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Mylinekerr Fact - Well crafted WordPress gaming themes can be hard to find but there
are a number of developers who have made some outstanding and dedicated
gaming themes. If you have ever tried to modify and customize a regular
WordPress blogging theme into an online gaming community website you
will know that it’s possible to some extent but you might not get it
tailored to work 100% the way you intended, leaving you frustrated. This
is where selecting a theme specifically designed for gaming blogs,
portals, communities, review and news websites will do the difference.
Common to most dedicated WordPress gaming themes is the use of high
contrast colors to set the scene, such as either dark or light color
schemes making an overall more impressive user experience. They are
tailored to present a wide variety of multimedia files like movies,
images and online content from different sources like YouTube, Yahoo
etc. Embedding videos and uploading/adding images or content to your
site have never been easier. Especially premium themes offer an advanced
and user friendly backend system allowing you to tweak and customize
any part of your theme. They also make use of either a user or author
rating system adding powerful review and community functions. The home
page is where all the magic comes true – assembling all featured posts
of the latest video game reviews using large images and jQuery sliders
to get the attention from users.
Free game themes don’t always offer these kind of advanced features
to enhance the user experience and typically require more development to
fit the webmaster requirements. However the strongest argument for
selecting premium themes typically is the support and guarantied
updates. When building a serious gaming site this is more important than
you may realize up front. In this article I present a mix of more than
25 free and premium wordpress gaming themes that I think are among the
best available right now. Please leave a comment if I missed a great
WordPress gaming theme.
This article have just been updated with new themes and all links have been checked. Enjoy!
1. eGamer WordPress Theme
eGamer is a beautiful and well organized video game blogging theme
with premium features. It’s clean layout and sidebar on the left makes
it easier to navigate than a standard blogging theme. The integration of
an author rating system is a must have to get a theme like this to
work. Ratings appear on the post page in a 0-5 star format and each post
that has a rating is also shown on the homepage under Recent Reviews
section. An effective way to catch the attention of users is the
possibility to embed videos directly in posts in a pleasing manner.
If you don’t like the default magazine style layout you can easily
change to a more basic blog style design. It comes with four different
color schemes, rust-red being the default or you can change to blue,
green or purple skins within the theme’s options page. You can also
choose to feature your favorite posts on the homepage using the
JavaScript powered scroller that includes auto-rotation of articles.
eGamer also gives users control over many of the theme’s functions,
making the banner ads, recent reviews section, recent video section,
popular/random articles section, and post-page thumbnails optional. All
this is done within the excellent ePanel theme options page which is the
place to change all theme specific features. You get additional support
and updates from ElegantThemes ensuring that this theme will always run
on the latest WP versions.
2. TheSource
The Source is a three-column magazine style wordpress premium theme
with a pleasing and sophisticated layout. It has been specifically
designed to display loads of content in an organized yet visually
organized manner making it perfect for online gaming magazines. The
3-column grid gives you increased control over your layout, and the
full-width homepage slider creates a visual impact that is sure to pique
your visitor’s interest. If you dislike the standard black color scheme
you can select either grey, blue or red.
Furthermore you get a 4 column widgetized footer, homepage category
boxes featuring the latest posts, styled popular, recent posts widgets
and loads of shortcodes. There are plenty of opportunities using this
theme and making a truly unique website is very easy and straight
forward even if you are a beginner – thanks to the advanced features in
the ePanel options pages. The ePanel is well known for being very user
friendly and gives you great control of the theme.
3. LeetPress – A Gaming WP Theme
LeetPress has been specifically designed as a word press gaming
theme. The fantastic clean design and dark color scheme (default) makes
it an awesome experience for the visiting user. The slick rating effect
is just amazing and adds to the professional feel of the theme. It works
like an animated bar that grows to the respective rating – cool!
What I particularly like about this theme is the use of large images
for the latest news posts on the home page rather than the usual smaller
square images in a traditional blogging theme. And the simple layout
that is not too crowded with widgets, confusing sidebars or banners. It
features 4 skins (blue, red, orange and green), cool full width slider,
review, video, slider and screenshots post types and comes with 8 help
videos with voice to help you getting the theme setup and customized.
4. Continuum – Magazine WP Theme
Continuum is a premium WP theme perfect for hard-core online game
news sites who have previously shoe-horned content into “bloggy”
designs. It’s a well made theme with a very unique and professional
style and an impressive list of features. This theme can be customized
and tweaked to anything you want due to it’s more than 200+ theme
options! Even though it sounds overwhelming it’s easy to manage and the
pages are intuitively divided into separate tabs and each tab is further
organized in sections.
It offers 11 custom widgets, 5 custom jQuery content sliders, 19
unique sidebars, built-in reviews, 3 custom menus and lots of premium
magazine features just to mention a few of the many fantastic features.
