Ben
Ben is a lifelong Nintendo fan who likes to build websites, and make video games. He buys way too much Lego.
Back into the groove…
Nearly a whole month and no posts… What is the world coming too?
I don’t know why but ever since Christmas I have been feeling motivated to do all sorts of things – unfortunately blogging isn’t one of them.
Last year was a busy one for me, both at home and at work, and if I can do half the things I have planned this year, then it’ll be even busier still.
Recently I’ve been feeling very creative; I’ve been playing a lot more video games, and developing more cool things than normal and I’m loving it.
Web design
I currently have 4 WordPress themes on the go. That sounds like a lot, and I guess it is, but let me explain.
- Theme 1 is a “sequel” to Regulus. It will be a free theme with optional paid extras (the theme itself will be entirely free). I actually started making it 6 months ago and since then child themes have really taken off so the theme was put on the shelf and I will be tweaking it to use the new child theme tech.
- Theme 2 is a sequel to Mimbo Pro, my second collaboration with Darren Hoyt. This theme will feature a very similar style but is being designed with customisation in mind – this means the code will be simplified greatly and things will be made much more flexible.
- Theme 3 is my own premium theme – this is the most complex theme I’ve ever made and will lay the foundation for future themes.
- Theme 4 will be a totally free life blogging theme. It rocks already… and it’s not yet finished.
- … And a bonus theme – I am currently working on mockups for this site… but more on that some other time.
Video games
On top of the web design I have also been playing a lot of games recently and will be posting full reviews on Binary Joy over the coming months. Some of the games I’ve been enjoying are…
- Prince of Persia
- Professor Layton and the Curious Village
- Mirrors Edge
- Crayon Physics
- Disaster: Day of Crisis
- Trackmania DS
- Boom Blox
- Warioware: Smooth Moves
- Wii Play
I’m not sure where my new found gaming motivation has come from but I think it helps that my girlfriend has been playing a lot of those games with me.
It feels good to be excited about these things again. I have lots planned for 2009; it’s going to be a busy year – but I’m looking forward to it… maybe I’ll even manage to blog a bit more regularly.
If for some reason you want to keep up to date with me a bit more then you can follow me on Twitter.
Looking forward to those themes mate, always liked your designs. Incididentally, since your mentioned it, is that Professor Layton game any good, because I’m buying a new DS soon (been sharing so far) and that’s one of the games that seem’s quite appealling.
Thanks for the vote of confidence Luke 🙂
If you like brain bender type puzzle games then Professor Layton is great – I really enjoyed it.
I love Regulus, particularly the moon and starts banner. On the request of one reader, I added some CSS to darken and enlarge the text. My friends are not particularly Internet savvy, and have had a hard time finding the “Add a comment” link or maybe realizing that “2 comments so far” is the place to click to add a comment.
Some other themes have text, “Make a comment, 2 so far”. That’s pretty good, but link to make a comment is the number “2” and not the “Make a comment” phrase. That makes no sense to me.
My suggestion or request is to have a “Make a comment” or “Add a comment” link at the bottom, and maybe also at the top, highlighted and underlined. Then have a separate phrase, “N comments so far”.
Cheers,
John
Oops. Make that http://jfistere.wordpress.com.