#gba4ioskins

[nintendo-dsi-xl]

My skin is in app and on the top five on Gba4ioskins Please tell me what you think of it!

[gbaskin]

[Event has not started. It will begin tomorrow morning, April 20!]

Hi, guys! We have something planned for you this Easter weekend. It occurred to us that the small April Fools prank we pulled on some 500 or so of you was very fun, so we want to continue the holiday tradition. 

Welcome to GBA4iOSkins' first ever Easter Egg Hunt event!

We're announcing it a day early because it isn't something that too many of you expect from a controller skins site like us, but know that we have really enjoyed planning it for the past week. This will involve a classical egg hunt competition and it's very easy to participate!

Today the site has been flooded by random eggs with predetermined logos on them on specific skin download pages. You can see for yourself by going here right now.  These eggs are "Single" eggs. They only contain one logo from GBA4iOSkins, GBA4iOS and Start3rs. This isn't gonna about about one person finding the most random eggs, there is only one kind of egg we are interested in you finding, we call them "Master" eggs. Unlike the Single eggs, the Master eggs have all three logos in one! 

Tommorrow morning (Easter Day), these Master eggs will appear at random throughout the site. It is up to you to find 10 Master eggs on 10 different skin download pages. This will be the competition, but what of prizes? 

Prizes

The person that collects and emails us all 10 Master egg locations (read rules first!) will win a chance at working with me, Dario Sepulveda (@mithical), at creating your very own skin. It can be a skin you've been requesting for a while now that never came, it can be a logo, or it can be a brand or YouTube account - as long as it's reasonable and it's permissible under copyright laws! 

Second part of the prize is that this skin we create, along with your name, will be featured on a future Featured Top 5 video by @OPERATIONiDROID and on our front page of http://gba4ioskins.com!

Remember

10 Master eggs will start appearing at random throughout the day tomorrow and it is up to you to find them by browsing as many skin download pages of our site as you can. 

Read the rules carefully, learn them and follow them. Get prepared for tomorrow's competition and await a @GBA4iOSkins tweet announcing when it will begin (make sure you're following us).

[gbaskin]

The User Submissions!

Today (March 23rd) we opened the long-awaited User Submissions section on GBA4iOSkins. It took us a little longer than a month to finally get it out because we needed to have enough time in our hands to be constantly updating it - remember we are doing this on our free time.

We know users have been requesting us to host their creations but given that very few knew how to make working, original skin designs, we decided to hold off on this until my own or Riley's skins tutorial was out.

We originally intended to open this section, add some of the skins from users who had already taught themselves to make them, and then begin working on my full skins tutorial when, coincidentally, Riley Testut announced that his skin tutorial was coming out today (Mar 23).

We didn't plan this, but we are glad we are that mentally coordinated because now you all can have a chance to learn from the developer himself how to create skins, and we have a section up ready to be updated with your creations. This also gives me way more time to make my own skins tutorial later. Why another tutorial? Well, Riley and I may use some of the same programs, but maybe our methods of execution may be different - and we actually came up with some original content like longer skins (full screen iPad!) and unique mapping methods not found originally in the official app. But anyways, it wouldn't be GBA4iOSkins if it didn't have its own official skin tutorial!

Submissions

I start writing and can't seem to stop, let's move on to the main reason I wanted to write this post. If you are interested in submitting skins you have made, please read on.

I want to submit my own skin!

Great! You've come to the right place. Before anything, there are some rules. Yeah, I know, we all hate rules and I wish we could be more lenient about them but we have to keep a reputable site and that becomes a bit more taxed when many more people are contributing to it - not that we think you'll steal artworks, designs and the likes (but please don't). In order to get a spot on the User Submissions section...

Dpad and buttons must be an original creation. You can base them on pre-existing controllers but they must not use the exact same ones owned by someone else, be cut around or copy-pasted into a design/artwork. Note: if you want to use my Mithical Skins template, submit it as a request that I can make, not an original creation! Maybe later I will release the template for public use, but for now I hold the right to it! :)

If you are using an original artwork of your own, great! If you want to use someone else's artwork/design, you must obtain permission from the original artist and include credit sources to go along with the skin (artist name/username, website). A copy of the email or link to the site where they give you permission would also be great.

