CLAUDE.md

Portfolio + blog website for OWL, the solo indie game developer persona of the repo owner. It showcases OWL’s games, an about section, and a blog. Live at https://www.owlgame.dev.

Scope (read first)

Work only on the raw HTML and CSS — i.e. index.markdown/_layouts/home.html, blog.html, lokis_revenge.html, and styles.css. Do not touch or modify the Jekyll/minima theme internals (the *.scss files, _includes/layout overrides, theme gems) unless explicitly asked. The Jekyll/minima details below are reference only.

Stack & Hosting

  • Jekyll static site using the minima theme, deployed via GitHub Pages (github-pages gem in the Gemfile).
  • Custom domain set via CNAME → owlgame.dev.
  • Plugin: jekyll-feed (generates /feed.xml).
  • Site-wide config in _config.yml: title OWL, contact owl@owlgame.dev, blog permalink pattern /blog/:title/.

Local Development

bundle install          # first-time setup
bundle exec jekyll serve # build + serve with live reload at http://localhost:4000
  • _site/ is the generated build output — gitignored, never edit by hand. Editing it does nothing; change the source files instead.
  • Gemfile.lock, .jekyll-cache, and .sass-cache are also gitignored.

Two Separate Styling Systems (important)

This site does not style everything one way. Be careful which one you touch:

  1. Landing page — index.markdown uses layout: home → _layouts/home.html, a fully standalone HTML document that links plain styles.css. It does not use the minima theme at all. This is where the games grid, social links, avatar, and newsletter embed live.
  2. Blog & other pages — blog.html (layout: default) and blog posts (layout: post) render through the minima theme. Theme variables are overridden in assets/main.scss and _sass/minima.scss (dark background #1a1a1a, white text, etc.).

So: edit styles.css for the home page; edit the *.scss files for blog/theme pages.

Blog Posts

  • Live in _posts/, named YYYY-MM-DD-title.md (Jekyll requires this date-prefixed filename).
  • Front matter needs layout: post, title, and date. Example existing posts: 2025-10-10-lokiretro.md, 2026-01-29-thors-training-timer.md.
  • Posts are long-form Markdown (dev post-mortems, release notes), can embed images from /images and inline <br>/HTML.
  • Published URLs follow /blog/:title/. blog.html auto-lists all posts newest-first with excerpts.

Images & Assets

  • All images live in images/ and are referenced with absolute root paths, e.g. /images/owl_avatar.png.
  • Includes game banners, logos, Steam stat screenshots, and social icons (itch.io, YouTube, Bluesky).

The landing page links out to OWL’s games and storefronts:

  • Loki’s Revenge — Norse survivors-like roguelite (Steam app 2936750, also free on itch.io).
  • Thor’s Training Timer — pomodoro timer idle toy (itch.io).
  • Social/store presence: itch.io (owlmakesgames), YouTube (@OwlGameDev), Bluesky (owlgamedev.bsky.social).

Conventions & Notes

  • Voice is first-person as OWL. Blog writing is candid and personal — match that tone when drafting or editing post content.
  • New games are added as <a>/<img> entries inside the .game-grid in _layouts/home.html.
  • To add a blog post: create a properly dated file in _posts/ with the post layout — no other wiring needed; it appears in the blog index automatically.