How I Became a Programmer

My unlikely origin story.

It all started when I was 12 years old. šŸ‘¶

Back in those days, my friends and I all played Runescape, a popular browser-based MMORPG. Those whoā€™ve played Runescape will remember that it requires lots of grinding - the ā€œbestā€ players were the ones who spent the most time killing monsters and leveling up. Unfortunately, my parents didnā€™t 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

  1. Make a better version of Runescape that required less grinding, and then
  2. 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 ā€How was Runescape made,ā€ reading that it was built in Java, and then googling ā€How 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. Iā€™ll just skip the parts that require coding, I thought. This way, Iā€™ll 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 Iā€™d 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 canā€™t 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! Thatā€™s right. My first programming language was GML. šŸ˜²

Ever since those first few lines of GML, Iā€™ve 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: Iā€™ve spent a decade learning and building and still havenā€™t taken down Runescape šŸ˜”. I guess everyone has their white whaleā€¦

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