Arcade Template — Complete Guide

Arcade is an 8-bit arcade cabinet invitation template for milestone birthdays and anyone who grew up with a joystick. Your invitation opens on a glowing cabinet: a lit marquee, a CRT title screen with your event name in chunky pixel letters, a blinking PRESS START that jumps to the reply form, and a little pixel character walking along a brick floor. Every section after it is a screen from the game — a high-score table, a world map, a level select, an item shop — and it ends on GAME OVER — Thanks for playing.

It is playful, but everything guests need to read — the date, the place, your message and the reply form — is set in a clear, readable typeface.

This guide covers how Arcade looks, the options unique to it, how to apply it to your event, and how it lays out each section of your invitation.

Arcade is available on every plan, Free included.

For an overview of the template gallery and the picker, see How to Customize Your RSVP Invitation.

What makes Arcade different

Standard templates change colours and fonts over the same shared layout. Arcade replaces the layout itself: its own cover, its own closing, and a game screen for each section.

Signature design elements

• A whole arcade cabinet on the cover — a lit marquee, the CRT screen, a control deck with a joystick and buttons, and a coin door with glowing slots
• A title screen — your event name in big extruded pixel letters, a LEVEL badge for the age you are celebrating, your cover photo framed as Player 1's portrait, and a blinking PRESS START button
• A player sprite — a little pixel character that walks across the cover, waits on the world map, and stands in for Player 1 on the reply screen. You choose which one
• CRT screens — fine scanlines and a curved glass glow on the screens, like an old arcade monitor (you can turn them off)
• Pixel art everywhere, all drawn in code — coins, hearts, trophies, a treasure chest, a castle, trees and a river on the world map, all re-coloured by the cabinet you pick
• A pellet trail between sections — a row of small dots with one big power pellet
• Three typefaces, three jobs — a pixel display face (Press Start 2P) for names, titles and buttons only, a terminal readout (VT323) for times, years and prices, and a clean, readable sans (Chakra Petch) for everything guests read

When to choose Arcade

Arcade suits celebrations with a sense of play:

• Milestone birthdays — 30th, 40th, 50th, and every "new level unlocked" in between
• Gamers and retro fans — anyone who spent their pocket money one coin at a time
• 80s and 90s parties — the neon cabinet is right at home next to a disco ball
• Kids' and teens' birthdays — the Handheld cabinet and the party-kid sprite are a hit with younger guests

If you want a 90s music feel instead, try Mixtape. For a glowing, modern night out, try Aurora. For a clean, modern grid, try Bento.

Applying Arcade to your event

1. Open your event, click Invitation in the sidebar, then the Invitation tab
2. In Design Template, click Change template if the gallery is collapsed, and find Arcade (it is in the Birthday category)
3. Optional: press Try it on to see Arcade with your own invitation details in the live preview — nothing is saved until you press Use this design
4. Or click the Arcade card to apply it straight away
5. Open Arcade options to adjust the template-specific settings described below. Changes save automatically

Arcade works on every plan. On free events a small "Made with Fotify" badge appears in the bottom corner of the invitation; any paid plan or an active subscription removes it.

Switching to another template later is non-destructive: your event content stays exactly as you entered it, and your Arcade options are kept in case you switch back.

Arcade options

Arcade has seven options of its own. They take the place of the standard colour and font controls, which Arcade doesn't use.

1. Cabinet

The colours of the machine. Every cabinet is tuned so text stays easy to read.

• Neon (default) — midnight violet with magenta, cyan and a yellow PRESS START
• Handheld — a grey handheld console with a four-shade green screen, crimson buttons and a D-pad. The only light cabinet
• Redline — black screens in a classic red cabinet with yellow lettering
• Amber — a monochrome amber screen, like an old terminal

2. Player sprite

The little pixel character that walks across the cover, waits at the start of the world map and stands in for Player 1 on the reply screen.

