Welcome to the December edition of Publisher Showcase, where we highlight the publishers across the Nitro network building experiences that gamers genuinely rely on.
This month we sat down with Luca Sammann, the creator of Grindosaur. What began as a small personal project during university, sparked while documenting his World of Warcraft journey, has grown into a trusted destination for players looking for game info that’s clear and genuinely useful in the moment. Luca’s focus has always been on quality and usability, with careful attention to UI and features shaped directly by community needs, all aimed at helping players find answers quickly and confidently.
Read on to discover how Grindosaur grew by focusing on thoughtful design and solving real problems players face during their playthroughs. 👇
First up, can you tell us a bit about your career/life background that led you to start Grindosaur?
I have always been an avid gamer all throughout my life and especially during university (studying computer science), when I was at a low point after failing multiple of my courses, I resorted back to no-lifing World of Warcraft as an unhealthy coping mechanism over the summer. At the same time, I felt like I needed an outlet of some sort so I started a simple blog about my journey and what I discovered while playing.
To my surprise, what I wrote about (mainly fishing in World of Warcraft) attracted a hundred people over 7 days and I also ranked favorably on Google, without knowing anything about SEO. To me, it was a simple escape, but for others it acted as a guide to progression, which honestly felt very rewarding at the time. So I continued.
Fast forward a couple months into this journey and I realized that my ideas for the blog were outgrowing the capacities of a simple Wordpress application fast and that I would need a custom solution for these ideas. The problem was, university required more of my attention, and so did life in general. Hence me stopping this small side project altogether, at least for the time being.
What drove you to create Grindosaur? Did you see a specific gap in the market? Was there a particular insight that motivated you to launch it?
Surprisingly, a couple years passed from when I created that small blog to Grindosaur becoming a tangible project with a future. It wasn’t meant to fill a specific gap in the market, nor was I motivated or incentivised to earn money online.
In actuality, two things drove me to work on this project, and continuously improve it. The first reason is honing my own skill set and conducting research. When working with clients (ranging from small to enterprise), you realistically cannot conduct experiments with live applications. If you have your own project(s) on the side, you can very much do these things, without risking “anything,” at least in the beginning.
The second reason, and the one that prevails to this day, is my own dissatisfaction with offered services online. Grindosaur is in no way, shape, or form perfect, but it very much reflects what I do expect from websites online that compile information: easily accessible, searchable, and digestible content without too much bullshit.
There is a third, but that pretty much only developed over time as I became some sort of pillar for the Digimon community. Through sheer luck, I got back into Digimon in 2019 while watching some Digimon World videos on YouTube and feeling the urge to play a newer World title. To my horror, I had to realize that the guides online were all lackluster and incomplete to a large degree. I knew I could do this much better, and so I did. The rest is pretty much history.
How long have you been running your website and how long did it take from development until it was live?
I’ve been running Grindosaur for over six years now, since its launch on May 15, 2019. In truth, though, the concept had been taking shape in my mind for years before that. The initial development phase took around 7 months, quite an intense stretch for someone with my background, but much of that time went into building complementary elements rather than the core functionality itself.
The logo, color palette, and overall UI/UX were all things I wanted to perfect from the start, and I probably spent too much time on them. Still, that attention to detail and commitment to quality ultimately helped people fall in love with the project. I do have a tendency to obsess over getting things just right, but thankfully, that effort rarely goes unnoticed, and it’s been well rewarded lately.
How did you decide on the specific features and tools available on Grindosaur?
This is hard to answer, because there is not that singular reason that makes you decide on implementing a feature. Some features are core components of modern web applications that are absolutely expected and should be there in some form or another, maybe even with a unique spin like my regex table search for my power user clientele. Others boil down to specific needs that need to be catered to, like the Digivolution Planner.
At the start, I had to come up with everything myself. I had to think about what I wanted to see on my own website. What functionalities I deemed a necessity. And how these should be implemented. It was also a playground to create a couple custom solutions that I wished were more widespread, like my nested side navigation.
Nowadays, more and more users come to me with ideas which allow me to tailor features directly to my users’ needs. Obviously, the sample size is quite low in comparison to my overall userbase, but oftentimes, these users are the ones that utilize the site the most, know it the best, and look for an even more streamlined experience, with more functionalities, which in turn, benefit the entire userbase at large.
In the end, inspiration comes from any source imaginable. Sure, your userbase is one of them, but so might be your own experience while browsing the internet.
How were you able to build a strong online presence for the website? (e.g. SEO, forums, PPC, influencers etc)
I would say there are two core components to my overall success so far. The first might sound cheesy, because everyone preaches this, but it’s still content. Content is king. I wouldn’t be here if not for the depth of information I offer, and plan on offering in the future.
But that does not suffice on its own. Maybe even more important than just offering content is the way you present the content in question. The easier it is to consume, the more accessible it is, the more satisfied the user. And a satisfied user comes back and tells their friends about you too. So you have to convince a user that you are worth their time, and in my humble opinion, you can only achieve that with outstanding, and ever increasing quality.
And on that note, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) ties in neatly as the second component. A user needs to find you and to me search engine traffic by far is the most important traffic source overall. I am not somebody that likes to go around and self advertise a lot, because I feel like that comes across as spammy and I hate spam in general, so I tried to rely on methods that would act as a solid foundation for years to come.
What that means is that you have to find a balance between designing and optimizing content in a manner that humans love to consume, yet structured enough for machines to understand and interpret. Though, one aspect is more important than anything else in this regard: don’t stuff your content with additional information if they aren’t necessary to what that specific piece of content tries to convey and achieve!
