The TCS Skin Preservation Project (FM15-21) and a Ramble About Mental Health (Upd. 5/05)

[TCSSkin]

So TCS 2021 is likely the last release in the series. It’s been a long series since an unknown release in 2015, to over 450,000 downloads total. The skin has long surpassed any expectations that I had and has been a great distraction for me throughout the years. I’ve always been very open about my mental health and my struggles, and while the skin has been a distraction, it is also something that has fell to the wayside when I’ve struggled and it’s also contributed in parts.

When you’re struggling, or in my case anyway, you just need positive affirmation and any sort of positivity helps, and while you get that from a skin, you also get a lot of bugs that you missed and things that you can’t fix because of resolutions or game updates and so on and so forth. But then you’re also in a war with your head, you don’t have the energy to fix it, you’re too tired, but you need to fix it, but you just want to go to bed and cry and wallow in self-pity. It becomes a vicious loop that you can’t get out of, and has led to me abandoning the skin on multiple occasions, even with glaring bugs like the most recent release of 2021.

For 2021, my goal has always been self-improvement and just progress trying to get into a better place, and mostly it has been, and for me, letting go of TCS has been and will be a big part of that. It sounds silly and as I’m writing it, I’m a bit unsure about posting it, but people forget that it’s a person the other side of that mod. There have been days where I’ve had my heart broken or had an awful MH day, and then someone complains about a resolution issue despite it being clearly posted that it doesn’t support that. Again, it sounds silly but for me when I need constant reaffirmation and I just need compliments more than anything, instead I get another similar complaint that just drags you down. It’s just not a stress I need at this point in time.

Anyway, enough rambling. I’ve managed to find the definitive version of each skin, from an awful skin in FM15, to a previously unreleased skin in FM18 and an unreleased version of 2021. I’ll update it more in the future as I go through previous hard drives and stuff.

[TCSSkin]

FM15: TCS '15

    

This is awful. Heavily inspired by another skin, which I mostly adapted. it was a ambitious first attempt for sure. Don’t think I even ended up using it much, sticking to Steklo and Scorpio. I actually ended up improving it as I learnt how to skin, but I was still very inexperienced. I was 15, I tried my best. 😂

Links: Mediafire | Mega | GDrive

 

[TCSSkin]

 FM16: TCS 2016

  

  

Getting there. TCS ’16 was the first skin game to implement the “design choice” of TCS which based around the sidebar and header both recolouring based on the primary colour. You can still very easily pick out the main inspirations for the skin though, as the player panel is heavily based on Vitrex while the rest of the skin was based around Alavanja from Fm15 and Steklo/Evo. The bulk of this skin was made during study sessions for my end of school exams, don’t regret a thing.

Links: Mediafire | Mega | GDrive

[TCSSkin]

 FM17: TCS 2017

  

  

  

FM 2017 seen me move from a laptop to my first home-built gaming PC and 1080p monitor as I got my first apprenticeship, which afforded me so much more space for panels. TCS 2017 was my first effort creating stuff from scratch, and while it still borrows heavily from other skins, it’s a lot more personalized. Unfortunately, 2017 got a lot less playtime than other games for whatever reason.

Links: Mediafire | Mega | GDrive

[TCSSkin]

 FM18: TCS 2018 (Previously Unreleased)

           

The first of two unreleased skins. I decided to sit down in 2018 and figure out how skins actually work, and it was one of the best things I did. I started breaking down panels line by line and learning what does what and eventually it just clicked for me. That year @Jovovich created the scoreboard selector and I implemented my own version into it. This was also the year I experimented with tabs on the player screen, and a Dark Mode, which I’ve included in the download. The dark mode ended up becoming the most notable feature of TCS 19/20/21.

Links: Mediafire | Mega | GDrive

[MattyEssTTV]

Hi mate, 

Just want to say that your skins have been something I have enjoyed using for many a year. Your work was always to the highest quality and while I am disappointed that you're leaving the scene, I fully understand the reasons why. 

If you ever need to chat, you have me on twitter to connect. 

