: " + str(lives_count)
```

5. Instantiate the menu in the main game scene:
   - Open your main game scene (e.g., "Game.tscn").
   - Add a "CanvasLayer" node to the scene if you don't already have one.
   - Instance the "Menu.tscn" scene as a child of the "CanvasLayer" node.
   - In the main game script, create a reference to the menu instance:

```gdscript
onready var menu = $CanvasLayer/Menu
```

6. Update the menu with game data:
   - Whenever the inventory, enemy count, or lives count changes in your game, call the `update_menu` function on the menu instance and pass the updated values:

```gdscript
menu.update_menu(inventory, enemy_count, lives_count)
```

Now you have a basic menu that displays the inventory, enemy count, and lives count in your 2D platformer. You can further customize the appearance and functionality of the menu as needed.