A new home for the studio

Broken Umbrella Games has a new website, and this is the first post on it.

The old site was a WordPress install that never got past the template stage. Half of it still described an architecture firm, the games were a single nav item, and publishing anything meant fighting a page builder. It was easier to leave it alone than to update it — which is exactly the wrong incentive for a studio that wants to build in public.

What changed

The site is now statically generated. Every page is plain HTML built ahead of time, which means:

• It loads immediately, on a phone, on bad hotel wifi
• There is no database, no admin login, and nothing to keep patched
• Hosting is effectively free and cannot fall over under traffic
• A game page is a Markdown file, so writing one is writing, not layout

What it lets us do

Each game now gets a real page — what it is, how it plays, which stores it is on, and what is actually coming next rather than a vague roadmap. Stewry has one. So does Sketchy Friends, even though there is nothing to download yet, because “in development” is still worth being honest about.

There is also a press kit, so anyone writing about the games can get the facts and the links without having to ask.

What comes next

Devlogs, mostly. Stewry is still growing — speedrun modes, more floors, player skins — and Sketchy Friends is being built and replayed rather than specified. Both of those generate things worth writing down.

If you want them as they land, the devlog has an RSS feed, or you can join the newsletter.