Skins must be mapped and tested before being submitted! We're only taking skins that are packed, sealed and ready to go. Would also appreciate if you mention which devices don't work well with your skin (if any): iPhone 3.5" display, etc. 

You must have a logo/icon image bigger than 500 x 500 ready for us to use on GBA4iOSkins.com This will go above your "creator" name.

You must include a link out with your preferred creator name/username. You can also submit your own description but know that it will be reviewed before being put on the site.

How do I submit my skin?

You must send an email to: [email protected] The email must include the following:

Subject as: "Skin Submission!"

Mapped skin(s) attachments with .gbaskin and/or .gbcskin extensions

An image preview or screenshot of the skin in question

Your preferred name/username

A link to your website/twitter

An icon/logo/image to be used on GBA4iOSkins.com

The original artist's source page and name (if any).

That's it! We may not reply immediately but know that your skin is being queued in our list to be updated on the site. We will email you or tweet you when it is going up or is already live. 

Legal:  GBA4iOSkins holds the right to issue, create, modify and/or change descriptions, names for skins, even within the JSON files provided, for organizational purposes. You will be notified if any big changes occur and you are welcomed to dispute them. GBA4iOSkins does not currently have any monetary or financial plans for the site. We do not include ads or make any money from views as of this moment (March 23, 2014). We hold the right to change this if servers or user demands need to be met. If the day does come where we are in a position to monetize the site, please know that the company [GBA4iOSkins, Start3rs] cannot grant you financial demands for allowing us to host your creation. You hold the exclusive right to the skin submitted and are able to request a take-down of the skin from our site at any moment, although we cannot be held responsible for people who have already downloaded the skin prior to this take-down.

[gba4ios]

GBA4iOS 2.0 is finally out! No ETA, no empty promises, it's out in the wild right this exact moment. Get downloading!

Download GBA4iOS 2.0

And don't forget that GBA4iOSkins, your number one place for GBA4iOS controller skins, is also out now! 

GBA4iOSkins.com

Check back any day this week to see a final "Goodbye Beta Blog" post! Will go over this whole, crazy journey as the Beta Blog says its final farewell... and maybe evolves into something else!

[gbaskin]

I was going to tweet this but I realized that 140 characters just wasn't enough to cover this very important subject for us at GBA4iOSkins.

The subject, of course, being the use of art in some of our skins (mine in particular since they are designed to rely on a particular style of art). Ever since I started making skins back in September, one thing that was always in my mind was that I wanted to help out some of these amazingly, crazily talented artwork creators gain a little recognition. Their work, at times, gets posted on a site like deviantART and is forgotten over the years (although not all, certainly). I wanted to boost their views, gain the artist the praise and love they deserve as we revitalize their artwork as something different that can be physically and emotionally enjoyed while playing GBA4iOS.

We want GBA4iOSkins to be a hub for your art.

We want to see great works of art being used and enjoyed, and at the same time get you the appreciation you deserve for making that happen. 

The skin above, featured today in our site, was made just a few hours so that I could commemorate St. Valentine's Day. I sought out a piece of work that would show the cliche pink theme but that also represented some aspect of gaming (Pokémon, obviously!). I found that beautiful minimalist wallpaper of Luvdisc on PokeWalls, made by talented MapleRose. I immediately sent her a tweet because I couldn't find any other way to contact her on her site. I told her to Direct Message me or email me so that we could talk about the potential of her designs being turned into skins for you all to download and enjoy. Waited a couple of hours but didn't hear anything back (I'm sure she is busy making yet another beautiful work for the day). I decided I would show her exactly what we were all about and how exactly this whole skins thing works. I really hope I wasn't out of line by featuring the artwork like that without waiting for her go-ahead (although I did read her terms of use and I believe I fall into one of the categories).