• Party kid (default) — in a party hat
• Friendly ghost
• Space ship
• Dino

3. CRT scanlines

On by default: fine scanlines and a curved glass glow on the screens (on the Handheld cabinet, a faint LCD dot grid instead). Turn it off for flat, clean screens. Scanlines always sit behind the text, so they never make it harder to read.

4. Level

The number on the LEVEL badge on the cover — for a 40th birthday, type 40. Up to four characters. Leave it blank and the badge is hidden: Arcade never works the number out from your event name or date, so it only shows what you type here.

5. Player 1 name

Who Player 1 is on the reply screen — usually the birthday star, for example "Max". Leave it blank for the default ("Birthday star"). Player 2 is always the guest reading the invitation: their own name from their invitation, or "You" on a shared link. Arcade never shows other guests' names.

6. Cover line

The line above the name on the cover screen — for example "Max is turning forty" or "Player one is levelling up". Leave it blank to use the default ("A new level unlocks").

7. Closing line

The line under GAME OVER at the very end. Leave it blank to use the default ("Thanks for playing"). Try "Insert coin to party again" or "See you at the high-score table".

Every piece of text Arcade prints on the invitation — the marquee ("Level up!"), "1UP", "Insert coin", PRESS START, section titles, the table headings, "Continue?", "Game over" and the button labels — can also be rewritten directly on the page: switch the live preview into edit mode and double-click the text. Section titles you have already set in their own settings (story, countdown, gifts, where to stay, getting there, FAQs) are edited in place the same way, and so are the cover line, the Player 1 name and the closing line.

How each section is treated

Cover

The cover replaces the standard header with a whole arcade cabinet:

• The marquee — the lit sign across the top ("Level up!" by default)
• The HUD — "1UP" and a blinking "Insert coin" along the top of the screen
• Cover line (option 6), then your event name in large pixel letters, and the LEVEL badge when you set a level (option 4)
• Date and place — the weekday, the date and the time as a terminal readout, then your event location
• PRESS START — a big blinking button that jumps to the RSVP section, with "Reply by" and your RSVP deadline under it
• Your cover photo — framed as Player 1's portrait, next to the title on wide screens and under it on phones
• The floor — your player sprite (option 2) walking along a brick floor past floating coins

The time follows the Show time setting of your invitation's cover. The screen switches on with a short CRT power-on flicker when the page opens.

Message

Your invitation message becomes an RPG dialogue box: a double pixel frame, your player sprite in the portrait slot and a blinking "next" arrow in the corner. A long enough first paragraph opens with a pixel initial.

Countdown

TIME LEFT: a black LED panel with each unit — days, hours, minutes and (optionally) seconds — as pixel seven-segment digits, with blinking colons between them. When the countdown ends, your completion message is shown instead.

Gallery (Carousel)

Screenshots: each photo on its own little CRT screen with a frame counter ("01/05") in the corner. Swipe or scroll sideways; on wider screens, pixel arrow keys appear when there are more photos than fit.

Story

High scores: your milestones as an arcade high-score table — the rank, the year as the score, the title as the name, then the date, the description and the photo as a small framed screenshot. Rows cycle through the cabinet's colours, like the old tables did. Your story subtitle appears under the section title. The table only ever shows your milestones, never guests.

Location

World map: a pixel overworld — grass, trees, a river with a plank bridge and a castle with a flag — with your player sprite waiting at the start of a dotted route. It is a drawing, not a map of your venue. Beside it, the stage card shows your address, your directions and an Open map button that opens the real map. When the location has map coordinates, the live map follows on its own screen.

Itinerary

Level select: each day is a World (World 1, World 2…) with its date, and each entry is a level node ("1-1", "1-2"…) on a dotted route, showing the time, the event, the place and any note.

Gifts

Item shop: your gifts message is the shopkeeper's line, and every registry (a treasure chest), monetary option (a coin), charity (a heart) and wishlist item (a gift box, or its photo) is an item card with pixel buttons. Payment details sit in a readout that wraps cleanly, even for long wallet addresses, with a Copy button. Group labels only appear when you offer more than one kind of gift.

