Shuck World Discovery

Purpose and audience

Shuck World is the studio website for Shuck Games. It presents the studio identity and anchors Volley's public presence. The game lives on players' desktops; the site is where they first meet it.

Primary audiences, in priority order:

1. Players. Someone who heard about Volley. They land on the site and within 10 seconds know what the game is, what it feels like, and how to get it.
2. Press. A press kit page scanable in 30 seconds: key art, short description, studio bio, contact.
3. Community. Players checking the devlog, finding the itch.io page, or signing the guestbook. The site is a hub; the game is the destination.

What the site is not:

• Not a marketing funnel. No mailing-list capture, no pre-order. The call to action is "download and play," not "give us your email."
• Not a corporate portfolio. The about page names real people but does not read like a LinkedIn summary. The voice is kind, earnest, personal.

Full 90s-era authenticity

The site must read as if it was built in 1998. Not a parody, not a modern site with retro styling. If someone loads shuck.gg and does not wonder whether they stepped into a time machine, we are not trying hard enough.

This direction is anchored in two research docs:

• research/references.md loops through 90s game studio site patterns (id Software, Blizzard, Looking Glass, Bullfrog, 3D Realms)
• research/yesterweb-reference.md analyzes a Neocities-era revival site with a tiered checklist of what to copy and what to avoid

Must-have elements for authentic 90s feel:

1. Table-based layout. A <table width="100%"> with a fixed-width left sidebar and fluid content area. The single highest-ROI choice.
2. System fonts only. Body: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica. Headings: Times New Roman or Impact. No custom webfonts, no Roboto, no Open Sans.
3. All body tag color attributes. <body bgcolor="#000000" text="#00FF00" link="#FFFF00" vlink="#008000" alink="#FF0000">. Adjust to shuck's palette.
4. A visitor counter GIF at the bottom of pages. 88x31.lol provides a retro badge via a single <img> tag (see embeds research).
5. At least one <marquee> on the homepage for a news ticker or welcome.
6. 88x31 button collection in the sidebar or on a dedicated Links page. Include shuck's own button plus community and affiliate badges.
7. "Last updated" timestamp in the footer.
8. <hr> dividers with period styling (noshade, beveled).

Strongly consider:

9. A "Best viewed in" badge (e.g., "Best viewed in Netscape Navigator 4.0 at 800x600").
10. Animated GIF elements: a spinning email icon, a "NEW!" stamp.
11. Image-based nav buttons or text nav separated by | pipes.
12. A guestbook page (see embeds research: Atabook via <iframe>).
13. A webring widget if shuck joins a webring (webri.ng recommended).

Modern tells to avoid:

14. CSS flexbox or grid for main layout (use tables).
15. Any post-2000 font (Roboto, Open Sans, Lato).
16. SVG logos (use a GIF or JPEG with visible compression).
17. Responsive or mobile layouts (90s sites assumed 800x600 minimum).
18. CSS3 effects: border-radius, box-shadow, smooth gradients, CSS variables.
19. Google Analytics or modern scripts (use the hit counter instead).

Full pattern list with analysis: research/yesterweb-reference.md.

Content pages

The site has six pages. The home page is one screen tall and puts the download button front and center.

Page	Content	Who it is for
Home	Game name, one-liner, screenshot, download button, marquee news ticker	First-time visitors
About	Studio bio, team names, why we make Volley	Press, curious players
Devlog	Reverse-chronological posts, one paragraph each, irregular cadence	Community
Press	Key art, fact sheet, studio contact, downloadable screenshots	Journalists
Guestbook	Embedded Atabook guestbook via <iframe>	Community
Links	88x31 button collection, webring nav (Prev, Next, Random)	Community

The guestbook and links pages add network effects: visitors navigate between 88x31 badges, leave a message, join the webring.

Embedded services

Live 90s-era elements served by third-party embeds. No backend code required. Full research: research/embeds.md.

Feature	Service	Embed method
Hit counter	88x31.lol	<img> tag, no JS
Guestbook	Atabook	<iframe>, no JS
Webring	webri.ng	<a> tags, no JS

All three embed in pure static HTML. No JavaScript requirement, no custom backend, no build step. The embed URLs can be swapped if any service goes down.

Build and host

Full deploy plan: research/infra.md.

Static HTML, no build step. The site is hand-written HTML, CSS, and images. No framework, no SSG, no node_modules.

Host: Cloudflare Pages. Connects to the GitHub repo. Auto-deploys on git push to main. Custom domain shuck.gg with automatic SSL. No Workers, no KV.

Assets: Cloudflare R2. Images, GIFs, screenshots stored outside the repo. Served via assets.shuck.gg (R2 custom domain, public bucket). Sync at deploy time via wrangler r2 object put.

Cost: $0/month. Both Pages and R2 free tiers cover the site's needs: unlimited bandwidth, 500 builds/month, 10 GB storage, 10M reads/month.

Open questions for the spike

1. Devlog or skip? A blog means date-based URLs, an RSS feed, and a content cadence. If posts will be irregular, skip it initially. Minimum pages ship faster.

2. Download target? Itch.io (discovery, ratings, existing audience) or direct R2 binary download (on-brand, fast). Pick one as primary.

3. Press kit freshness. Game screenshots change every two weeks. Options: freeze at launch and update at milestones, or automate from CI.

4. Repo location? In the Volley monorepo (shared CI) or its own repo (independent deploy cadence). A 6-page HTML site weighs nothing either way.

5. Accessibility. The 90s aesthetic must not compromise keyboard navigation or screen reader access. Pick a standard (WCAG 2.1 AA) and verify the prototype. Note: table-based layouts and body tag colors do not inherently violate accessibility; they require testing.