Project: Jogo Velho — Retrogaming Portal
Role: WordPress Developer (theme, APIs, back-end)
Technologies: PHP, WordPress, IGDB API, PriceCharting API, JavaScript, MySQL, CSS
Website: jogovelho.com.br
Project Overview
Jogo Velho is a Brazilian portal dedicated to retrogamer culture — news, reviews, long-form editorials, and ranked lists of classic games. The project started with a generic off-the-shelf theme and needed its own identity: one that translated the nostalgia of old games into a modern visual experience.
The work involved building a fully custom WordPress theme from the ground up: template architecture, external API integrations, a caching system, Custom Post Types, dynamic widgets, and a design system rooted in neon aesthetics with pixel art references.
The Challenge
The portal had a set of limitations that were holding back both content growth and reader experience:
- Generic theme with no visual identity aligned to the retrogaming niche
- Game reviews with no external database integration — everything entered manually
- No historical pricing data to contextualize the value of classic games
- No differentiated editorial formats (long-form specials, ranked lists, trivia sections)
- No caching layer, causing repeated API requests on every page load
- Slow content creation workflow with no structured templates per format
The Solution
Custom WordPress theme with a neon design system
Built the theme from scratch with a color palette centered on purple (#8a4cff), cyan (#00e5ff), and pink (#ff4fd8), display typography using Pixelify Sans and Press Start 2P, and a dark background (#020a18) evoking the look of 80s/90s CRT screens. Every component — cards, heroes, badges, sections — was designed as part of a coherent visual system.
IGDB API integration
Implemented integration with the IGDB (Twitch’s game database) to automatically populate reviews with cover art, platforms, release year, and user ratings. Data is stored in WordPress transients with daily cache keys to avoid repeated API calls. A save_post hook invalidates the cache on review edits, ensuring scores entered manually in the admin always display correctly.
PriceCharting API integration
To provide historical market context for classic games, I integrated PriceCharting, which supplies cartridge and physical media pricing data. Values are converted from USD to BRL via an exchange rate API and displayed in a “Price Radar” sidebar widget — useful for collectors and casual readers alike.
Custom Post Types and editorial formats
Created dedicated CPTs for each content type: reviews (Nota de Nostalgia), jv_curiosidade (Did You Know?), and standard posts for news. Each format has its own PHP template with a distinct hero, content structure, and closing section — news posts, long-form editorials, and ranked Top 10 lists all operate independently.
Dynamic home page widgets
The homepage is composed of PHP widgets, each with individual caching: consoles section, recent reviews, “Did You Know?” (a random trivia item on every visit), “Today in History” (historic gaming milestones from the current date), and weekly releases. The trivia section picks randomly from a pool of 100+ entries registered in the admin.
Layered caching system
All external calls use WordPress transients with TTLs tuned by data sensitivity: IGDB data cached for 24h, exchange rates for 12h, pricing for 12h, trivia for 6h. Invalidation is handled through save_post hooks, so admin edits are reflected immediately without waiting for natural expiration.
Structured content templates
To streamline editorial production, I documented three structured HTML templates — news, specials, and lists — that define the full visual hierarchy of each post. Templates are pasted directly into the WordPress editor and automatically load the correct stylesheet (post.css, especial.css, or top10.css) based on the post category or selected page template.
Results and Impact
- Distinctive visual identity that sets the portal apart in the Brazilian retrogaming niche
- Reviews auto-populated via IGDB, reducing publishing time by ~60%
- Caching layer effectively eliminated redundant external API calls
- Three distinct editorial formats with ready-to-use templates
- “Did You Know?” section with 100+ trivia entries, generating dynamic content at no additional editorial cost
- Documented content creation workflow, enabling the editorial team to work independently
Conclusion
Jogo Velho was an end-to-end project: from visual identity to API back-end. The biggest technical takeaway was architecting a robust caching system in WordPress — understanding transient limitations, designing correct invalidation keys, and ensuring that manual admin edits always took precedence over cached data.
The decision to build the theme from scratch rather than customizing an existing one was essential for having full control over performance, semantics, and the neon design system that defines the portal’s personality. The result is a site that visually feels like it belongs to the world it covers.