Good luck brother. <3

[mikelfc8]

Sounds like a really good decision, well done

Step back and enjoy the fact that you made your mark

Take care and take it as easy as you can

[wkdsoul]

Fantastic stuff, Blue if you're not enjoying it. Just walk away take what you need.

[TCSSkin]

4 hours ago, wkdsoul said:

Fantastic stuff, Blue if you're not enjoying it. Just walk away take what you need.

 

9 hours ago, mikelfc8 said:

Sounds like a really good decision, well done

Step back and enjoy the fact that you made your mark

Take care and take it as easy as you can

 

15 hours ago, MattyEssTTV said:

Hi mate, 

Just want to say that your skins have been something I have enjoyed using for many a year. Your work was always to the highest quality and while I am disappointed that you're leaving the scene, I fully understand the reasons why. 

If you ever need to chat, you have me on twitter to connect. 

Good luck brother. <3

Cheers guys <3

 

[TCSSkin]

 FM19: TCS '19

          

TCS 19 was a big year for me. The first year I worked with Jack/WTS, and in all honesty my favorite skin I’ve released. Even how it came about, I just had an idea, threw it into Photoshop and it just all clicked together. The skin was based on my Night Mode skin from FM18, which itself was both inspired by software like Adobe Photoshop and previous FM skins like Bergkamp's skin. A key part of my design choice for this skin was to keep the general UI close to the base skin, which I managed to do, just centering the text and adding a background to the World -> Continue button. TCS 19 also had my favourite Match UI in a TCS skin, as well as my favourite tactics choice which i had to abandon due to too many people being hampered due to resoltuions.

Links: Mediafire | Mega | GDrive

[thefmveteran86]

Really love your skins, this is why I pledged to your Patreon

[el-chambo]

Blue

Just a quick message from me to say that from your TCS skin i have spent hour playing around trying to find the perfect skin for myself to enjoy the game.

So whatever other people say you have made the game so much better for many people and also helped many more try there hand at doing there own skins.

You should be massively proud of what you had done over the years and i hope others agree you are very important to many people on this forum.

Fully agree that taking a step back could be a good idea but please from myself do not disappear as FM needs people like you.

[Alexpuk2002]

@bluestillidie00 Top work on your skins over the years. Think I came across yours around FM16 or FM17 and they have always been a great inspiration for my own personal skin. 

On top of that you have always offered an helping hand when I had any questions about creating skins and editing panels. You have taught me a lot about skinning and I thank you for that.

Look after yourself mate and hopefully we may see you around sometime.

[TCSSkin]

6 hours ago, el-chambo said:

Blue

Just a quick message from me to say that from your TCS skin i have spent hour playing around trying to find the perfect skin for myself to enjoy the game.

So whatever other people say you have made the game so much better for many people and also helped many more try there hand at doing there own skins.

You should be massively proud of what you had done over the years and i hope others agree you are very important to many people on this forum.

Fully agree that taking a step back could be a good idea but please from myself do not disappear as FM needs people like you.

 

5 hours ago, Alexpuk2002 said:

@bluestillidie00 Top work on your skins over the years. Think I came across yours around FM16 or FM17 and they have always been a great inspiration for my own personal skin. 

On top of that you have always offered an helping hand when I had any questions about creating skins and editing panels. You have taught me a lot about skinning and I thank you for that.

Look after yourself mate and hopefully we may see you around sometime.

Thanks guys <3

I'll still be around on here. I'm planning on doing more guides and stuff next year anyways

[TCSSkin]

 FM20: TCS 2020

           

By far my most successful skin. Released on day 1, it was the first skin to introduce a League Table onto the Club Overview, featuring a custom The Athletic website, a custom twitter page, overhauled Match screens. It was by far the most feature rich version of the skin I’ve ever released. I think considering where my head was at points with the skin, it’s an incredible achievement.

Links: Mediafire | Mega | GDrive

[AlexTheTall]

Thank you so much for all your work! I'll be individualist and say I am sad to see you go in the skin department. But I understand you come first and you can be proud of all your work!

[Alexpuk2002]

8 hours ago, bluestillidie00 said:

 

Thanks guys <3

I'll still be around on here. I'm planning on doing more guides and stuff next year anyways

Look forward to seeing some of the guides. Will be great to learn more about skinning from you.

