Every other entry in Workshop points somewhere else. This one points at the page you’re reading.
What it is
Sidequesthings runs on a WordPress theme I built from scratch: no page builder, no purchased template. Every post is a quest card with a status badge, sorted into eight RPG-themed categories: Nihongrind, Otaku Journal, Backlog, Workshop, Slope Stroll, Marginalia, Party of 3 and Stat Allocation. The palette is dark navy with orange and gold, and the type is Space Grotesk for headings, Inter for reading and JetBrains Mono for the little code-comment labels like // quest_log.init().
Built to stay out of my way
The theme does a few quiet things so maintaining it never becomes a chore. The stylesheet versions itself by file date, so a change shows up without me having to remember to bust the cache. The layout is a responsive two-column grid that collapses cleanly on a phone. Quest statuses (Active, Pending, On hold and Completed) are a simple dropdown in the editor, so updating where something stands takes one click.
The brand refresh
The latest version has a new identity. The mark is a compass badge with a map pin inside, and the pin is drawn from two letters: a C forming the rounded top and a J running down into the point and hooking back up. There’s an exclamation mark in the middle, the universal “quest available” marker. Every navy line in it shares one stroke weight, and the spacing between the rings matches that same unit, which is what makes it feel balanced rather than assembled.
Each category got its own version of that badge, and the tiny icons on the quest cards were redrawn to match. The site’s orange was also adjusted to match the logo exactly, so every link and button now belongs to the same family.
Now a portfolio too
Workshop used to be a loose pile of builds. Now each project gets a details panel under its title (client, role, stack and a live link) so the category doubles as a portfolio of things I’ve made. SpecRival was the first entry to get the treatment.
Why it’s not anonymous anymore
For a long time, this site was deliberately separate from my name. Not anymore. Sidequesthings now brings together Wotakunai (the gaming and otaku side), James Callos (the professional side) and Gambitworks (the company). It felt like the right time to stop keeping them in separate rooms.
The site will keep changing as the side quests do. That’s sort of the point.