Pulse Theme

[Dan Patrick]

Hey thimolor, I have new accurate logos that I'm still organizing. Let me send you a special pack just for your theme. I swear these logos that I've made are the best ones out there. I have spent an extreme amount of time redrawing logos from really accurate sources. It seems that you already made banners so perhaps I'm already too late. If I could get it to you today could you use them? You 100% don't have to but it's a thought.

Besides that...I have a couple tiny adjustment suggestions: On your banner and box art view, to me the year and rating seems too disconnected on the right. Although I definitely see what you're doing. How about this: for the box art view maybe have the rating below the console name again and the year below the game title. Maybe you could even leave it as it is but make the year and genre on the left and rating and times played on the right. My thought there is that year and genre are the most important of those 4 things so having it closer in eyes view makes sense to me.

On the platform view: for the video...maybe this could shrink just a hair to align it with your top and bottom lines. I think the year should be above "number of games" above the lower line. The number of games icon is cool. To me it's not quite clear enough as to what it is on its own. Maybe if it said "306 games" it would be clearer.

On all your views...to me the colored line needs to still be a hair thicker. I'm not sure. It either needs to be the same width as other lines or noticeably thicker. Right now to me its only a tiny bit thicker. It's your call on that.

The glow effect is a good idea! Great job! 

[thimolor]

2 hours ago, Dan Patrick said:

Hey thimolor, I have new accurate logos that I'm still organizing. Let me send you a special pack just for your theme. I swear these logos that I've made are the best ones out there. I have spent an extreme amount of time redrawing logos from really accurate sources. It seems that you already made banners so perhaps I'm already too late. If I could get it to you today could you use them? You 100% don't have to but it's a thought.

Besides that...I have a couple tiny adjustment suggestions: On your banner and box art view, to me the year and rating seems too disconnected on the right. Although I definitely see what you're doing. How about this: for the box art view maybe have the rating below the console name again and the year below the game title. Maybe you could even leave it as it is but make the year and genre on the left and rating and times played on the right. My thought there is that year and genre are the most important of those 4 things so having it closer in eyes view makes sense to me.

On the platform view: for the video...maybe this could shrink just a hair to align it with your top and bottom lines. I think the year should be above "number of games" above the lower line. The number of games icon is cool. To me it's not quite clear enough as to what it is on its own. Maybe if it said "306 games" it would be clearer.

On all your views...to me the colored line needs to still be a hair thicker. I'm not sure. It either needs to be the same width as other lines or noticeably thicker. Right now to me its only a tiny bit thicker. It's your call on that.

The glow effect is a good idea! Great job! 

Yes, please. Send me the logos. Only made few banners for experimenting.

Really good points. I will reorganize the game details for the game and platform wheels.

Using icons only in front of text fields, because of scaling (need to support 4:3, 5:4 and 16:10 aslo) and I can't put text after numbers that change. If the details field has text/numbers that change for every game, I can't add anything after that. There are some irritating things with bigbox themes that dictates how the theme elements should be laid out. The gabs between icons and text are also quite large due to tha scaling between 4:3 and 16:9. I have to put enough space so that the fields wont overlap each other.

The video should already be inline with the separator lines on the right, I need to double check that.

I will test with thicker line, if it looks better. Thanks for the feedback.

[thimolor]

Got rid of the video in platforms, can't use those in fullscreen (slows down bigbox and wrong dimensions) and when small, you can't really see the devices clearly. Now trying to find good platform images... can someone help me? @Dan Patrick now the line has double the height

 

Edited February 21, 2021 by thimolor

[Dan Patrick]

Nice! The line looks good like that I think. I have been working on solutions for the best platform images myself. The set of platform images you have for that larger Sega Genesis image I'm not the biggest fan of because while some of them are great, some others in that set are weird (look at the game boy advance one for instance). The best platform image photograph images are (as you know) the ones from Evan Amos. He has made some cut out versions of a lot of the platforms. I had downloaded the cut out versions from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Evan-Amos because I was going to use them for my theme (I put it on hold because I was making the logos).

Anyway, I went ahead and uploaded the cut out versions Evan Amos made here. Maybe you could just add the image on your grey gradient? Not sure. You might check them all because a couple images have white specks showing(look at the Odyssey 2) so a couple might need to be touched up a bit. 

I am including my handheld logos because I already had completely finished those. I made multiple versions of each logo but only sent the recommended ones for your theme. I'll send you the rest of them later today or tomorrow after I get off work. I sent these all as high res PNG's but if you want vector files of the logos I have those too. 

