Future Plans #29

Hi everyone!

For this month's preview post on Fate of the Celestial Mirror (my xianxia otome/BL game lined up after Reanimation Scheme), I want to show off an aspect of the game that is one of my favorites — the UI!

Well, you've already seen some of the UI in previous screenshots I've sent before, so today, I'll highlight some portions of the UI that haven't been revealed so far.

Save/Load Screen

You may notice that this screen's background design looks different from the ones I've shown previously of the Glossary — and if you look closely, yes, this set of screens (save/load, settings and history screens) is designed around the theme of water reflection — so the circular frame, for example, is flipped due to it being a mirror reflection instead.

The layout of this save/load screen is also different from an average Ren'Py visual novel layout where it's a grid of save slots — instead, this is an endless column of save slots. Any time you want to make a save, simply press + New Save button, and a new save slot will be created! There is no limit on the number of save slots you can have, so now players won't have to worry about running out of save slots~

By default, the save slots are arranged in descending order of time saved — so the newest save will be at the top, and the oldest save file will be at the bottom. But if you don't like it, you can always reverse the sort order at the top by choosing the Ascending option instead.

I've also added a few new features to help you differentiate and remember what each save is.

(1) There is a Filter function at the top — clicking on them causes a drop-down box to appear, where you can select a Route and/or Chapter to only show save files from that route/chapter!

(2) Each save slot has a little Details button to the left. If you hover over it, it'll show a panel on the left that displays more details about that save file — including your MC's name, pronouns, chosen sprite, how much money you had, and which Main Quest you were last on!

These features are something I'm really proud of, so I hope these will be convenient for you when you play the game as well!

Settings Screen

This screen is perhaps less exciting, but here's a sneak peek anyway. The main cool thing I think is that there is a preview of the text speed, so when you change the text speed, the line of text preview will show at the speed you chose, which hopefully makes it easier for you to adjust the speed without constantly having to exit and re-enter the Settings screen.

There's a second page of Advanced Options that offers some additional settings for you to customize your experience. There's accessibility options like changing the font and text size — and turning off animations or timed choices if you don't like them. If you're not familiar with Chinese honorifics and prefer not to see them in italicized Pinyin, you can also toggle them to English translated ones instead.

Anyway, I'll stop here for now before I ramble on forever hahah. I am really passionate about immersive and thematic UIs for visual novels, since I think it's one of the most important parts of a game considering you literally look at it the entire time you're playing the game.

I hope you all like the aesthetics of this UI and the features I've implemented as much as I do. Let me know if you have any comments or suggestions of features to add!

Thank you so much for the support 💖