[MrGizMo]

Keep your head up buddy!

 

In the end it's just a game and the most important thing is your own health  

[TCSSkin]

 FM21: TCS 2021 v1.1

      

This is the last “publicly” released version of TCS 2021. Initially, the first release featured a revolutionary moving background, however this caused issues for certain users. I don't love this skin, I think it has cool features such as the manager profile, however it doesn't really stand out with anything. It is what it is. Mid-release, a game update broke Player Ratings which required a manual fix. The uploaded version has that fix.

Links: Mediafire | Mega | GDrive

[TCSSkin]

 FM21: TCS 2021 v2.0 (Previously Unreleased)

          

The other unreleased version of the skin. After taking a fairly extend break from FM, focusing more on stuff like Assassins Creed Valhalla and F1 2020, I came back and decided to rip up my skin and start from scratch. I fell in love with @Wozzie’s Tato skin, and decided to base my skin off that instead of starting from scratch. Using a tabbed style to implement multiple different designs onto one page, v2.0 provides the user with a very intuitive and easy on the eye experience.

Links: Mediafire | Mega | GDrive

[TCSSkin]

Now I've posted the definitive versions of every release, I'll start uploading other versions as well as concept skins and stuff i didn't finish. The plan is essentially to have a complete archive of what I've worked on skin wise. If someone wants to extend on these concept or WIP skins, feel free.

FM20: WorkTheSpace Concept Skin

 

In 2019, Jack (WorkTheSpace) released a concept idea for a skin for Football Manager, and I decided to have a go at recreating it. It's not perfect, a lot of it isn't possible due to FM's limitations, such as the next match information in the titlebar, as well as some features being entirely concepts such as Commercial Summary and Development Rate, however it was a fun project to work on and I think I done a pretty good job of it.

Links: Mediafire | Mega | GDrive

[PequenoGenio]

Thank you for all the work, help and inspiration.

You should be massively proud for what you have done for us, the FM "family".

[★ OPZ ★]

You are my inspiration

[wkdsoul]

How much di you cringe having to go back and look at your first/second skins? I hated mine when i did this... 

[TCSSkin]

8 hours ago, ★ OPZ ★ said:

You are my inspiration

Thank you mate. Means a lot

 

4 hours ago, wkdsoul said:

How much di you cringe having to go back and look at your first/second skins? I hated mine when i did this... 

A lot. 17 is ok, wouldn't go that direction again though. 15 and 16 though. What on earth was going through my head

[TownForThePrem!]

Just a note to say thanks Blue, your skins have been by far my favourite for many FMs. Hope everything works out for you 

[matius]

Hey man , just wanted to give you a big thums up , also a hug , for this incredible journey you been making by yourself , it is something to be proud of , dont let randoms alter your mind , be in peace with yourself by actions you make and decide , not others opinions in YOURSELF , i tend to play randomly older FMs , so this work of art of previously unreleased 18 skin is going to be a blast im sure, that is what you made , art and enjoyment for yourself and other people .. hope you doing ok and thanks for the epic skins you managed to create through the years , 

[hrmantovani]

Just found out about this v2 of the FM21 skin: it's wonderful! I'm still on FM20 but if I change to 21 I'll be using this one. Congratulations for your entire skin run here!

[andreshtun]

On 29/07/2021 at 01:03, bluestillidie00 said:

Now I've posted the definitive versions of every release, I'll start uploading other versions as well as concept skins and stuff i didn't finish. The plan is essentially to have a complete archive of what I've worked on skin wise. If someone wants to extend on these concept or WIP skins, feel free.

FM20: WorkTheSpace Concept Skin

 

In 2019, Jack (WorkTheSpace) released a concept idea for a skin for Football Manager, and I decided to have a go at recreating it. It's not perfect, a lot of it isn't possible due to FM's limitations, such as the next match information in the titlebar, as well as some features being entirely concepts such as Commercial Summary and Development Rate, however it was a fun project to work on and I think I done a pretty good job of it.

Links: Mediafire | Mega | GDrive

 

not appear in game skins list. How can is use it?

[TCSSkin]

1 minute ago, andreshtun said:

 

not appear in game skins list. How can is use it?

