Introduction
I will start by telling about my passions, which lead me become the man I am today.
When I was young I loved playing games. I grew up surrounded by them. I was very fortunate to own almost all consoles out at the time. My mom used to work at a place called Index Retail, and she always got my little brother, Oliver, and I games that looked like what you see on the right. We played a bunch of games like it. One of my favorite games growing was the Sly Cooper series, and Ratchet and Clank.
My biggest memory of that time was when PlayStation was yet have its initial release in Denmark, we took a trip to Copenhagen, where we got to see the PlayStation 3 for the first time. and we got to play Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction, and while it was just a demo, I remember watching the bridge fall apart and thinking: Oh so this is what the new generation of games is gonna be like!
Lego Mindstorms
My actual programming journey started in 2008, I was 8 years old, and I really liked Lego. One of my good friends at the time, Viktor, was coming over together with his Dad, who worked for Insero, he brought with him this thing called a Lego Mindstorm NXT. We were in awe. As children who loved Lego Technic, there was something tempting about being able to control how we interacted with the Lego. We only had the kit for one day, but I was hooked by that point. That being said, It was long until I finally had enough money to buy it. But when I got it I started tinkering right away.
Some time later, First Lego League came around. An event at school where we had to program that very robot. I was put in a position where I helped the students and the teachers with using NXT. And while I'm no engineering genius, far from it. I therefor mainly helped with the programming aspect, as that's where my experience lied.
Time passed and I was in 9th grade. I chose an elective in something to do with technology. We learned about MakeyMakey, Scratch programming, 3D modelling, and Lego Mindstorm programming. The project we made in the course has to due with Makey Makey, so we came up with the idea of using Makey Makey, as make-shift buttons for a grammar based game.
At the end of our course, we made a project to combine all the knowledge we gained. Which lead to the Idea I drew out on paper, and we split the group into 3, my job was the technical aspect, programming the robots. and creating a system that enabled us to control the steering of the robot wirelessly through Makey Makey, and designing the button mechanism. Their job was to build the table, the robot, and create a 3d model for the button, which they then had to 3D print. An event was held for all electives, and our team won a medal for our project.
Sketch
Setup
Zoom on Answer Papers
Minecraft (Lua/Computercraft) + Modding (Java)
But my journey in text programming obviously didn't start with the Lego Mindstorm. Around the same time I got into programming the NXT, I played a lot of Minecraft with my friend Nicolai, and Oliver. In 2010, I became very interested in a modification for Minecraft called ComputerCraft. A mod which allowed you to control the game through Lua code. As a fan of the Lego Mindstorm. I quickly became fascinated by this. And I played on a lot of community based severs including it. Helping people understand the ins-and-outs of programming Lua, using ComputerCraft. At one point, we got together and built our own server.
This was a while ago, but you see the trailer we made on the right. I was in charge of the computers. as well as the editing. Is it great?.. No, but I learned from it.
We also tried creating mods ourselves. but they were, let's call it less than successful. But it was our first time programming in Java.
Learning through courses (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Android)
While playing Minecraft, and learning text programming. I wanted to learn more. I found a place where I could get some courses in different aspects of programming. It was my first time paying for something with the goal to learn from it. It was great at giving me the basics from learning HTML, CSS, and then being really really fascinated by JavaScript. slowly moving toward more difficult subjects such as Android development.
Game Development (Game Maker + Unity + Unreal)
During my invested time in games, I began wondering what it would be like designing my own games. Like from 2nd grade I remember talking with Nicolai about: "What if we combine this game with this game, and OMG, you should be able to FLY!". Things of that sort. Obvoiusly very imaginative. but as I was getting into all these different aspects of programming I suddennly realized. wait I might actually be able to program a game?
That felt weird, but it was true. I remember watching different video on Youtube, which showed how you could make a game maker. I remember staying up late at night watching that. I was 12, my computer was so slow. and everything took time, but I had patience. I wanted to learn game development, and I did. But I quickly switched engine as more guides on Unity showed up. I remember watching Brakeys, learning how to do a basic jump. Staying up just watching that. My friend Simon, and I had the plan of making a game 'Kawaii Robot'. we worked on it for a bit. and we had a small robot moving around, that you could jump with. I remember showing it off, and people thinking, cool and then laughing about the robot being able to fall off-screen.
We then went on to build upon a game called Dungeon Bosses. A 4-player co-op action adventure game about exploring dungeons and killing bosses. This game was quite ambitious and it even went through both Unity and Unreal. We obvoius reasons didn't finish the game. However, we learned a lot from it!. From structuring larger programs, as well as problem solving skills.
Processing and C#
I remember watching a lot of Daniel Shiffman at the Time, a professor whose content got exciting about so many aspects of programming. I wanted to try programming some of the stuff he did. So I learned processing. At the same time I also chose to learn C# from scratch. Meaning without Unity this time. This is what later allowed me to get my first programming job. What you see bellow is some of the stuff I actually sent at the time.
This was the man I had become at the end of this story (2015)