 

What about this look from your Dirty Old theme? It's simple but it works well. What if you just added the colored gradient line where the green line is and added the thin grey line, platform name, year etc on top matching the style used elsewhere in the bare bones theme?

---Edit--- Got the computer logos here as well. I will get the rest to you tomorrow I think. Don't feel like you need a banner for all of these logos. Whatever ones you feel like. Some of these are pretty obscure.

System Images.7z Handheld Logos.7z

Computer Logos.7z

Edited February 22, 2021 by Dan Patrick

[thimolor]

8 hours ago, Dan Patrick said:

Nice! The line looks good like that I think. I have been working on solutions for the best platform images myself. The set of platform images you have for that larger Sega Genesis image I'm not the biggest fan of because while some of them are great, some others in that set are weird (look at the game boy advance one for instance). The best platform image photograph images are (as you know) the ones from Evan Amos. He has made some cut out versions of a lot of the platforms. I had downloaded the cut out versions from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Evan-Amos because I was going to use them for my theme (I put it on hold because I was making the logos).

Anyway, I went ahead and uploaded the cut out versions Evan Amos made here. Maybe you could just add the image on your grey gradient? Not sure. You might check them all because a couple images have white specks showing(look at the Odyssey 2) so a couple might need to be touched up a bit. 

I am including my handheld logos because I already had completely finished those. I made multiple versions of each logo but only sent the recommended ones for your theme. I'll send you the rest of them later today or tomorrow after I get off work. I sent these all as high res PNG's but if you want vector files of the logos I have those too. 

 

What about this look from your Dirty Old theme? It's simple but it works well. What if you just added the colored gradient line where the green line is and added the thin grey line, platform name, year etc on top matching the style used elsewhere in the bare bones theme?

---Edit--- Got the computer logos here as well. I will get the rest to you tomorrow I think. Don't feel like you need a banner for all of these logos. Whatever ones you feel like. Some of these are pretty obscure.

System Images.7z 384.37 MB · 1 download Handheld Logos.7z 1.52 MB · 1 download

Computer Logos.7z 1.87 MB · 0 downloads

You are right there with the platform image set with the Genesis close up, it has really bad images. I will need to make my own set using the Evan Amos images. Huge undertaking, but it seems there is no way avoiding it.

Good idea adding the dirtyOld platform view to the theme. Nice to reuse something and not make everything from scratch. I might still make a new banner set for the new platform view that fits better to the layout.

[Dan Patrick]

You've already made great progress. Don't overwork yourself.  There's no rush!

[Dan Patrick]

Do whatever you want with these logos. Let me know if one seems off. Also sorry they are unorganized at the moment but the logos are good to go.

Arcade + Console Logos.7z

[Dan Patrick]

Sorry for this minor update. I wanted to update 2 of the logos. This is the last update lol. The Amiga logo I added a little shadow(very minor I know) and the Triforce logo is totally new. I will be releasing all of these officially soon. 

[thimolor]

Thanks Dan for the help. Here's my banners and fan art examples. I think they blend pretty well in to the theme, always could tweak them more, but I don't think it is woth it. Looks better in motion than in screenshot. And the best part is that these are easy to make.

 

 

Edited February 26, 2021 by thimolor

[thimolor]

Small demo of BareBones theme. Things to do: banners, device images and system view. I don't think I will be making any more different views for this one.

 

[bundangdon]

20 minutes ago, thimolor said:

Small demo of BareBones theme. Things to do: banners, device images and system view. I don't think I will be making any more different views for this one.

 

Very simple but cool! Looking forward to the release of this theme!

[thimolor]

Almost there:

Credits to Viking for the platform videos + arcade device image.

 

[Patsy Heart]

Quick and probably stupid question, will you release any of the assets for this? I usually separate PC games by the store they're bought from and I was wondering how hard it'd be to make images for those that match this set.

[thimolor]

6 hours ago, Patsy Heart said:

Quick and probably stupid question, will you release any of the assets for this? I usually separate PC games by the store they're bought from and I was wondering how hard it'd be to make images for those that match this set.

You need banners for the store platforms (Steam, Ubisoft, ...)?