For FM20?

[andreshtun]

1 hour ago, bluestillidie00 said:

For FM20?

FM21 bro. MacOS.

[TCSSkin]

13 minutes ago, andreshtun said:

FM21 bro. MacOS.

The skin is made for FM20

[andreshtun]

53 minutes ago, bluestillidie00 said:

The skin is made for FM20

Oh, I'm sorry bro. My bad. 

Please I wanna ask you. Any chance to make the scoreboard like new German Bundesliga style?

[TCSSkin]

Just now, andreshtun said:

Oh, I'm sorry bro. My bad. 

Please I wanna ask you. Any chance to make the scoreboard like new German Bundesliga style?

No

[JJ1989JJ]

What a hero

[TCSSkin]

FM21: TCS3

Mainly developed with inspiration from others. @FMEnhanced,  @Wozzie's amazing Tato skin and the excellent CFM skin that has served as inspiration for many years all became key inspirations for the skin. I didn't plan to release the skin, which is why a large portion of it is borrowed from other skins, which isn't something I like to do typically. I built the majority of the skin, turning the key screens, the player, club and manager home screen into tab switchers, aiming to provide the bulk of the information through that, and removing the need to be clicking back and forth. I'd built the bulk of the skin myself with various bits added in by other creators, before teaming up with Jack ( @WorkTheSpace ) and adding some finishing touches.

Links: Mediafire | GDrive | Mega

[kayyuenchinup]

@bluestillidie00Thank you for all your hard work.  I used your skin since FM 20 and cannot find other skin as good as yours.  Only know your story through this post, hope all is well for you.  

[kstoyle]

Only just seen this thread. Thanks for all your hard work @bluestillidie00. By far the best skin and my 'go to' skin whenever it is released.

You are doing the right thing. I have struggled with mental health and was advised to 'declutter' my life by stepping away from things that you really wanted to enjoy, but was causing stress at the same time. It helped me and in time I came back to it with a different mindset and found the enjoyment again.

Anyway, thanks for your hard work, I really hope you are happy and enjoy life with or without making skins.

DMs open if you need someone to reach out to mate

[PequenoGenio]

Never gonna forget the light version of your skin.

My favorite skin ever.

[sporadicsmiles]

On 25/07/2021 at 18:01, bluestillidie00 said:

So TCS 2021 is likely the last release in the series. It’s been a long series since an unknown release in 2015, to over 450,000 downloads total. The skin has long surpassed any expectations that I had and has been a great distraction for me throughout the years. I’ve always been very open about my mental health and my struggles, and while the skin has been a distraction, it is also something that has fell to the wayside when I’ve struggled and it’s also contributed in parts.

When you’re struggling, or in my case anyway, you just need positive affirmation and any sort of positivity helps, and while you get that from a skin, you also get a lot of bugs that you missed and things that you can’t fix because of resolutions or game updates and so on and so forth. But then you’re also in a war with your head, you don’t have the energy to fix it, you’re too tired, but you need to fix it, but you just want to go to bed and cry and wallow in self-pity. It becomes a vicious loop that you can’t get out of, and has led to me abandoning the skin on multiple occasions, even with glaring bugs like the most recent release of 2021.

For 2021, my goal has always been self-improvement and just progress trying to get into a better place, and mostly it has been, and for me, letting go of TCS has been and will be a big part of that. It sounds silly and as I’m writing it, I’m a bit unsure about posting it, but people forget that it’s a person the other side of that mod. There have been days where I’ve had my heart broken or had an awful MH day, and then someone complains about a resolution issue despite it being clearly posted that it doesn’t support that. Again, it sounds silly but for me when I need constant reaffirmation and I just need compliments more than anything, instead I get another similar complaint that just drags you down. It’s just not a stress I need at this point in time.

Anyway, enough rambling. I’ve managed to find the definitive version of each skin, from an awful skin in FM15, to a previously unreleased skin in FM18 and an unreleased version of 2021. I’ll update it more in the future as I go through previous hard drives and stuff.

I have enjoyed your skins in the past, so thank you for them.