I, however, cannot make this Luvdisc skin available for download when we do launch later next week unless I have her expressed permission. This is the ethical thing to do. I really hope she, and other artists, see this and consider submitting some of their work to us so that many people can use them to play their favorite games. We care deeply about your intellectual rights and want to affirm we will be linking to artwork sources in the download page for skins, so consider submitting!

If you are one of those artists and are confused as to how exactly you are able to play GameBoy Advance games on an iPad or any other iOS devices, just read my blog here, it's a new app that will be available very soon! 

If you are an artist, please contact our lead designer so that we can talk skins with you. Email us here: contact(at)mithical.com

A plea for help

You, the user, keep in mind that you have the power to make this happen. You see a fantastic wallpaper or art piece that you absolutely want us to make into a skin, contact the artist yourselves! Tweet them, email them, tell them how much you need this. Praise their work, appreciate their talent and direct them to us so we can take care of everything! Don't be afraid, you can make this happen very easily and we appreciate all the help we can get!

[gba4ios]

On Things To Come

GBA4iOS 2.0: release date (still) unknown.

I know you are all tired of hearing that word, unknown, but  that's unfortunately the best word we can pick. Many of you are probably wondering why the much-anticipated app isn't out yet (we know, it's already 2014). As Riley told us last month on his blog, there are certain things with the distribution method and Apple that aren't quite compatible yet. The app itself, even if it was finished, wouldn't be able to be distributed, as much as we want it to be.

Is it really finished? Kind of, but not exactly. We are actually very close - closer than ever, in fact. Riley has mentioned that the next beta (which we might have to wait for  a little bit for) will be the feature-complete version.

What does feature-complete mean exactly? Everything Riley imagined, everything he planned and spent sleepless nights coding will finally be included in the next update. Consider it the Gold Master version of the app. There will still, more than likely, be bugs which we will be on the look out for but we know that feature-complete is just one large step closer to the final version you all will be getting one day (soon, we hope). 

For those that wonder, "Why doesn't Riley just release it on Cydia when he's finished since iOS 7 is jailbreakable now?" To that I don't have an answer. Personal reasons and motives behind this decision are entirely up to Riley. Whatever he thinks is best, we leave it to his best judgement.

---

Sidenotes: many things are yet to come besides this app, though! The reason this blog has seen very little updates this year is because we are hard at work on GBA4iOSkins, getting everything ready for that upcoming release date. We also have other things planned: certain guides, videos and how-tos that you should look forward to. Keep a look out!

@mithical

[gbaskin]

I rarely preview what will probably become the most-used skins, the iPhone ones. Last night, after going through my huge list of theme suggestions, I decided I wanted something simple, something without any graphic or design and I arrived at these. 

The first one uses GBA4iOS 2.0's logo colors to the very pixel. The rest are the classic Gameboy Colors: Berry (C), Grape (O), Kiwi (L), Dandelion (O), Teal (R). 

I have more color choices aside from these such as black, red, blue, etc. They look terrific on iOS 7 and will have iPad counterparts. Hope you like them!

Don't forget, if you have any skin suggestions, you can submit them at http://gbaskin.com/submit!

[gba4ios]

The latest beta, dubbed 5.3 since it's still focusing for the most part on Dropbox support, was released on Tuesday morning. 

This beta, as I reported a day before it came out, not only fixed various bugs surrounding Dropbox support, but also was forced to change the data structure of how it all works. Save states and cheats were lost, but we have been assured that this will be the last beta something like this would happen. 

Aside from a "naming" bug that will be fixed in the next beta, Dropbox support - one of the hardest thing to implement - has been finished. You will be able to pick up your game progress on any of your devices with this feature when GBA4iOS 2.0 comes out. 

What's next for Riley? As I said, Dropbox was the biggest thing, but now that it's out of the way, only minor bugs and fixes remain, as well as the smaller features I mentioned in my last post: FastForward, AirPlay, Skins... 

It's all coming together nicely and updates are sure to speed up if Riley plans to release the app by the end of the year, around Christmas time, which isn't too far away now!