What that means is: people are looking for specific information and want to find them fast. If they are looking up a pie recipe, they do not want to know about its origins, they need an ingredient list, and a how-to explanation. Give them what they want, and in time, people will notice you.
What have been some of the most effective tactics to drive traffic to your website so far?
I already alluded to this just now, but in essence, its high-quality content presented in an easily digestible manner. It allows people to quickly find what they are looking for, and this alone creates a feedback loop, as people come back time and time again when they are struggling with something during their playthroughs, or want to help out a fellow player during their struggles. It also creates a word of mouth dynamic because people simply say: “Hey, quickly look that up on Grindosaur, it’s all there.”
In that regard it’s simply: compile EVERYTHING that is relevant to SOMETHING and people will find it and even tell others about it. It’s goal oriented design that solves an issue people have. It’s that simple.
Has AI impacted the way you manage or grow your website (e.g. traffic, content creation, user engagement)?
Honestly, when AI was introduced to the general populace in 2022, I lowkey feared the impact it would have on content creation in general, and on websites specifically, especially on information driven content like Grindosaur’s. And many websites have indeed seen a steady decline over the years, much to the detriment of the overall health and well-being of the internet as an eco-system.
However, as a data-miner I act as the source of compiled information, the instance people draw reference from for their playthroughs, and sometimes even for their own content, YouTube videos for example. This cannot be replaced by AI, at least not yet. So in that regard it has not impacted Grindosaur at all. Knocks on wood!
Though, truth be told, when it comes to content creation itself, I have started to utilize AI in limited capacities, but only in a supporting role. My content aims at informing users as efficiently as possible while also being concise, on point, and easily digestible.
So when I try to condense information down, for example a table header, I usually have an idea in mind how I want to word it. However, I often double check my own wording against that of an AI to see if the AI uses easier words, or recommends a different sentence structure. Because in the end, what matters to the user most, is how efficiently information is conveyed. The shorter and on point it is, the more satisfied the user. This is key!
AI, to me at least, is just another tool that I can utilize to produce the content I think people want to consume, though I’d never over-rely on it.
Therefore, to circle back to the initial question: it hasn’t impacted me as much as I feared it would. And so far, I am pleasantly surprised. Knocks on wood again!
What are you most proud of in regards to the success of Grindosaur so far? Any major highlights?
First off, it’s probably the Grindosaur project itself that I am most proud of. It has come so far from its humble beginnings, improved on so many levels, saw so many changes and additions over the years, that it’s quite hard to just single out any specific aspect of it.
Though, if I had to choose, it’s probably the impact on playthroughs I had. Digimon games specifically can be quite obscure and I have often received the feedback that due to my wikis people stuck around and actually finished the game they were playing.
That alone is quite the flattering statement and makes me quite proud that I make people stick around the franchise longer, maybe even fall in love with it, while otherwise they might have left early. You know, put down a game and never touch it again. The thought of continuing to help people fall in love with the franchises I cover (specifically Digimon), makes me very proud of my work!
What advice do you have for new and existing website owners that you wish you knew before you started?
To not neglect social media, especially not X, or any other short message service like I did for years. Your service predominantly resides on your own server. It’s where users will consume and interact with your content.
However, do not underestimate the power of interacting with your userbase. From my experience, regardless of how easy you make it for a user to reach out via an email, they will hardly utilize that option.
Most users will hang around their preferred social media service for quite some time each day, be it X, Reddit, or even Discord. You need to be active on those platforms, form connections, and have genuine talks with people. Through those, you will learn a lot about your userbase, among them: what they like about your offered service, and what does not work for them. That feedback is invaluable and you most likely will not find it anywhere else.
What do you like best about being a part of Nitro’s network of premium gaming/entertainment websites?
The best thing for me is the ability to get a hold of a human being relatively fast when anything comes up that needs discussion or further clarification! Sometimes I feel like staff are hustling 24/7 (which hopefully they don’t) and issues, if any arise at all, are usually dealt with within hours, not days. Compared to the likes of Google AdSense, that alone feels like VIP treatment! Instead of being left alone, with questions, and no possibilities to resolve anything, you actually have someone to talk to that can help you out and resolve issues.
Additionally, as a technically inclined publisher, I like the simplicity and flexibility of how to implement Nitro’s code snippets, because if you aren’t you will still have a very easy time setting everything up!
What’s next for Grindosaur?
Oh, there’s so much to talk about, where do I even start? Obviously the latest Digimon game will receive way more in-depth coverage than it already has as that is what my users expect and long for, but there’s also the next Digital Tamers 2 update coming in early December that needs to be properly tested before it ships. For anyone unaware, I am not only the official wiki provider for said game, but have somewhat become part of the development team, as I verify code implementations, while preparing the wiki updates.
Besides that, I plan on revisiting most content already present on the site to further expand on it, while also adding more quality of life features to the site in general come 2026. Then there’s the I18N (internationalization) integration that needs to be properly finalized, tested, and shipped, as well as the much anticipated Digivolution Planner upgrade.
I could list a thousand more things, but I am pretty sure you get the picture of a ton of new features and additions being in the works simultaneously and 2026 already shapes up to be a very busy year overall.
A big thank you to Luca from Grindosaur. Keep your eyes peeled for more insightful interviews like this in next month's edition of our Publisher Showcase, where we’ll continue to spotlight one of the 500+ stand out websites on Nitro, diving deep into their unique success!
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