How I Became a Programmer
My unlikely origin story.
It all started when I was 12 years old. š¶
Back in those days, my friends and I all played Runescape, a popular browser-based MMORPG. Those whoāve played Runescape will remember that it requires lots of grinding - the ābestā players were the ones who spent the most time killing monsters and leveling up. Unfortunately, my parents didnāt let me play much - all of my friends had passed level 50 by the time I reached level 30. This level gap was all I worried about day and night because nobody wants to play with someone 20 levels below them somewhat frustrating.
The obvious solution was to
- Make a better version of Runescape that required less grinding, and then
- Convince millions of players to play my version instead.
With this foolproof 2-step plan in place, I set out to complete Step 1. I remember googling āHow was Runescape made,ā reading that it was built in Java, and then googling āHow to code in Java.ā Over the next 20 minutes, I would come to realize that learning Java on your own as a 12-year-old is not that easy. Thus, I made the brilliant decision to pivot: I would now make a better version of Runescape without writing any code. Iāll just skip the parts that require coding, I thought. This way, Iāll finish it faster, too. See? Brilliant.
I ended up actually finding a way to make games without writing code: GameMaker. I downloaded it and began making simple, codeless games. One of my favorite memories from middle school was bringing a USB loaded with a Space Invaders-style game Iād made to the computer lab and passing it around between my friends. That proud feeling of seeing people use something I built has been driving me ever since.
Despite my ambitions, I eventually realized that you canāt actually do much without writing code. Luckily, GameMaker supported a proprietary programming language called the GameMaker Language (GML) that had lots of examples and tutorials for it online. I reluctantly decided to learn a bit of GML so I could make more advanced games (read: Runescape). Those were my first if
statements and for
loops! Thatās right. My first programming language was GML. š²
Ever since those first few lines of GML, Iāve been hooked. In 9th grade, I began making iOS apps and competing in programming competitions. Out of high school, I landed my first software engineering internship and started more seriously pursuing a career in tech. In college, I got into web development and sold my first website.
To summarize: Iāve spent a decade learning and building and still havenāt taken down Runescape š”. I guess everyone has their white whaleā¦