So I didn’t end up developing any of the mock-ups I mentioned recently (the druid, hunter and mage themes), at least not yet. (I may never actually code them, it’s hard to say.) Instead, I came up with a completely different theme: The Magister’s Arcanum.

The Magister’s Arcanum is actually a finished theme, not just a mock-up. You can see a demo of the finished theme here. The Magister’s Arcanum is compatible with the most recent release of WordPress (2.9.1). I’ll be doing some final bug testing and then I’ll get the theme packaged and ready for sale within the next day or so.

I wanted to share some potential premium theme mock-ups I’ve been playing around with lately. I have a new Priest theme that’s been in the works for a while and is actually almost finished and should be ready for release shortly, as well as a couple other possible themes I may develop after that’s finished. I thought I would share some screenshots here to get some preliminary feedback on the two new themes I’ll be working on once the new Priest theme is finished.

That is the “new and improved” T9 Priest theme. I’ve included different background and header graphics for each gender and race combination available to Priests so that users can have a theme that reflects their character. You can view a live demo of this theme on my demo site here.

And now for the two new mock-ups I’ve been working on. Neither of these are by any means finished–they were just something I was messing around with for ideas, mostly, so if you’ve got any feedback about them, I’m all ears.

Dalaran Mage Theme

Hunter Theme

I’m not sure which of those two mock-ups I’ll start working on first, or if I’ll even turn either of them into themes after all. I’m pretty undecided about them at the moment. My eventual intent is to have at least one out-of-the-box theme for every class in the game available so that there’s something for everyone. I also plan to develop themes that are a bit more general in nature that still maintain a certain WoW feel so that folks with more general or non-class-centric sites will also have some options available.

If you’ve got ideas or requests, feel free to let me know.

First, I’d like to thank everyone who contacted me regarding all the busticated links we appear to have had here on the site. I was aware that some pages weren’t working, but wasn’t clear on the scope of the problem. So, thanks to everyone who contacted me about the problem.

The problem appears to be fixed now, so all the pages you’ve been looking for lately should now be available. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Next, I’m also aware that the site had been experiencing some major down-time issues. It’s been about two weeks since we’ve had to restart the server due to site crashes, so I’ve got my fingers crossed that that problem is also resolved. (Although, it could just be that the site didn’t experience heavy traffic loads during that time because our pages were down, so we’ll have to wait and see how it goes now that the pages are back up.)

I still haven’t heard back from WoWHead regarding the Scrapbooking Azeroth project and whether or not they’re still willing to host it. I’m going to wait and see how the site does before contacting them again. Now that all the pages are back up and running, if we can avoid another server crash, I’ll just go back to uploading screenshots here. If we end up having server crashes like we did before, I’ll contact them again to see if we can transfer the project over there.

Thanks everyone for your patience and support–it’s appreciated!

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m finishing up my first premium WordPress theme. Part of the reason it wasn’t actually released yesterday, despite being all but finished, is that I was planning on sending it to ThemeForest for sale rather than selling it directly from here. ThemeForest has to approve each upload, and so I had to wait to hear back from them before the theme would be available for purchase. And, as it turns out, that was a good thing.

They actually rejected the theme for a few reasons. One, they said I wasn’t allowed to include font files (which I did so that users could customize their blog header image using the same font I did if they wanted); two, they said I wasn’t allowed to include plugins with the theme (which I did for the drop-down page menus and pagination at the bottom of each page); three, they said the graphics on the theme weren’t quite up to par. Now, the first two are very minor things; just a couple tweaks, all fixed. The third reason is what really gave me pause. Let me explain why.

I’d posted screenshots of the theme mock-up a few different places, and I’d received very good feedback about it. In fact, everyone that commented on it said it looked good and that they liked it a lot. I guess I let this positive feedback lull me into complacency, which is an easy trap to fall into. Also, most of my time spent developing this theme was spent focusing on the code. Functionality was my primary concern. I wanted to make sure I included a lot of different options and customizability to the theme so that I felt like people would be getting their money’s worth with it. I see now that I became too focused on functionality at the expense of focusing on form as well, which is something you can’t afford to do when developing premium themes for sale.

So what all of this boils down to is that the release of my first premium theme is going to be delayed somewhat.

I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to just start over from scratch, or if I’m going to try to tweak what I’ve already got to try to get it up to snuff.

I’m very disappointed that my first premium theme fizzled, but at the same time I’m trying to remind myself that, well, it was my first. Being a bit of a perfectionist, and expecting a lot from myself as a general rule, it’s hard to accept the fact that I didn’t get it right the first time. I don’t see this as a failure so much as a learning experience, but rejection is a bitter pill to swallow all the same.

Of course, this won’t stop me from trying again. I fully intend to do so, because I firmly believe that with practice I will get it right. And it’s something I enjoy doing. This experience has definitely provided some food for thought, and I’m hoping that my next attempt will have better results.

I’ll keep you guys posted on the Priest theme. Like I said, I’m not sure if I’m going to tweak what I’ve got or scrap it and start over, but I do intend to release a Priest theme. Also, here’s an unfinished mock-up of the next theme I’ll be working on as well:

Of course, I plan on including a version of the header for Horde as well. The mock-up’s not finished yet, but this is what I’ve got so far. Suggestions and feedback are definitely welcome.

I’ve spent the last couple weeks working on my first premium WordPress theme for WoW, and I’ll be finishing it up and getting it ready for release in a couple days. I’m just doing the last bit of testing and documentation, and then it’ll be good to go! Here’s a quick preview:

The theme has multiple headers available for every Priest race and gender combination, so any Priest can use it. You can also customize the tabbed sidebar content, or leave the default (Recent Posts, Popular Posts and Recent Comments).

This theme should be available for release within the next few days. I’ll update again once it’s officially available.