It’s designed specifically for Word-Press 3.0+ and features an extensive
feed framework which intuitively groups and displays your posts and
lets the user sort the posts the way they like.
Indeed a very unique and fresh theme for anyone looking for a very
flexible solution – you’ve got to see the demo to understand the
diversity of this theme!
5. Black Aperture
Black Aperture is yet another dark colored news and reviews theme
specifically made for video games. On the homepage there’s a unique
featured posts showcase for the latest video game reviews and the
default 3 column layout allows you to have 2 widgetized sidebars. You
can change it to a 2-column layout if you like which will remove the
left sidebar though. It features dynamic resizing of images for various
thumbnails which can be used through out the theme without the need to
resize anything after the first image upload.
You have access to a custom built theme settings panel that allows
you to customize the theme without editing any templates. Change the
accent color used in the navigation and headings using a color picker,
switch 3 to 2 columns styling, construct the main navigation bar and
even manage ads.
6. Imperial
Imperial is an awesome, neat and clean wordpress theme with an
amazing set of features that will make it an obvious choice for a gaming
portal. The dark color scheme is perfect and sets the mood for reading
and watching images and videos, though it’s possible to change the color
to a light scheme if you like. It supports custom backgrounds so you
can add an even more subtle feel to your site. It’s featuring a post
slider that rotates on its own and is powered by JavaScript and you can
turn any post into a movie, music or video game review. You can easily
link to social networks you take part in and sidebars are widgetized and
you can use custom widgets for the 3 main ad spots. You can use the
custom built theme settings panel within WP-admin to customize the theme
without any coding knowledge.
7. MoonCraft
MoonCraft is a totally different looking wp premium theme with a dark
style well suited for game blogs or communities. It’s very flexible and
responsive design makes it easy to be creative and drastically change
the look and feel of the theme using the 6×6 different color
combinations available. Just take a look at a few of these custom
presets:
You can add optional sidebars with customizable sizes, 9 custom
widgets, shortcodes with WYSIWYG editor buttons and the possibility to
showcase videos and images using lightbox. You can even add a
customizable image and video slider on any page and it’s touch screen
compatible. You can select between 2,3 or 4 widegetized columns in the
footer area and change between 3 different border styles and much more.
If you’re looking for a different design for your blog this could be it.
8. Wave: A Video Centric Theme
Wave is a very beautiful and flexible theme catered to those who want
to build a video focused site like a game review website. A great
layout makes it easy to navigate and users will be able to rate
individual posts. Both sidebars are widgetized and using the 3 main ad
spots along with recent posts and recent videos will make it easy to
customize the theme to your liking. It’s appealing grungy design might
not appeal to you but you can easily change things to make it look more
smooth.
It supports any video size up to 920px wide and you can flag High
Definition videos with an HD tag and the theme will display it in full
width. You can post videos from anywhere like third party services,
videopress or self-hosted videos. The well documented backend system
will make it easy to adjust specific theme options and the super lean
markup and CSS makes advanced customization a pleasure.
9. ReviewIt: Review WordPress & BuddyPress Theme
ReviewIt is a very well made, clean and organized WP theme targeted a
niche market whilst being relevant. It’s a powerful review and
community theme utilizing the GD Star rating WP plugin. It features 2
unique skins (light or dark), lots of amazing shortcodes and a
commercial JW video player worth $80 that supports all major video
formats. It has 8 custom widgets, improved PrettyPhoto LightBox,
unlimited sidebars, jQuery disabled support and a nivo slider with the
ability to showcase videos from youtube or play flash, mp3 etc.
It’s very customizable and there are tons of easy to use theme
options through the backend system to customize your theme. Furthermore
it’s 100% BuddyPress compatible. This is an absolute masterpiece with
quality coding and could easily be a premium theme! This theme might be
just what you are looking for?
10. Juggernaut: Blog/Magazine WordPress Theme
Juggernaut is a highly customizable premium word-press theme perfect
for a gaming portal! It’s by far one of the best wordpress gaming themes
with loads of options and functionality that will make it possible to
customize many aspects of the theme to your liking. An awesome design
and layout that ensures easy user navigation and attention on content.
It features 2 unique skins (dark and light), 17 backgrounds, 2 sliders
and a carousel slider that will scroll images across the page. It also
offers 4 custom widgets, shortcodes, unlimited sidebars and jQuery
disabled support. It’s fully documented and the backend system lets you
adjust the theme with ease.
11. Informer WordPress Theme
Informer is a Powerful, Professional, Premium WordPress News or
Magazine theme perfect for a gaming site. Very slick design and powerful
template.
12. Ithaca
Gaming freak? Got the story (and the game) before anyone else? Want
to share your passion with others? Then run Ithaca gaming reviews site
which comes with 5 predefined color schemes. Gives users a chance to get
a taste from every section of reviews on site with this homepage. Has a
great rating system. Has loads of theme options, localization,
cross-browser compatibility, shortcodes, custom menus, color variations,
HTML5/CSS3 and support.