And your decision to focus on yourself is the correct one. I have been in a very similar position to you last year with my feelings about my mods, and I understand you entirely. All I can say is that if the decision feels correct to you, and it is correct. I wish you well, hope you find a happy place to be, and send you all the best wishes I can. 

[JAwtunes]

Your TCS skin was my by far my favourite.  I hope you find a happy place!

[TCSSkin]

FM19: Champions League Skin

  

A rough prototype skin I made for FM19, but never progressed past basic UI. I'd love to see this continued with but I lack the time and motivation to finish it.

Links: Mediafire | GDrive

[TCSSkin]

FM19: TCS Glass v1

 

Another skin concept that I never elaborated on outside of a brief concept, starting to sense a habit here here. Sidenote, i miss the next match timer.

A rough prototype skin I made for FM19, but never progressed past basic UI. I'd love to see this continued with but I lack the time and motivation to finish it.

Links: Mediafire | GDrive

[Drakestone]

11 hours ago, bluestillidie00 said:

FM19: TCS Glass v1

 

Another skin concept that I never elaborated on outside of a brief concept, starting to sense a habit here here. Sidenote, i miss the next match timer.

A rough prototype skin I made for FM19, but never progressed past basic UI. I'd love to see this continued with but I lack the time and motivation to finish it.

Links: Mediafire | GDrive

I once played around with the idea of having the titlebar be UNDERNEATH the main content panel so all the main controls were at the bottom of the screen instead of the top. The match screens used the same concept so the score etc was at the bottom similar to how BT Sports scoreboard is irl.

Im really digging that WTS concept skin though, infact its probably possible to display next game information in the titlebar same way you can in the game processing panel.

Nice work as always blue, TCS3 is still my favourite skin of recent years UI wise!!

[TCSSkin]

1 hour ago, Drakestone said:

I once played around with the idea of having the titlebar be UNDERNEATH the main content panel so all the main controls were at the bottom of the screen instead of the top. The match screens used the same concept so the score etc was at the bottom similar to how BT Sports scoreboard is irl.

Im really digging that WTS concept skin though, infact its probably possible to display next game information in the titlebar same way you can in the game processing panel.

Nice work as always blue, TCS3 is still my favourite skin of recent years UI wise!!

Yeah tbh i never even thought about trying adding the panels, i just presumed it wouldn't work

[Jorgen]

@bluestillidie00 Thanks for all the hard work you did for the community. And above all, take care. Your health is the most important thing you have. Hope you will feel better someday.

 

[PequenoGenio]

Just passing by to say that this one was my all time favourite skin - TCS Light

[EnigMattic1]

On 05/05/2022 at 01:57, bluestillidie00 said:

FM19: TCS Glass v1

 

Another skin concept that I never elaborated on outside of a brief concept, starting to sense a habit here here. Sidenote, i miss the next match timer.

A rough prototype skin I made for FM19, but never progressed past basic UI. I'd love to see this continued with but I lack the time and motivation to finish it.

Links: Mediafire | GDrive

Gonna be honest, I love how the tabs are along the very top. It almost makes it feel like there is more room and the header(?) doesn't seem as cluttered without having "continue" etc alongside the player/club name. Can I ask how you achieved that?

Totally agree with what you are saying about the next match timer too. Wonder if it is possible to bring that back?

Sidenote. You releasing some of your concepts for older FM games is REALLY making me want to install some of the older versions now......

[TCSSkin]

6 hours ago, EnigMattic1 said:

Gonna be honest, I love how the tabs are along the very top. It almost makes it feel like there is more room and the header(?) doesn't seem as cluttered without having "continue" etc alongside the player/club name. Can I ask how you achieved that?

Totally agree with what you are saying about the next match timer too. Wonder if it is possible to bring that back?

Sidenote. You releasing some of your concepts for older FM games is REALLY making me want to install some of the older versions now......

off the top of my head, take the action bar code from the client object browser file and place it in titlebar.xml then you can do as you so please

[EnigMattic1]

7 minutes ago, bluestillidie00 said:

off the top of my head, take the action bar code from the client object browser file and place it in titlebar.xml then you can do as you so please

Thanks. I will take a look. That just looks seriously tidy.