Hi, I'm Ben.
Creative developer.
Web building since 2007.
I've spent nearly 20 years building for the web, including websites for major game franchises like No Man's Sky, Dead Island, Saints Row, and Fable Legends (RIP). This is my personal site and microblog: a stream of what I'm learning, making, playing, and thinking about.
More about meRecent writing
Basic Gmail SMTP setup for Ghost
Item flow: a potential concept for masonry layouts
Recent notes
Go Marching In
For six years between 2010 and 2016, I ran a Saints fan site called Go Marching In. Duiring that time, the site got quite popular, and I was regularly approached by fans running sites for other teams and asked to write content for them. One of the coolest parts was being asked by The Observer to be the fan representing Southampton and I got to write season previews and summaries for a couple of years. Seeing my site in a printed publication was cool - I still have copies tucked away in a cabinet somewhere.
Ultimately, I stopped running the site in 2016 because it had become a chore. Match previews and reports, transfers, and all the day-to-day news just became a ballache. The enjoyment had gone, so I let the site die...
Fast forward to 2026, and unless you're a sports fan living under a rock, you've no doubt heard about Southampton being caught spying. Lots has happened to the club in the decade since I stopped running Go Marching In, but the events of Spygate have really stirred something in me to start writing again. Whether that is under the same name as before, or something completely new, remains to be seen.
Next season promises to be eventful and hopefully memorable. I think I'd like to find my football voice again. Watch this space.
Project Hail Mary
Project Hail Mary is easily the best film I've seen in a while. I enjoyed it from start to finish, and with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 94% at the time of writing, it seems plenty of others feel the same way.
A shout out to my friend, Adam Burt, who is an extra in the film, and absolutely smashed his two seconds on screen. Can't wait to see what you and Ryan team up to do next!
2026-05-08 16
The launch trailer for MIXTAPE dropped yesterday. One of the coolest trailers I've seen in a while. Definitely going to be playing this...