Arcade Scripts

Its all very well buying an arcade script and throwing up a free template, its certainly cost efficient, but if you want to stand out from the crowd, or if you simply want something of typically higher quality, then premium or paid templates are your answer.

Premium Templates usually fall into 2 categories.

• Non Unique Premium Templates
• Totally Custom Premium Templates

Non Unique

These templates are higher than average quality and sold to those want something a little better without the expensive of a completely custom design. Prices can range from around $20 - $50, essentially depending on the quality of the template. Those with extra cool headers and logos fetch significantly more, and advertising placement is also an issue. The push is for a clean design, with a slickly produced header, and good key advertising positions.

Surprisingly, there are very few sites that produce premium arcade templates in general and I only found one that seems to be visible. A lot of requests and orders are fullfilled on the support forums of the various script sites.

Big Dog Arcade - These guys specialize in Premium Templates for PHPAS Version 3 & 4. Templates range from $30 to $45 depending on which version, and quite possibly which template. Its definately worth checking out if you own a PHPAS arcade.

If anyone can find other template developers please let me know via the contact page

Totally Custom

This option will set you back a pretty penny, but there are a number of web development companies that will do this. What your looking for is not only an exceptional design team, but a company also capable of coding your template to suit your script. Thats usually where a lot of people come unstuck, quite simply a lot of designers/developers dont have the experience necessary.

There are a number of design firms out there that will do this work for you. The two most often mentioned are:

Blue Trendz Designs - I sent an email to the guys at Blue Trendz, and got an immediate reply, which was a great sign Several people have had custom designs from Blue Trendz and have a lot of good things to say about them. They can handle gamesitescript, gamescript, phprarcade, arcadempro etc. Prices will vary depending on whats required and its very much worth filing for a quotation. Make sure you state ALL your requirements, be very thorough when getting custom work done, failure to do so often leads to higher expenses and poorer relations with your provider.

Skinzee - Offer both standard premiums and custom solutions. At the time of writing this there were 2 standard premium templates on offer for $59. Both looked pretty good. I made a recent enquiry via email and found out totally custom solutions can range from $200 to $2000 really, depending on what is required. They also added…

We have added AutoBoss templates and Ebay Store templates.  We will soon be
adding PhotoPost, phpBB, IndexU, and many more.

That might be of interest to some people also, particularly phpBB personally.

Coding

Many script providers will offer a coding service for your PSD and/or XTHML work. Prices range dramatically. For example ive seen $70 mentioned for coding PSD’s into Arcadem Pro.