I've been overhauling the UI for SLASHER U to make it more 90's/Y2K vibes and try to find a nice balance between over the top hot topic vhs aesthetics VS actual usability, while keeping the game feeling like, yknow, a 90s handheld game with weirdly indepth character convo systems, but I'm preeettty happy with how this is working out!

THE HELLPHONE: Unlockable phone skins can be picked up around campus, and you collect contacts based on the characters you've met (totally cribbed that one from Stick of Truth). You can then text them on a number of unlockable topics and check your relationship status!

CHARACTER CARD: PLAYER: This is your notecard with your major, character name, stats, who you're dating, and your questlog/notes/etc. I think there's gonna need to be a separate section for conditional effects :/ Also, your lil' silhouette changes based on the gender you pick at char creation, of course! I thought about doing a full on char creation but honestly it kiiind of takes away from the player agency when it comes to emotionally responding to convo options, cause I'd have to apply face expressions at a best guess to what the player would feel when reacting to convos/line delivery? Also I'm deadly afraid of feature creep. Which is reasonable.

CHARACTER CARD: NPCS: These are the info cards that contain all the story stuff you've done so far with each character! The Memories section holds story flags that affect the narrative & the character's opinion of you. The states are p self-explanatory (if you're dating them, how many times you've kissed, how many times you've gone on dates, and how many times yall have hooked up). Eventually I wanna overhaul the basic stats section to contain more quality vs quantity states but I'm a bit over my head in implementing all the basic alpha shit, lmao. The character image changes expression based on how they feel about you, too!

CONVERSATION OPTIONS: UNLOCKS:  Ohh I fuckin LABORED over figuring out what made sense for this one. A heart lock icon means a convo option/action is locked for now, the heart key means you've unlocked the option, and once you've run through an option (except in the case of repeatable actions, like hookin' up) the option disappears, classic rpg style. Most unlockables have the [Locked!] option so you can see you have something to look forward to, but some secret-er options (like the hidden romance) won't pop up til you find the appropriate story flag for it, with a key unlock icon.

TEXT BOXES: Aughgusjkhfkj this was the hardest part. Nothing fucking aesthetically fit and though I'm pleased with how the box turned out EVENTUALLY I'm still not 100% on it. It's a hand drawn stretchy black box with rainbow glitch lightly overlaid, and a glowy R-from-the-RGB stroke. The font is the same font used in old VHS tapes, so THAT part I'm happy with, but ehhh fff maybe it's the bubble shape that's throwing me off? Augh. Anyway - I REALLY like the rainbow glitch subtlety, so I think with some more tinkering (and... maybe a more sharp bubble shape?) this is gonna look hellllllla good.

Thanks for sticking around :V and you can check out/follow more SLASHER U updates at my magical mystery slasher u neocities site! https://slasheru.neocities.org/