Mac Contest Roundup

MacThemes.net writes "MacThemes.net has had over 45 artists submit entries to our Theme Mockup Contest, of which the top six will be created into actual themes by established themers. Prizes of over a thousand dollars of software and cash will be awarded. Until this Sunday, readers and visitors are asked to visit our entries archive and vote for the submissions. Winners are expected to be announced Monday, April 5th." blobbo writes "iDevGames announces the opening of '21 Days Later', a programming mini-contest that is designed to motivate and educate Mac game developers. It is open to developers from around the globe, and the source code from all entries will be released as open source."

whatever happened to the uDevGames2003 source?

[mzs]

I heard about uDevGames2003 a long while ago. After the contest the source code and binaries of all of the games was supposed to have been made availble. I just took a look and I cannot find it anywhere on the idevgames site. The closest I could get was this press realease [idevgames.com]. The Downloads [idevgames.com] page is essentially empty save for the 21days readme file. Am I just looking in the wrong place? Probably I should use the Contacts page and get a hold of someone there, but maybe another slashdot reader knows so that I do not look stupid twice. I do remember that the idevgames web site 'looked' a whole lot different last year, so it seems someone is maintaining and updating it.

Re:Why are themes so bad?

[TeamSPAM]

I think the following themes had potential: Simple Grey, NickelCobalt, Cold Chrome. The rest I didn't think were so hot, and I agree the black themes are to dark. I personally would prefer a nice light to medium gray theme if I used one, I tend to stick with Apple's default UI but in the graphite colors.

Re:Why are themes so bad?

[baryon351]

I'm really simple. I'd love to see Apple's Platinum look make a return, with concessions to the layout of OSX. There's a platinum theme in existence that goes a good way towards that goal, but it's not quite 100%... and doesn't fully work on panther anyway.

I know it's probably one for those of us who sharpened our teeth on classic macos, so there's probably very little demand for it.

New Gaming

[artlu]

Hopefully, contests like this will influence the random programmer to start developing something useful. Look at that trailblazer app that recently was cited on slashdot. Definitely awesome! A friend of mine is working on a 2d RPG similar to the old secret of mana games. He is designing it for Mac. We need more of this!

Re:Why are themes so bad?

[arson1]

I was just about to post the same thing. Out of every 100 themes there seems to be one decent one. You'd figure in the Mac world there would be some creative people jumping all over this.

Re:Why are themes so bad?

[Johnathon_Dough]

hmmm. I always figured in the linux world there would be more inspired software coming out, but it seems that only 1 out of 100 is usefull.

Just because someone uses a Mac does not mean they actually have any graphical talent. Just like someone who has managed to set up LInux(i have) can then bust out a decent script and or full fledged application(I DEFINTELY can not).

I've worked for 10 years on a mac as a photo-retoucher. And weep whenever it is time to start looking at resume/portfolios for a new hire.

Many many many {repeat x10} people out there, Mac and Windows think they are artisticly inclined with photoshop. [cough] bull$hit [cough cough]. Look at Fark's photoshop contests, or if you are feeling particularly masochistic, follow this link... [syddware.com] This typical of people who say they are "photo-retouchers".

For the other side...check out Saddington Baynes [sb-showcase.com].(not where I work, don't want to be accused of plugging...)

Re:Well, some people worked pretty hard ...

[radicalskeptic]

You're completely right:

I use Unsanity Software's Shapeshifter [unsanity.com] theme changer.

Can you guess what my two favourite themes are? "Aqua Extreme [maxthemes.com]" and "Smooth Stripes [maxthemes.com]." They're basically just Aqua with slight tweaks, such as removing the pinstripes, adding sunken buttons instead of raised buttons, and getting rid of the streaks in brushed metal, etc.

I've found that every single theme I've tried that strays too far from Aqua ends up being a total disaster.