Not a stupid question at all. I know the pain of having to make compilcated assets to a theme. This time I have tried to make sure, that the assets are easy to make, or not needed at all. Actually the theme only uses one custom asset (platform view banner for one view). I figured that not everyone is willing to make their own assets, so the other view uses clear logos and videos instead. The custom asset is made with photoshop and it uses filters. I'm trying to make a simplified version of that, so it should work well on free applications such as Gimp. The only things needed for a banner are some kind of background image and a logo.

[thimolor]

7 hours ago, thimolor said:

You need banners for the store platforms (Steam, Ubisoft, ...)?

Not a stupid question at all. I know the pain of having to make compilcated assets to a theme. This time I have tried to make sure, that the assets are easy to make, or not needed at all. Actually the theme only uses one custom asset (platform view banner for one view). I figured that not everyone is willing to make their own assets, so the other view uses clear logos and videos instead. The custom asset is made with photoshop and it uses filters. I'm trying to make a simplified version of that, so it should work well on free applications such as Gimp. The only things needed for a banner are some kind of background image and a logo.

Decided to ditch the custom banners. Now using only logos. The logos will require a transparent canvas (empty space aound) to work.

 

[Patsy Heart]

Thanks for responding, can't wait for this theme to drop.

[Dan Patrick]

Thimolor this theme continues to impress! It's awesome! I'm all for the simpler logo idea. Having two images of the console was a little redundant anyway. I have alternate colors and versions for all of the logos I gave you. If you want a different version of one just ask and I can get it to you asap! I see that the  amount of glow you have varies per view. I personally think a couple of the views could have the glow paired back just a touch. I love the amount of glow you show in your text games view. That's the perfect amount to me personally. I think it does make sense to allow for a little more glow on that vertical wheel you show in your last screen shot but imo still toned back just a hair. 

On the platform images views...I got a screenshot edit I quickly worked up. It's all the same except a couple ideas I had. I altered the glow (insert your colors because I don't know the exact blue you use). I'm not a huge fan of the bobbing up and down of the platform image. Instead , I’d recommend just a fade in and slide upwards about 15 pixels or so that would happen in maybe half a second then it stops smoothly. That's just me. Overall I love that view though! 

Also I've been meaning to tell you about a trick to get the "336 Available Games" thing to work. I have done this myself and I know it works. I got the tip from Retro Faeran. It's on this video at exactly 2:51:46 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv5d1e8KOIc&t=10306s

 

User Source.7z

[thimolor]

1 hour ago, Dan Patrick said:

Thimolor this theme continues to impress! It's awesome! I'm all for the simpler logo idea. Having two images of the console was a little redundant anyway. I have alternate colors and versions for all of the logos I gave you. If you want a different version of one just ask and I can get it to you asap! I see that the  amount of glow you have varies per view. I personally think a couple of the views could have the glow paired back just a touch. I love the amount of glow you show in your text games view. That's the perfect amount to me personally. I think it does make sense to allow for a little more glow on that vertical wheel you show in your last screen shot but imo still toned back just a hair. 

On the platform images views...I got a screenshot edit I quickly worked up. It's all the same except a couple ideas I had. I altered the glow (insert your colors because I don't know the exact blue you use). I'm not a huge fan of the bobbing up and down of the platform image. Instead , I’d recommend just a fade in and slide upwards about 15 pixels or so that would happen in maybe half a second then it stops smoothly. That's just me. Overall I love that view though! 

Also I've been meaning to tell you about a trick to get the "336 Available Games" thing to work. I have done this myself and I know it works. I got the tip from Retro Faeran. It's on this video at exactly 2:51:46 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv5d1e8KOIc&t=10306s

 

User Source.7z 430 B · 0 downloads

You have some nice ideas for the platform view, I will try those in the next demo. Your right about the glow and bouncing animation. Need to fix those. I think that after these changes I could give you a beta version to test the theme. You have sharp eyes, so you could spot something that needs changing. Thanks for the code!

Edited March 6, 2021 by thimolor

[thimolor]

How about this Dan?

[Dan Patrick]

Thanks! I didn't even think about the platform view top section to be connected like that. That's such a good, simple solution for that. I literally love that! Happy to see the "available games" part figured out too! That looks great! Dude, this theme is dope! 

I made a very rough and quick video showcasing an animation technique I think you could try. The 4k/hd version of the video is still processing. It's a subtle bounce that has to be created manually with 2 different animations. I couldn't explain it without a little video. Anyway, I was thinking that bounce effect would look great for the platform images as they come in. 

Edited March 6, 2021 by Dan Patrick