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RydDragyn · Apr 19, 2004, 04:44 PM

Are the finished products going to be released piecemeal or all at once?

Also - what is everyone's favorite, regardless of the judge's thoughts?

The ones I'm anticipating most are Calabi and Half Life.

phillryu · Apr 19, 2004, 05:29 PM

Originally posted by RydDragyn:
Are the finished products going to be released piecemeal or all at once?

Also - what is everyone's favorite, regardless of the judge's thoughts?

The ones I'm anticipating most are Calabi and Half Life.

OK, let me answer this one.

I'm planning to do a release a week, most likely starting with ProLCD. At the moment, most of the themes have been started, though I'm not sure about Half Life, as Mike seems to enjoy his privacy. Anyhow, all 5 other winners, and Paper & Plastic have early builds, and ProLCD is nearly complete. But I would also like to have each package include a cursor set, desktops, and an optional adium skin (coded by Synotic) so don't expect ProLCD for at least another couple weeks. (And of course, Xanthic, Sascha, and Dan I believe are planning icon sets.)

And about my favorites, I have to say NickelCobalt, in terms of using it. (The menus are the coolest I've ever seen!) ProLCD has also shaped up nicely, and Paper & Plastic is going well. Calabi? I need to wait for a bit more till JoE sends me a more complete alpha

Really, each one of these winners is going to become a great theme, so look forward to the first release probably in a few weeks.

wibs · Apr 19, 2004, 05:57 PM

Let me just chime in by saying that the ProLCD cursor set is close to being finished, there is a desktop made, and all that's left for the guikit is perhaps a few more app skins and a few minor bug fixes, so at least for my part there's not a whole lot left to do before releasing it into the wild. I can't say enough how easy it's been to work with Harold, I couldn't ask for anything more.

Oh, and the NickelCobalt menus really are friggin awesome.

NetworkShadow · Apr 19, 2004, 06:19 PM

Dude MacThemes needs to be changed back to the noncontest layout since it's been a few weeks since the contest and the normal layout IS better. Just add some link on the side that links to the contest page...

digitaljames · Apr 19, 2004, 06:24 PM

Originally posted by NetworkShadow:
Dude MacThemes needs to be changed back to the noncontest layout since it's been a few weeks since the contest and the normal layout IS better. Just add some link on the side that links to the contest page...

Agreed!

Holigen · Apr 19, 2004, 07:17 PM

I concur.

phillryu · Apr 19, 2004, 09:20 PM

Originally posted by Holigen:
I concur.

Adam Betts is working hard on a refresh right now. Just hang tight.

By the way, I just got my grubby little hands on a Calabi alpha, and it's kicking ass, thank you very much.

Adam Betts · Apr 20, 2004, 12:53 PM

Originally posted by NetworkShadow:
Dude MacThemes needs to be changed back to the noncontest layout since it's been a few weeks since the contest and the normal layout IS better. Just add some link on the side that links to the contest page...

I'm trying my best to get it ready as soon as possible. It's just that I have several "last-minute" projects that need to be done ASAP. My work schedule is very unpredictable.

Sorry about being stucked to contest page. I want them to revert back to regular layout badly too

wigglywoo · Jul 11, 2004, 10:58 PM

Well MacThemes promised a theme a week hmmm, I guess that was just to get us to check out the site daily just to see as usual No new contest themes but other themes often by the themers that should be working on the contest themes, I say hmmm again. Come on themers get those contest themes out the door already.

OwlBoy · Jul 12, 2004, 12:30 AM

Please?

-Owl

fireside · Jul 12, 2004, 12:34 AM

iirc correctly mike had half-life done but everyone else were assholes about it so it got shifted to wib's already full platter.

Synotic · Jul 12, 2004, 03:42 AM

Originally posted by fireside:
iirc correctly mike had half-life done but everyone else were assholes about it so it got shifted to wib's already full platter.

He claimed. Even if some sort of version did exist we know nothing of its quality. I personally doubt he had anything worth showing and I doubt even more that everybody was an "asshole" about it. Having said that, I have no inside knowledge and this is just my personal opinion.

fireside · Jul 12, 2004, 03:53 AM

Originally posted by Synotic:
He claimed. Even if some sort of version did exist we know nothing of its quality. I personally doubt he had anything worth showing and I doubt even more that everybody was an "asshole" about it. Having said that, I have no inside knowledge and this is just my personal opinion.

http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...ke#post2015490

Synotic · Jul 12, 2004, 05:49 AM

Originally posted by fireside:
http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...ke#post2015490

Thanks for referencing the post I was referring to.

edit: fixed a word

cube3 · Jul 12, 2004, 06:53 AM

I have used an alpha of Sweet Slumber and I must say that I was really impressed, it's such a unique theme. I wasn't convinced that I would like it before using it, but I am now, very convinced, it's a real Alice in Wonderland theme, but in the American Magee vein. It was pretty far along too.

