Hi, I'm Steve Roberts.
Senior Software Developer in Suffolk, England, with nearly 30 years building, maintaining, and modernising software platforms, infrastructure, and production systems. Much of my work and personal projects sit at the intersection of technology, creativity, automation, and community building.
Philosophy
Good software engineering is sustainable engineering
The best systems aren't the most complicated or fashionable. They're the systems that continue working reliably years later, can be understood by other developers, and can evolve safely as requirements change.
I enjoy solving difficult technical problems, but I care just as much about making systems understandable, supportable, and sustainable for the people who maintain them afterwards. A large amount of my work focuses on balancing technical quality with business reality — designing solutions that are robust without becoming unnecessarily complicated.
- Modernising older systems
- Improving maintainability
- Practical automation
- Reliable deployments
- Observability & debugging
- Reducing tech debt
- Production problem solving
Technical areas
Where I work
Modern UI architecture
Angular, TypeScript, responsive UI, accessibility, performance optimisation.
APIs & data platforms
NestJS, PostgreSQL, Redis, REST APIs, authentication, audit logging, rate limiting.
Cloud, CI/CD, observability
AWS, Cloudflare, Render, GitHub Actions, monitoring, deployment automation.
Featured work
Selected projects
STO Info
A community-focused platform for Star Trek Online players and fleets. Angular, NestJS, PostgreSQL, Redis, Cloudflare, GitHub Actions — a long-term sandbox for sustainable application architecture.
Read more → Tabletop toolingRoll20 mods & Midnight Realm
Condition Tracker, Swap Token Positions, Aura/Tint HealthColors and an in-progress one-shot campaign framework — built around accessibility, modularity, and maintainability.
Read more → Independent consultancyShadow Computers
My long-running, part-time independent technical consultancy — hosting, M365, DNS, migrations, websites, and small-business support, established in the early 2000s.
Read more →Beyond engineering
Media, gaming, and a running journey
Holosuite Media & podcasting
Hosting, producing, audio engineering, livestream operations, publishing workflows and community management across Holosuite Media, Trek.fm, Priority One Productions and The G&T Show.
Read more → D&D & gamingD&D, Roll20, worldbuilding
Tabletop roleplaying as a creative outlet — combining technical systems and storytelling through Roll20 mods, Inkarnate maps, and the Midnight Realm campaign framework.
Read more → PersonalFrom couch to ultra
From struggling to walk 5km to completing half marathons, marathons, and a 50km ultra — and the community that made it possible. Retired from running in 2020, but the lessons carry over to everything else.
Read more →Currently focused on
Sustainable software engineering, cloud-hosted applications, automation, observability, security, and practical deployment workflows. Ongoing personal work on STO Info, Roll20 mods, the Midnight Realm campaign framework, and Holosuite Media.