Simple PHP templates. Remember when PHP was a hypertext preprocessor? You don't need twig, mustache, smarty, etc., to do simple templating.

Template.php

<?php
namespace AKUtils;

/**
 * A simple template class for PHP. Allows you to create templates in pure PHP.
 * There are many template systems like it, but this one is simple.
 */
class Template
{
    private $_templateDir="";
    public $properties;

    /**
     * set the path to your view templates
     * @param string $_templateDir
     */
    public function setTemplatePath($_templateDir)
    {
        $this->_templateDir=$_templateDir;
    }

    public function __construct($templateName = '')
    {
        $this->properties = array();
        if (!empty($templateName)) {
            $this->templateName = $templateName;
        }
    }

    /**
     * renders the template $fileName found in the template directory
     * @param  string $fileName
     * @return mixed the output of your processed template
     */
    public function render($fileName = "")
    {
        if (empty($fileName) && !empty($this->templateName)) {
            $fileName = $this->templateName;
        } elseif (empty($fileName) && empty($this->templateName)) {
            return \Exception("No template provided - render cannot continue");
        }
        ob_start();
        if (file_exists($this->_templateDir . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $fileName)) {
            include($this->_templateDir . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $fileName);
        } else {
            if (empty($this->_templateDir)) {
                throw new \Exception("templateDir not set and template not found");
            } else {
                throw new \Exception("WAAAAA");
            }
        }
        return ob_get_clean();
    }

    public function __set($k, $v)
    {
        $this->properties[$k] = $v;
    }

    public function __get($k)
    {
        return $this->properties[$k];
    }

    public function __isset($k)
    {
        return isset($this->properties[$k]);
    }

    public function __unset($k)
    {
        unset($this->properties[$k]);
    }
}

on line 39, it is :
} elseif ($empty($fileName) && empty($this->templateName)) {
it should be :
} elseif (empty($fileName) && empty($this->templateName)) {

Thanks @bantya, great catch.