Why a website?

Well. To be honest. Having done a little bit of website design in the past, it just makes sense to get the work up on Github and use it for versioning of the rules and keeping a blog.

1. I wanted an online rule book I could update
2. I wanted to be able to track the iterations and rule changes and potential branches and Github/Git is literally built for it
3. Google Keep wasn’t quite cutting it - honestly it was close though for anyone just getting started. Tagging and quick syncing across all platforms is basically all I really needed at first.

I’ve used HUGO sites and Netlify to host it all for free, then when I’m ready to take the next level plunge, I’ll buy a domain name etc. but even that comes out to a tiny fraction of a Wordpress or Squarespace site. Oh. It’s also pretty performant which is handy.

Before it was stored in Google Keep and on a physical scribbled and warped notepad, but here I can keep everything altogether including spreadsheets, random notes, art, design docs, screenshots, thoughts, dreads, fears and tears.

I’m using the amazing stack template by JimmyCai again as it is just such a solid foundation for tagging, searching and categorising a whole bunch of things. But also, down the line when I feel like going crazy with customisation I can completely branch out. It currently (07/08/2024) looks exactly the same as the other websites I’ve made.

But why?

Hey now. Why not?

Oh and we’re back in the weird world of coding a website and squashing bugs

So I went and added a whole bunch of categories (see below) to my config file before I realised my taxonomy.html file had a comment at the top of it causing it to break… cool.

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50

[[menu.categories]]
name = "Game Mechanics"
url = "/categories/game-mechanics/"
weight = 1

[[menu.categories]]
name = "Game Development"
url = "/categories/game-development/"
weight = 2

[[menu.categories]]
name = "Playtesting"
url = "/categories/playtesting/"
weight = 3

[[menu.categories]]
name = "Game Design Theory"
url = "/categories/game-design-theory/"
weight = 4

[[menu.categories]]
name = "Publishing"
url = "/categories/publishing/"
weight = 5

[[menu.categories]]
name = "Graphic Design"
url = "/categories/graphic-design/"
weight = 6

[[menu.categories]]
name = "Component Design"
url = "/categories/component-design/"
weight = 7

[[menu.categories]]
name = "Theme Development"
url = "/categories/theme-development/"
weight = 8

[[menu.categories]]
name = "Kickstarter"
url = "/categories/kickstarter/"
weight = 9

[[menu.categories]]
name = "Rulebook Writing"
url = "/categories/rulebook-writing/"
weight = 10

Hey at least now I don’t need to worry about that any more and can rely on the automatic generation of tags and categories again!

Why Hugo?

Better to know the devil and sell your soul to ya mate for a good bargain.

But seriously, I couldn’t be arsed learning Astro even though I want to some day.

It is exactly everything I possibly need to be able to run a hobby boardgame site and pay minimal dollars and have maximum functionality. Wordpress eat your heart out.

Templates be damned, though also they are such a foundational building block, so why completely reinvent the wheel… yaknow

Why now?

Is this what you do when you turn 30 and don’t have kids? I guess so.