Why I built my website

I’d procrastinated building my own website for months. Every example I found was the same header, footer, scroll template that’s been the norm for at least a decade. Then, while I was banging my head against the wall, my phone buzzed with a sound effect from Final Fantasy 8.

My mind started to race. I loved those games growing up. They shaped a huge part of who I am, so why not reflect that in a website built by me, about me, for me?

I used AI to sketch ideas fast. The obvious one: make the landing page a start menu you navigate with the arrow keys, replicating the look and sound of a 90s RPG. Seeing how well it worked spurred me on.

I had two screens left. An about page that fit perfectly as an RPG character screen, complete with Class, Level and an HP/MP bar. And a blog, which was trickier. Cycling through menus gets boring fast, so I went further: I built a fully interactive RPG, with a character, NPCs and objects to find and collect.

This was the most fun I’ve had building anything in a long time.

So don’t build the rote site. The weird, personal web of yesteryear is still yours to make. As Eames says in Inception;

You mustn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.

Go make something strange. I really want to see what you dream up.