A 3-person studio with a gothic 2D metroidvania in early access on Steam. Strong game. No web presence beyond the store page. Built a site that belongs in the game's world.
Hollow Moth Studios had built something genuinely compelling — a gothic metroidvania with rich lore, a detailed world, and a growing community in early access. What they didn't have was anywhere to send a journalist, a streamer, or a curious player that wasn't the Steam page. No lore deep-dive. No press kit. No devlog. Nothing that communicated the depth of the world they'd built. The site needed to feel like it was made by the same people who made the game.
Animated hero with hand-drawn texture overlay, lore deep-dive section, devlog (CMS-managed), and a press kit accessible from every page. Hand-drawn textures layered over digital — distressed display type that feels like it belongs in Ashenveil.
12 regions built in custom SVG. Each region reveals on hover: region name, faction allegiance, lore snippet. Fully navigable. Built in plain Next.js without a mapping library — custom interaction logic throughout.
Live member count and latest devlog auto-pulled to homepage via Discord API and webhook pipeline. Updates without a deploy. Community feels alive from the first page load.
Dedicated press page with downloadable key art, screenshots, logos, one-sheet, and fact sheet. Everything a journalist or content creator needs, accessible without an email. Updated through the CMS.
Custom SVG built without a mapping library. Each region is an independently interactive polygon — hover reveals a lore snippet and faction tag pulled from the CMS. The map isn't a decoration. It's a navigation layer for the lore section.
Discord API integration pulls live member count and the latest devlog entry directly to the homepage. A webhook pipeline handles updates — when the devlog drops, the site updates without a redeploy. The community feels active from the moment someone lands on the page.
No email required. No "reach out for assets." Everything downloadable from the press page — key art at multiple sizes, in-game screenshots, studio and game logos, a one-sheet, and a fact sheet. All updated through the CMS when assets change.