Arcade documentation

A neon gaming magazine theme for Ghost with a hero carousel, score hexagons, rating bars, platform chips and a live release countdown.

Thank you for choosing Arcade. This guide covers everything from uploading the theme to setting up paid memberships. If something is not covered here, write to support@codememory.com — we answer within one working day.

• Version1.0.0
• Ghost6.0.0 or later
• Live demoarcade.ghostcms.templates.codememory.com
• AuthorCode Memory

Highlights

• Hero carousel of your featured posts with numbered tabs, a timed progress bar, arrow keys and swipe
• Score hexagon on cards, slides and the review header, from an internal tag (#score 8.7); green, yellow or red by level
• Rating bars: a list under a "Scores" heading becomes animated bars with the overall score
• Release radar on the homepage: posts with a release date (#release 2026-11-14), soonest first, each with a live countdown to the second
• Release date and countdown in the post header; released games show "Out now"
• Platform chips from internal tags (#platform PC, #platform Console)
• Cut-corner cards with a neon edge on hover, a glitch effect on titles and optional scan lines over large images
• Score scale of 10, 5 or 100
• Two post layouts: the full-screen review header and Brief for short news
• Dark by default, with light and system modes and a reader toggle
• Topics page with image tiles, and a Writers page
• Membership page with tiers and a monthly/yearly switch; styled paywall for members and paid posts
• Sign in, sign up and account pages
• Reading progress bar, image lightbox, galleries, tables, callouts and toggle cards
• Self-hosted fonts (Oxanium, Outfit)
• Fully translatable, 18 theme settings, no jQuery

What is in the download

themeforest-arcade-ghost-theme/
├── documentation/                          ← you are here
├── sample-content/arcade-sample-content.json  ← optional demo posts (see Sample content)
└── arcade_1.0.0_for_ghost_6.0.0_or_later/
    ├── arcade.zip                          ← upload this file to Ghost
    └── arcade/                             ← the same theme, unzipped, with source files

You only need arcade.zip to use the theme. The unzipped folder is there for developers who want to change the code (see Development).

Installation

1. Sign in to your Ghost admin (yoursite.com/ghost).
2. Go to Settings → Design & branding → Customize → Change theme.
3. Click Upload theme and choose arcade.zip from the arcade_1.0.0_for_ghost_6.0.0_or_later folder. Do not upload the whole download.
4. Click Activate.

Updating

When a new version is released, download it from your ThemeForest Downloads page and upload the new arcade.zip the same way. Ghost asks whether to overwrite the existing theme — choose Overwrite. Your content, navigation and theme settings are kept.

If you edited the theme files yourself, keep a copy of your changes first: an update replaces every file.

Quick setup (10 minutes)

To make your site look like the demo, do these steps in order. Each one is explained in detail further down.

1. Brand: Settings → Design & branding → set the Accent colour, upload a logo and a site icon.
2. Navigation: Settings → Navigation → add your main links (see Navigation).
3. Pages: create the pages in Pages and templates and pick the matching template.
4. Membership: Settings → Membership → turn on signups; add paid tiers and connect Stripe (see Membership).
5. Theme settings: Design & branding → Theme tab (see Theme settings).
6. Carousel: mark up to five posts as Featured.
7. Scores: add an internal tag such as #score 8.7 to a review.
8. Release radar: add an internal tag such as #release 2026-11-14 to posts about a game.

Sample content

The download includes the demo's text as a Ghost import file: sample-content/arcade-sample-content.json. It holds 30 posts, 8 pages, 8 tags and the demo writers, with the same templates and settings per post as the live demo. Use it to see how Arcade looks with real content, or as a starting point you edit.

1. Use a new or test site — the import adds posts next to anything you already have.
2. Go to Settings → Advanced → Import/Export → Import content.
3. Choose arcade-sample-content.json and confirm.
4. Set up Navigation, page templates and theme settings as described below. Ghost does not import these from a content file.

Logo, colours and fonts

Accent colour

Settings → Design & branding → Accent colour. Arcade uses it for buttons, links, highlights and the reading-progress bar. Arcade uses your accent colour (hot pink #FF2E88 by default) for buttons, links, the logo mark, the active slide tab and the glow on cards. A fixed cyan is the second colour in gradients and chips. Score hexagons use green, yellow and red and do not follow the accent. Each topic's accent colour is used for its label on cards and its tile on the Topics page.

Logo

Upload a logo in Design & branding → Brand. Without a logo, Arcade shows the site title in the theme's display font. A transparent PNG or SVG around 400 × 100 px works best. If your logo is dark, upload a light version in the Theme tab under Logo for dark mode.

Fonts

Arcade ships its own fonts (Outfit, Oxanium), hosted inside the theme — no requests to Google. To use different fonts, pick a Heading font and Body font in Design & branding → Brand. The theme follows your choice everywhere. Choose Theme default to go back.

Light and dark mode

In the Theme tab, Color scheme sets the default: Light, Dark or System (follows the reader's device). Readers can switch with the moon/sun button in the header or the switch in the menu; their choice is remembered on that device.

Navigation

Settings → Navigation. Primary navigation appears in the header and the full-screen menu. Secondary navigation appears in the footer. Links from the demo:

Tag pages have the address /tag/<tag-slug>/, author pages /author/<author-slug>/.

Theme settings

Settings → Design & branding → Customize. Theme settings are split between the Site wide, Homepage and Post tabs. Every setting:

Scores and rating bars

Arcade reads the score of a review from an internal tag. Internal tags start with # and are not shown to readers.

