A new beginning

I’m surprised the previous design lasted 5 years. I guess that’s what having a corporate web developer job can do to you, among other things. The thought of doing more web stuff, after 8 hours in the Wordpress mines made me shudder. I jest, but I dedicated those after-hours to my other hobbies and pursuing game development.

I took a big leap of faith a year ago, in June 2024, when I established my own company and started development full time on my game Nightfall Protocol, which also has a demo out on Steam. Go check it out and wishlist it, thanks!
While my initial plan didn’t work out as expected, I have never felt more fulfilled in my life. To stay independent and not beholden to a publisher, I picked up freelancing so that I can fund the development further.

I think it’s fitting that for the anniversary of starting a new career, I’d go back to my roots and refresh my site.

Hugo, the drink? No, the static site generator.

If you are European or have been to Europe you might have come across a refreshing cocktail by the same name. Alternatively, if you are are a web dev you probably heard about the static site generator, Hugo. As I don’t drink anymore, this is about the latter.

I was browsing Bluesky one day and I came across a user named passivestar (posts great stuff btw) and I checked out his site. It’s safe to say I fell in love with the simplicity and how clean it looked. My first reaction was “Spectacular, give me 14 of them”.

Papermod, the theme he and many others are using, is one of the most popular Hugo templates and for a good reason. It’s very minimalistic and pleasing to look at, but don’t let that simplicity fool you though, it’s a very capable and feature packed theme. It also checks all the boxes for what I want for my next personal site.

Wishlist

  • Easy to use
  • Lightweight
  • Minimalistic Design
  • Syntax highlighting

Creating lists like the above is simple as using this line of code:

- [x] List Item

which then turns into this:

  • List Item

or this:

  • Do this thing

I can also include bigger parts of the code with minimal effort like so:

UCLASS(DisplayName="NP Item Actor")
class NIGHTFALLPROTOCOL_API ANPItemActor : public AActor {
	GENERATED_BODY()

public:
	// Sets default values for this actor's properties
	ANPItemActor();

protected:
	// Called when the game starts or when spawned
	virtual void BeginPlay() override;

	UPROPERTY(EditAnywhere, BlueprintReadOnly, Category="Component")
	TObjectPtr<UStaticMeshComponent> ItemStaticMesh = nullptr;
};

This will come in handy for any future tutorial or post I want to make. This was one of the main requirements I had when I was “shopping around” for a new setup. I want to be able to share knowledge in a neat and tidy way, with tags, syntax highlighting and cool embeds. Papermod has all of those and then some.

Hugo, and Papermod by extension, also has the benefit of being able to use Markdown for creating posts. One of the perks or curse, depending on who you ask, of being a developer is that we get to write a lot of documentation and readmes. The overwhelming majority of readmes, I came across, are in written Markdown, so this feels like home to me. It’s an incredibly versatile and easy way of writing content.

What’s next

I think that’s enough about me gushing over my current setup. As for what’s in store, I plan on writing posts about game dev mostly. If I come across a certain topic during my gamedev journey that has very little knowledge about it on the internet, I’ll probably share that.
Alternatively, when I release a plugin, like for the my Book Generator, I’ll share how it was made and how to use it.