Be patient, these guys are doing it in their own time, it pretty hard to stick to a deadline on your free time, there's other stuff you have to do, like live for example.

wigglywoo · Jul 12, 2004, 07:52 AM

Could we "please" see some public alpha releases of these themes at least.

phillryu · Jul 12, 2004, 11:38 AM

Originally posted by wigglywoo:
Well MacThemes promised a theme a week hmmm, I guess that was just to get us to check out the site daily just to see as usual No new contest themes but other themes often by the themers that should be working on the contest themes, I say hmmm again. Come on themers get those contest themes out the door already.

Wow, that was a bit optimistic hm? But hey, I never promised it.

I feel I owe you guys something, at least a progress report, so I'll talk to a few of the themers and designers and get back here. Right now, I'd put the theme releases somewhere between.... now and Omega. And that's about all of a release date you'll get out of me.

But yeah, I'll try to give you guys a more detailed progress report if it's fine with the designers/themers. Perhaps a screen or two.

SafariX · Jul 12, 2004, 11:39 AM

Keep up the good work at Macthemes, you guys rock.

phillryu · Jul 12, 2004, 11:39 AM

Originally posted by wigglywoo:
Could we "please" see some public alpha releases of these themes at least.

This is something I am almost definitely not going to do. I don't really believe in betas and alphas of themes (though unfortunately Paper & Plastic had a week early beta). I'd much prefer releasing each of the upcoming themes as a complete, polished final product. Sorry

rhythmicmoose · Jul 12, 2004, 12:03 PM

Originally posted by phillryu:
Right now, I'd put the theme releases somewhere between.... now and Omega.

HAHAHAHAHA!

I guess that's better than nothing!

wibs · Jul 12, 2004, 05:23 PM

Originally posted by fireside:
iirc correctly mike had half-life done but everyone else were assholes about it so it got shifted to wib's already full platter.

As my email records show it, Mike did in fact have a screenshot but it took him so incredibly long to even respond to correspondence from MacThemes after the contest that they had just assumed his internet had gotten disconnected, his computer had exploded, and martians had abducted him. I wasn't actually involved in anything to do with Half Life at the time, that's just what I know from emails forwarded to me. So basically, MacThemes had the imminent release of ProLCD, me wanting to have done Half Life in the first place, and Mike fallen off the face of the earth. All that added together, they offered Half Life to me, then informed Mike of the change. It was then and only then that Mike replied to any of MacThemes's contact attempts, and he responded with a screenshot and not-too-happy message about being taken off the theme. Understandable response, I think. MacThemes still decided not to use him because of his lack of any communication before that point and didn't feel like a good working relationship could be had after the little fiasco. Also understandable.

Again, this is all just what I've gleaned from forwarded emails.

Now, the screenshot I saw was not of a complete Half Life theme, and some parts of it had made some compromises with the OS that did not look too hot. So MacThemes had the choice of keeping with Mike on the strength of this screenshot or starting fresh.

So they started fresh, and I talked with xanthic, and we both agreed that Half Life could use some redesigns in certain places, and before we knew it xanthic was drawing up plans for a cooler and better Half Life theme that kept the best parts of the original mockup. Unfortunately real life stepped in on xanthic's time, I haven't received the redesign, and that is where the Half Life project stands today.

I seriously get emails about this every couple of days, people asking where the Half Life theme is, so hopefully this will put it to rest for a little bit. I want to see Half Life released just as bad as the rest of you, it's just out of my hands right now.

Speaking of hands, at the time of the Mike/MacThemes falling out my hands were empty and would have been able to handle Half Life. Right now I have 2 themes in the works (wagmedia's RYB and another one of my own), some big digitalramen things cooking, and a significant chunk removed from my theming life and required by my real life. When I get the Half Life redesign I'm going to focus on it, but until then there's just nothing I can do about it.

So now you guys know the story of Half Life. Hopefully it's worth all the fuss

.

cube3 · Jul 12, 2004, 06:03 PM

Strangely enough wibs, that sounds pretty similar to what valve said about the mac version of the game

hehehe

OwlBoy · Jul 15, 2004, 12:02 PM

From what I have seen now, these themes are coming along nicely.

And they seem to be doing things not done before.

Calabi is very very slick.

-Owl

phillryu · Aug 10, 2004, 04:58 PM

I have a status update and preview up for you guys wondering what's up. Click the image to go to the article.

siMac · Aug 10, 2004, 05:19 PM

Wow!

Can't wait...

eFX · Aug 10, 2004, 07:50 PM

thats odd when I go there it says

WebWasher - Notification http://www.macthemes.net/articles/news/000413.php

Too Many Users
There are more clients using this WebWasher than your license allows.
Please upgrade your license to support more users.

generated 11/Aug/2004 00:48:32 +0100 by bncfms04 (WebWasher 4.4.1 Build 1003)

whats webwasher?

gautch · Aug 10, 2004, 08:25 PM

I dont get the webwasher.. hmm
check out http://www.webwasher.com/ that might be the culprit..It could be on your system.. or the host might be running it on there servers.

Odd but it works fine for me.

eFX · Aug 10, 2004, 08:29 PM

dns was screwy or something sorted now but clicking from within forum or loading up macthemes.net was directing me to that info. As i dont use that but it seems sorted now.

theme looks very nice interesting backgrounds reminds me of my navy blue velvet curtaints or something but still very nice