I’m thrilled to share the story behind the latest project from Gambel Labs, the creation of Cornerstone.games for a Texas-based small business. I had the pleasure of spearheading the development of this unique website for my brother-in-law and his business partner over at Cornerstone Games. They produce adventure modules for Tabletop Role Playing Games, particularly Pathfinder. They are wonderful, imaginative writers, but couldn’t really find the time to manage a website alongside managing their business. So, they reached out to me for some help, and I was able to make the site more modular, speed it up, and take some weight off their shoulders!
My Expertise and Approach
With a string of WordPress websites under my belt, lately I’ve been diving into the versatility of WordPress’s block theme technology. This journey led me to design and build “BlakeBreak,” a custom theme that serves as a dynamic foundation for a handful of my websites. Cornerstone Games was one of those as well; I swapped the default header for one more fitting with their pre-existing logo, and a quick color scheme and typeface update really brought it into line with their brand.
Features and Customizations
The heart of the website lies in its WooCommerce-powered online store. Visitors can find and purchase an array of goodies: prints, stickers, keychains, and more—all inspired by the immersive worlds of Pathfinder and other tabletop games. Beyond that, I tweaked the site’s styling to infuse an adventurous and slightly darker tone, reflecting the spirit of their modules. As well, their previous site didn’t have an easy way to post news, so I added a blogging section for them to post about new releases and upcoming conventions. Finally, a fresh email address located at their business’ name ties the whole project up in a nice bow.
Future-Proofing and Process Improvements
This project gave me a perfect opportunity to pivot my hosting stack, as I was nearing the limit of what my Plesk host with DigitalOcean could support. Instead, I transitioned my sites over to a new Droplet running CloudPanel, which has been a dream! No extra overhead, no extra installers, just exactly what I needed to run my sites, with space to expand down the road. I also used this opportunity to set all of my sites up with ManageWP, a WordPress manager that has made it a breeze to keep all of my sites up to date. This has been especially true since creating BlakeBreak, as I can immediately push update to all of the sites when I make changes to the theme.
Client Satisfaction and Results
The cherry on top? The genuine satisfaction of the team with the website. They’ve enthusiastically embraced it as a powerful tool for promoting and advertising their products to the RPG-loving audience. They’ve begun using their website in their in-person marketing at cons, and have driven sales to their publishing shops. Knowing that it’s contributing to their business’s growth is immensely rewarding.
Crafting the Cornerstone.Games website was an adventure in itself. It’s a testament to the potential of WordPress, and especially with Full-Site Editing through BlakeBreak.
Thank you for reading! Stay tuned for the next tale from the wilds of web design!
Cheers,
Blake
Ready to start your own adventure in taking your business online? Reach out today for a consultation, and let’s get started equipping you properly! Click Here to contact me today!
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