New theme: eGamer | Stylish themes blog

I completed another theme today titled eGamer (Stylish gamer). This theme was created with video game bloggers in mind, but it can definitely be adapted to any niche. In the theme, you will see a lot of features aimed at gamers, however, I have given a lot of control over the theme's functions through the theme options pages, which makes a lot of these features optional.

1. Video integration / Viewing recent videos

I added video integration, which works similar to eVid. When you create a post, you can add a custom field with the video embed code of your choice (taken from a Website video streaming such as YouTube). This video is then displayed on your single publishing page below the rest of the contents in its own box. You will also notice a “Recent Videos” section on the home page. This section searches all your posts and brings together all posts that have a custom video field. It then automatically displays the most recent video on the home page. This feature is optional and can be disabled from the theme options menu.

2. Notes from recent authors / reviews

Many video game blogs are used to review new games. For this reason, I added a basic author rating system. Every time you post a post you will notice that a new section has been added under your text editor titled “eGamer Ranking Settings”. In the field, just enter a number between 0 and 5. Once you assign a rating, a star-rated image is generated and placed on your post page under the title. You will also notice a "Recent Reviews" section on the home page. This box searches all your messages and gathers those that have a rating assigned to it, then displays the 4 most recent messages. This feature can be turned off from the theme options page if you are not planning on posting comments.

3. Optional blog style article layout

Similar to StudioBlue, I added an optional blog style post layout. This can be toggled on and off from the theme options menu. You can alternate whenever you want.

4. Thumbnail images

For each article, you can assign a single thumbnail image. This thumbnail image is automatically resized, cropped, and paced throughout the blog. Instead of adding a "custom" field, I placed a custom writing panel. Whenever you post a post, you will see a field under your text editor titled “eGamer Thumbnail Options”. Simply enter the full URL of your image and save your post to apply a thumbnail.

5. Featured Articles

You can choose featured articles for your blog which will be displayed via a javascript scroller on the home page. These are set to rotate automatically and can also be rotated with a mouse click.

6. Three-level drop-down menu

I added a drop down menu to the theme and also added an extra level.

7. Advertising options

The theme comes with two optional ad areas. There are four 125 × 125 banner image spots that can be displayed in the sidebar, as well as a single 468 × 60 banner that is displayed at the top of the page. Banner images and URLs are managed through the theme's options page, and both nodes can be toggled on and off at any time.

To learn more about the theme, you can consult the features page, or live demo. Other themes are on the way, stay tuned! I'm also looking to bring new talent to Elegant Themes to help bring a greater variety of styles and innovation.

I hope everyone is well, as for me, all this talk about video games turns me on. It's time to go buy Fallout 3! 😛