13. Games
Games theme has a very clean yet awesome design that really looks
great. It has a full width slider with preview at the top to catch the
attention of visitors and 3 nice content layout areas which are widget
ready below. Color scheme works well with this template and the menu is
easy to access and complements the design of the site.
MORE INFO by Templatemonster (premium theme)
14. GameBox
GameNow uses a fullscreen background image to set the scene right
when visitors hit the front page. A compact yet powerful design with a
slider below the menu for posting news items and a dark color scheme
which is perfect match for a gaming review or community site.
MORE INFO by Templatemonster (premium theme)
15. Games 2
Games 2 works well for any game site you want to set up. I features a
large content/news slider at the top just below the menu. Being a
gaming site this one also supports and uses multimedia and images on the
front page giving visitors a quick way to visually navigate the site.
Below the slider there are different content areas which enables sorting
for latest, popular and featured articles.
MORE INFO by Templatemonster (premium theme)
16. GodMode
GodMode has a classical magazine layout and primarily uses red and
dark colors. It has 3 content and home areas, features a news/content
slider with preview and is widgetized.
MORE INFO by Templatemonster (premium theme)
17. GameNow
GameNow is a premium word-press theme packed with features perfectly
fitted for a gaming portal or blog. This theme uses high contrast colors
and the design elements fits perfectly with a game site. You can even
let your users choose between two color schemes light or dark. It’s easy
to involve your users letting them rate games using the GD star rating
plugin which allows for a user-integrated 5 star rating system.
This theme is fully featured with an intuitive theme options panel to
customize the theme the way you like. It’s SEO optimized, has a cool
JavaScript animated slideshow, adsense and widget ready. Furthermore
this premium theme is created on a solid code framework and you will be
able to be up and running with your gaming blog in no time!
18. GameUp
GameUp is a minimal and elegant theme that will appeal to anyone
wanting to make a perfect gaming portal or blog. With it’s fresh and
functional layout it is easy to publish content and customize the theme
through the theme control panel which allows you to add logos, customize
navigation, setup a featured category etc. It’s easy to setup a
professional looking game blog in minutes. It features a front page
slideshow to display news bulletins, automatic thumbnail generation with
smart cropping capability so you won’t loose image quality. It offers
easy drag and drop menu generation, widgetized sidebars, adsense ready,
jQuery, social bookmarking and compatibility with the latest WP version.
MORE INFO – by Magazine3 (premium theme)
19. Game World
GameWorld is a fixed width game theme with a simple yet functional
design. It’s high contrast color scheme adds to special mood of games
making it a great choice for a portal for games. Below the main menu
it’s got a featured image slider showcasing the news and tabbed browsing
makes it easy to organize loads of content in to ordered categories.
just below the image slider you can showcase the latest reviews of games
and the widgetized side right sidebar makes a great place for recent
posts list, archives etc.
MORE INFO by Templatemonster (premium theme)
20. GamesMania
GamesMania is a popular free premium WP theme with a very stylish and
functional layout – perfect for gaming blogs or the like. It has an
easy to use options page, supports post thumbnails, 125×125 banners
ready, widget ready, gravatar on comments and SEO optimized. Compatible
with latest word press versions like IE, FF, Safari. It’s one of the
best free wordpress gaming themes available.
21. MmoPress
MmoPress is a free fixed width theme with an interesting and
functional layout suitable for a game niche like online games or
entertainment websites or blogs. It has an easy to use options page,
supports post thumbnails, 125×125 banners ready, widget ready and SEO
optimized. Compatible with latest wordpress versions.
22. Warlord
Warlord theme has a unique design and a good layout. This theme is
perfect for PC and console game blogs and game review sites. It has a
number of nice features such as theme options for setting the 125×125
advertisements, jQuery powered tabber and sliding featured images.
23. Gamerpress
GamperPress is a simple two-column, magazine styled word press theme
with fixed width layout and with a jQuery featured slider. A nice theme
to make a blog for game reviews. It’s widget ready, supports social
bookmarking and all major browsers.
24. Fun Never Ends
This is a perfect free theme for those who want a clean and well
crafted template to use for their gaming blog – great for starters. It
offers a two-column layout with a dark design. It features a
right-sidebar, page navigation, threaded comments, social bookmarking
and is widget ready. It supports all major browsers on the market.
25. iGames
iGames is a free, cool and classic looking theme that will fulfill
the basic needs for a great gaming website. It has an easy to use
options page, supports post thumbnails, 125×125 banners ready, widget
ready, gravatar on comments and SEO optimized. Compatible with latest
wordpress versions.
source: http://www.tripwiremagazine.com/2011/12/wordpress-gaming-themes.html
http://mylinekerr.blogspot.com
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