1. Overall score: in the post settings, add the tag #score 8.7. The number appears in a hexagon on the post's card, on its slide and in the post header.
2. Colour: the hexagon is green from 80% of the scale, yellow from 60% and red below that.
3. Scale: choose 10, 5 or 100 in Design → Site-wide → Score max. With 100, scores are shown with no decimal.
4. Rating bars: in the post, add a heading with the text Scores and, directly under it, a bulleted list in the form Gameplay: 9.4. Arcade turns the list into bars and adds the overall score beside the heading. Turn this off with Show rating bars.

Release dates and the radar

Add the internal tag #release YYYY-MM-DD to a post, for example #release 2026-11-14.

• The post header shows the date and a live countdown. After the date, it shows "Out now".
• The post appears on the Release radar on the homepage. Upcoming games come first, the soonest at the top. Released games go to the end.
• The radar shows up to eight posts. Remove the tag from old posts to make space.

Change the heading with Radar title, or hide the section with Show radar.

Platform chips

Add one internal tag for each platform: #platform PC, #platform Console, #platform Handheld, #platform Mobile. You can use any word after #platform. The chips appear on cards, slides, the radar and the post header, in the order of the tags.

Hero carousel

The carousel shows your five newest featured posts. Each slide uses the post's feature image, its first tag, its platforms, its score and its excerpt.

• Readers change slides with the tabs, the left and right arrow keys, or a swipe.
• With Carousel autoplay on, the slide changes every seven seconds. It waits while the pointer is over the carousel, and it does not play for readers who asked their device for reduced motion.
• With only one featured post, the tabs are hidden.

Homepage

1. Carousel — featured posts (Show carousel, Carousel autoplay).
2. Release radar — posts with a #release tag (Show radar, Radar title).
3. Latest — all posts as cards with a Load more button, and links to your topics (Latest title, Show topic tabs). Arcade shows 9 per page.
4. Newsletter — the signup box (Newsletter title, Newsletter text).

Show scanlines adds or removes the fine lines over the carousel and post header images.

Pages and templates

Arcade includes page templates for the pages every membership site needs. Create a page in Ghost (Pages → New page), set its URL in the page settings, then choose the Template in the same panel.

Tip: the membership page shows your tiers automatically. Anything you write in the page body appears underneath — the demo uses toggle cards for a FAQ.

Post templates

Choose a template per post in the post settings panel → Template.

Membership, tiers and payments

Arcade is built for Ghost's members features: free and paid signups, tiers, a paywall and the Portal popup.

1. Turn on signups

Settings → Membership → Access → Who should be able to subscribe? → Anyone can sign up.

2. Connect Stripe

Settings → Membership → Tiers → Connect with Stripe. Use test mode first, then switch to live mode when you are ready to take real payments.

3. Create tiers

Settings → Membership → Tiers. Add a name, monthly and yearly prices, a description and benefits. Arcade shows every public tier on the membership page with a monthly/yearly switch, and marks the second tier as Most popular.

4. Members-only content

In a post's settings set Post access to Members only, Paid-members only or specific tiers. Readers without access see the start of the post and a paywall box that invites them to join or upgrade. To choose where the preview stops, add a Public preview divider in the editor (type /public).

5. Sign-up forms and buttons

Subscribe forms in the theme create free members and send a confirmation email. Every Subscribe, Sign in and Account button opens Ghost's Portal popup, so members can change plans, update cards and cancel without leaving your site.

Newsletters, comments and search

Newsletters: Settings → Newsletters. Posts can be sent by email when you publish. The theme's subscribe forms subscribe readers to your default newsletters.

Comments: Settings → Membership → Commenting. When on, comments appear under every post that the reader has access to.

Search: works out of the box. The search icon in the header opens Ghost's search; readers can also press Ctrl/⌘ + K.

Reading features

• Reading progress bar on posts, in the post's topic colour (can be turned off in the Post tab).
• Image lightbox: click any image or gallery photo in a post to see it full screen; use the arrow keys to move through a gallery.
• Every editor card is styled: images (regular, wide, full), galleries, quotes, callouts, toggles, bookmarks, buttons, videos, audio, files, products, headers and signups. Create a page with every card to check your brand — the demo's style guide shows them all.

Posts per page

The home, tag and author pages load 9 posts, then a Load more button fetches the next set without reloading the page. To change the number, edit "posts_per_page" in package.json, zip the theme folder and upload it again.

Translation

Every word in the theme can be translated.

1. In the unzipped theme folder, copy locales/en.json to a new file named after your language code, for example locales/fr.json.
2. Translate the values (the text on the right). Keep the keys (the text on the left) and anything in {curly braces} unchanged.
3. Zip the theme folder and upload it.
4. Settings → General → Publication language → enter the same code (fr).

Custom CSS

Small style changes do not need a new theme upload. Settings → Code injection → Site header:

<style>
.hex { clip-path: circle(50%); }
:root { --cyan: #ffe600; }
</style>

Development

For larger changes, work on the unzipped arcade/ folder. You need Node.js 20 or later.

cd arcade
npm install        # once
npm run dev        # rebuild CSS/JS on every change
npm run build      # one-off build
npm test           # check the theme with gscan
npm run zip        # dist/arcade.zip, ready to upload

CSS lives in src/css (one file per area, joined by main.css); JavaScript in src/js. Built files go to assets/built. Templates are Handlebars files in the theme root and in partials/.

Questions

Support

Support is included with your purchase and covers: answering questions about the theme's features, and fixing bugs. It does not cover custom changes or problems with third-party code.

Email support@codememory.com with your purchase code and your site address. See the changelog for what changed in each version and third-party materials for credits.