Event Details

Game manual:

• Dress code as the outfit screen: a pixel shirt, your dress code title, your description, suggested and avoided colours as pixel swatches (avoided ones crossed out) and your notes
• Where to stay as rest stops: hotel name, address, distance from the venue, price range, promo code, notes, a Book button and a tap-to-call phone number
• Getting there as fast travel: a pixel vehicle for each kind of transport, the details, any promo code, the cost and a Details button
• FAQs as "How to play", each question behind a ? block

Save the Date (Calendar)

Save point: a screen asking "Save your progress?", your event title, day, date, time, place and calendar note as the save file, and Google, Apple (downloads the calendar file) and Outlook as save slots File 1, 2 and 3.

RSVP

Continue?: a two-player select screen. Player 1 is the birthday star (option 5) with your sprite and "Ready!"; Player 2 is the guest, blinking "Join in?" until they have accepted. Below it, the reply form in a pixel window: the attend / decline choices as a game menu with a blinking cursor on the chosen one, pixel-framed fields and a big START-style send button. Your RSVP deadline appears under the section title. On a save-the-date, the window holds the save-the-date note instead of the form.

Closing

A GAME OVER screen with your closing line (option 7), the event name, date and place, a Play again button that takes guests back to the top, and your sprite on a brick floor between a birthday cake and a heart.

Sections without a bespoke layout

These sections use Fotify's standard layout, restyled to match Arcade:

• Photo upload, QR code, Table assignment, Playlist, Sub-events, Special treatments and custom sections

They get the same pellet trail above them, pixel titles, pixel-framed panels and chunky pixel buttons in your cabinet's colours. Custom HTML sections sit on a light screen so their text stays readable, and the QR code always sits on white so it scans.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Is Arcade only for birthdays? A: It is designed for them, but it works for any playful celebration — a gaming night, a retro party, a launch party for a game studio. Rewrite the marquee, the cover line and the closing line in the live preview, and leave the level blank to hide the badge.

Q: Where does the LEVEL number come from? A: Only from the Level option. Arcade never guesses it from your event name or date. If you leave it blank, the badge is not shown.

Q: Is the pixel font hard to read? A: The pixel font is only used for short display text: the event name, titles, labels and buttons. Your message, dates, places, every detail and the reply form are set in a clear, readable typeface.

Q: Will the blinking and the walking sprite bother guests who are sensitive to motion? A: No. Nothing flashes more than about once a second, the blinking (PRESS START, "Insert coin", "Join in?") stops by itself after a few seconds, and only the little character on the cover keeps strolling along its floor. For guests whose device has reduced motion turned on, nothing blinks or moves at all — the character simply stands on the floor.

Q: Does the background music player fit the design? A: Yes. The floating music button takes the colours of the PRESS START button in every cabinet, so it stays easy to see without clashing with the screens.

Q: I don't have a cover photo. Will the cover look empty? A: No. Without a photo, the title screen centres your name, date and PRESS START on the screen.

Q: Does Arcade work in right-to-left languages? A: Yes. In Hebrew and Arabic the layout mirrors: the sprite walks the other way, the menu cursors and arrows flip, and the level route and pixel initial move to the other side.

Q: Can I use custom RSVP fields with Arcade? A: Yes. Custom fields (dropdowns, dates, checkboxes, file uploads and so on) pick up Arcade's pixel-framed fields and labels automatically.

Next steps

• See How to Customize Your RSVP Invitation for the template gallery and how to try a design on before applying it
• Compare the other designs: Mixtape for a 90s cassette, Aurora for a glowing night out, Bento for a clean modern grid, or Studio to compose your own design with the AI Design Studio
• Planning a birthday? Read about Fotify for birthdays, digital invitations with RSVP and the party photo sharing app

Need help? Get in touch through the in-dashboard help widget.