well, the last thing I did play was "Space Invaders" and some others from that time
My gues is it will not make a very exciting game theme ...

And another question: how about the resolution - in what resolution you need the project? I mean what is the active usable area in pixels? (for example 800x600?)

Ok...food for thought...

you need to attract designers for the 'cool and trendy '- so you need to tap into the almighty 'teen scene' - my kids are just starting to play with graphics programs right now - my eldest daughter (15) is in 'Sims stables' where kids are trading horse graphics they create with each other...now thats not as complex as you might get from kids with more advanced graphics skills but it gives me an idea that these areas are where you need to be looking for the designers. My 12 yr old does the same stuff trading graphics designs on 'fury paws'. There are probably other sites like those for drawing 'manga' style cartoon images. Both of my girls have borrowed books and got out their pencils, learned to use the scanner and are learning the image manipulation programs on the fly.

I reckon if you get over to these sorts of 'sites' and see what options are available for posting 'wanted' adds you are sure to get a whole host of young teens with graphics skills to start designing the graphics you need to go in your hit themes.

Anyone else got kids playing with graphics? What sort and where do they 'trade' or communicate with others about what they do? These are our future designers of graphics...and the ones who play the games and determine what's cool...surely we can find a way to source designers from this age group.

The thing with kids will be to make sure they understand that for purposes like writing XOOPS themes their graphic designs are protected by copyright, but their time and effort is provided as a volunteer - unless you are prepared to pay them properly for a theme you charge for. Then you would need to explain to them the rules of ownership that go with the use of their graphics in your theme.

So...lets check out some teen places and see what the kids themselves are designing.

I think we need to go to somewhere like Sitepointand make a thread that states exactly what we are talking about here:
Designers! XOOPS needs you!

I think you are onto something there bassman - there's a forum called 'graphic wars' - seems they try to outdo each other...sure to find some whizz kids in there!

Hullo,

as a way of rewarding the designers, why don't we propose a competition with perhaps the best 2 designs in a number of categories (kids, games, charity organisations, b2b, shop/handcrafts) being included in a XOOPS theme package.
As a condition for the use of the themes in this package we could say that a footer link back to the designer's home page must be left in.

So the (young? dynamic? student?) designer would get something for his c.v. and for his site ranking.

This theme package would help promote Xoops' image.
We could promote it as a seperate download from XOOPS itself containing design/cutting edge themes. Then we could then keep the standard themes (delivered with XOOPS itself) simpler.

And yes I know this will almost involve more work - however it could pay for itself.

Alan

Interesting idea .. but I'd be interested in knowing WHO is supposed to do this?

As for fighting for the gamer business, I think we need to keep in mind there are lots of other folks out there, too. If we focus too much in one arena we run the risk of losing others.

Speaking for those who think XOOPS ought to provide business value, this concerns me.

btw. Another great source or images... I know this a bit late in the thread.. (but I've been tiling a bathroom) is http:.sxc.hu

Mostly they have images- almost all FREE.

The great thing about gamers is we run at high (sometime ridiculous) resolutions

figure bottom is 1024x768

goodbye low res.

Quote:

True...we still need themes for the sedate, gentle, feminine, and the crisp businesslike audience.
Another souces for graphics makers could well be photography enthusiasts, water colourists, ..."artists" is such a broad term that we need to look to sepcifc types of artists depending on the theme style you are buidling and the target audience of the theme you are building.


How technical do you want to get with colour theory too? I can easily put together some docs on this and following some of the colour theory prinicples can help with the final look of a theme. The choice of colours can have a big impact on the impression a site gives. If you want help here contact me.

As mentioned before, we can discuss this for quite some time and still be at the starting blocks. I think the ideas being expressed here are excellent and I believe they will provide useful in the long run. However, so that this concept does not fall by the wayside, can we get some action going.

First, who here is willing to volunteer either their time and/or services to this project (whatever it is called)?

If there is to be a competitions or a formal request to the internet community, we're going to need website real estate that appeals to a wide variety of users. Who is willing to put up some prime website real estate on their website to promote this project? You can count on us at MyWebResource to help out here.

Secondly, there was mention of what should be the standard. IMHO, themes may be allowed to use tables for non-tabular data, but the themes must be at minimal W3C XHTML 1.0 and CSS level 1.0 and 2.0 compliant. The allowance of tables will enable more coders to participate who may not be as confortable with semantic markup. It also allows more flexibility in design and overall stability since the current XOOPS core and modules make extensive use of tables.

Next, we need to determine who will be offering their hands at coding. Michael, I'm at your disposal.

Who in the house is a good writer? Sorry, this is another area where I'm weak. Any volunteers to step up and write a release/appeal?

IMHO, we should also determine whether or not this will be a contest/a request for collaboration, or what have you. We need to sell the benefits of working with us to the designers. i.e.: Free advertising on high PR sites, recognition as an expert, Highly targeted traffic, etc.

Any other thoughts?

I like the idea of posting on Sitepoint! That would definately garner some traffic. We may also want to look at advertising through AdWords. I can help a little there as well.

I'm with Michael here, let's get this ball a rollin'

Best Regards,

James