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I wanted to write about everything that happened before I became a good programmer, but I also didn't want to make you think that any of this work is presentable or good (not that all of my work is presentable or good, but that doesn't matter).
I like to think that my inspiration for computer science goes back to around 2016, when I first got Minecraft on the PS4. I remember that my favorite YouTuber for a while was Stampy, but eventually I discovered Mumbo Jumbo.
Mumbo, although far from being the best redstoner, is regarded as the most famous and influential. I still consider him my favorite YouTuber today.
Redstone, in case you don't know, is basically the mechanics / electronics / logical part of Minecraft.
In his early days, Mumbo did mostly piston doors and secret entrances and such (if you are wondering why you would need piston doors or secret entrances, it's so that you can hide your boats and hoes).
Well, it didn't really matter what he did, because he inspired me. The only thing I would ever want to do was improve at my redstone skills, to make cooler doors or elevators or piston extenders. I was very young and impressionable at the time (~1st grade), so I suppose the fundamental ideas of logical systems got engrained into my head.
I continued doing redstone, but the next milestone here happened around 2nd or 3rd grade. My friend (Zack Friedman) and I had great ambitions to create a Roblox game "inspired" by our favorite game at the time, Roblox Jailbreak. Essentially, it was GTA- exactly what we should have been getting exposed to at that age!
I don't even need to tell you that our idea got nowhere. But, it still put a little spark into me to learn how to make games. Around 4th grade, I decided to set my sights on learning Lua for Roblox. I think I got to the second video of the YouTube tutorial series before I became too confused.
Luckily, my dad recognized what I was doing and bought a paid course for learning Python. I learned Pygame; I made a game about fish eating smaller fish and I also made a top down shooter game.
Unfortunately, that very hand-held experience inflated my ego a bit too much and made me think that I could fly, when I could barely crawl.
Around that time, the YouTuber Dani became popular for his game dev content. They were videos like "I made a game in 24 hours" or what not. He was a good game dev, but also extremely funny and good at editing his videos.
That made me think that I could take my Python skills over to Unity and learn C#. I sort of started making a Karlson clone, but I ran out of motivation very quickly. I actually wish that I had Godot at the time, just because of how simple it is compared to Unity. Also, GDScript is very similar to Python, which would have been great for me.
Although my Unity journey didn't go so well, I have a distinct memory of when the coding part of my brain finally clicked: I was trying to implement a double jump system into the Karlson clone (by the way, it was called BEAN: ULTIMATE FOOD FIGHT), and I was able to figure it out without using a tutorial!
That might sound pretty lame, but it's actually a large sign of progression for people learning to code. New people are often stuck in what is colloquially referred to as "tutorial hell," in which they aren't able to do or understand anything without being guided.
In that moment, I felt like Dante leaving the inferno (not actually, I didn't know who he was).
In 6th grade, something inspired me (I don't know what) to learn Java and Minecraft modding.
I learned some Java (today, that is still all of the Java I know- I should learn more at some point), but failed to understand how the Fabric API worked.
Around the same time in 6th grade, I was inspired by my friend Adrien (as seen in Adriencoin) to learn Scratch.
Scratch, if you don't know, is a block-coding web app made by MIT. It is targeted for helping kids learn how to program.
I was exposed to Scratch all throughout elementary school. For some reason, there were some art classes in which we were supposed to take out Chromebooks (I narrowly missed the era of using computer labs) and explore Scratch. We weren't really expected to actually learn how to code in Scratch, but we were instead supposed to play other people's games for "inspiration."
I think 6th grade was the perfect time for me to jump into Scratch, for a number of reasons. My understanding of coding was at the right level and I was mature enough to be able to do basic problem solving. Even more importantly, most of my classes all throughout middle school were way too easy and provided me with way too much free time during periods. Most of that time was spent on Scratch.
I made some pretty great projects, like a 3d renderer, a graphing transformations calculator, and "snake but it's slither.io" (which is honestly an enjoyable game).
Well, that brings us into 9th grade. I was in the midst of learning C++, I learned Godot, began doing game jams, and joined Hack Club. You can read all about that in the other project writeups!
Sort of unrelated, but I have one other big Scratch project which I didn't mention above. That being my clone of NES Tetris.
This was made in the spring of my 9th grade year, when I started to get into CTWC (Classic Tetris World Championship). I wanted to be able to play a faithful reproduction of NES Tetris while in school, and Scratch was wasn't blocked (and would never be blocked, since it's educational) by our anti-game protections.
Yes, in my school, and in many schools, that is the lengths people will go to in order to be unproductive on their school computers.