Making a shell

Create and share a theme for the Handheld look, using your app’s templates.

With Pro, the Handheld look can wear a theme you made. A theme dresses the shell and can also dress the on-screen controls. Start with pictures made in any paint app, then share the finished theme as a .apollotheme file.

Try one

Check your app’s artwork requirements and available examples here:

• Apollo Boy custom shells
• Apollo Super custom shells
• Apollo Classic custom shells
• Apollo Drive custom shells

Use examples intended for your app: its game screen, controls and decoration have their own sizes and positions. This guide describes the shared workflow.

Use a shell

1. In a game, open Settings > Style & Layout… and choose Handheld.
2. Choose MY THEMES > Import a theme… and pick the .apollotheme file.
3. Review the preview, author and included parts.
4. Choose Use it, or Keep for later to store it without applying it now.

When importing for a game, Use it for lets you choose that game or every game. My themes lists the available themes. Choose None (the style’s own shell and buttons) to return to your style, or use Remove for an imported theme you no longer want. Built-in themes do not need to be imported.

Themes change appearance. Control positions belong to your layout; use EDIT LAYOUT to move them. Exporting or importing a layout is a separate Style & Layout action.

What Apollo draws over it

The shell art forms the background; the app draws the game and controls over it. A theme can also style controls and decorative parts. Check your app’s screen and control requirements, using its templates where available, to see which areas are covered and which are available for art. Do not use one app’s pixel measurements for another.

Phones and tablets have different shapes. Shell pictures are scaled to cover the space and centered, so edges may be cropped rather than stretched. Keep important art away from the edges and test both orientations on your device.

What Apollo Boy draws over it

For Apollo Boy’s covered areas and template measurements, see Apollo Boy custom shells.

What goes in the .zip

A .apollotheme file is a ZIP archive. A plain .zip containing the same theme format can also be imported. Put theme.json and its referenced pictures at the top level or together inside one folder. A simple picture-only theme has:

For example:

{
  "format": 1,
  "name": "My painted shell",
  "author": "Your name",
  "shell": {
    "portrait": { "picture": "portrait.png" },
    "landscape": { "picture": "landscape.png" }
  }
}

Both orientations are required. Advanced themes can use recipes instead of pictures, add control art and visual reactions, and change colors or screen framing. Start with your app’s examples above or the theme creator for those features.

You can also use My themes > Export as theme… to save the appearance being edited as a theme file. Layout positions do not travel inside themes. Old archives containing only shell.json and upright.png are not themes and cannot be imported as this format.

Rules

• Shell pictures are PNG, up to 4096 pixels on either side and 8 MB each. Save PNGs without interlacing.
• Button and decorative-part PNGs have a 2 MB limit each.
• The theme archive has a 32 MB limit and theme.json a 256 KB limit.
• Use your own art and avoid game screenshots or logos you do not own.
• Share the .apollotheme file in a chat, drive or forum. It contains theme art, not the game or your saved progress.

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