How long did it take you to become a confident programmer / builder?

So I just started to learn the basics on scripting. And I wanted to ask, “How long does it take to be a good programmer?” What are the requirements? Motivation? Time? Intelligence?

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Where there’s a will, there’s a way. It’s all motivation.

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and time, a fair amount of time, bit cliche but Rome wasn’t built in a day

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Well I take lessons everyday for at least an hour. Should that be a good start?

It should vary from person to person, especially depending on the context of those lessons

Good sources are also extremely helpful aswell, such as the lua pil and the lua users wiki, which are some of the best resources for vanilla lua

lua pil

lua users wiki

Also, Q&A sities such as devforum and some discord servers can also be tremendous helps aswell

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As a builder (and I think this would be the same for scripters), I began to feel comfortable when I could complete just about any commission given to me. While I’m still not a professional (by my standards), the point that I could build in just about any way is where I’d say I became “confident”.

For you, I suggest you look through hiring posts (here and in servers like Hidden Developers) for programming. If you feel comfortable doing those, you should be able to feel comfortable taking just about any job or completing most tasks (granted, especially with scripting, some jobs are far too hard for even advanced level scripters).

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I watch the tutorials made by @Peaspod because he explains how everything works (printing, parameters, functions, event, etc.) I take notes on every important detail so I don’t forget later on.

This basically hits all the key details. Motivation and time are core to learning and base intelligence/learning speed plays a role in how efficiently you advance.

I found my confidence through extreme motivation to write a system. Time was on my side along with the knowledge I’ve obtained from previous sessions of reading and skimming across lines of code. Only that these ideas was drafted around time when I wake up.

It only took about a year before I actually started programming. Composing was right off the bat due to excessive listening sessions to music of specific genres.

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Well I started Roblox back in 2014, on another account. About 1 - 2 years later, I was like… Man. I really want to start making games like this! So in early 2016, I did some small things in studio, mostly really bad assets, and models. Anyways, I kept pushing myself forward. Through 2017, 2018, and now I am making my biggest project I’ve ever taken on in life and this virtual world, Roblox. With my friend @NotGeoWarrior.

Each and every day I get more and more confident, and I hope this inspired you to keep pushing yourself forward in game development!

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The more you think about that, the slower you will improve. Just keep scripting, learn everything you can. Always ask yourself, Is this easiest and most efficient way to do this?. Don’t worry about others and how long it took them. That won’t improve your scripting, instead it could potentially just make you stressed and delay your learning process. Motivation is also important when your learning something. When I started scripting, I just thought about these three words: Just. Keep. Scripting.

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I started out of the absolute blue when I was around 9 years old. Most of my early learning experiences were based around picking apart free models and uncopylocked places. About 8 years later and I consider myself a decent programmer but my confidence refuses to come home. I also still can’t code in other languages at all.

You listed all the core components, so I want to expand on those a bit.

You must be motivated enough to move forward in learning. Learning to code is easy and you should have absolutely no difficulty doing it. The most difficult part comes from the application of code and thoroughly understanding concepts. It’s essentially the debate of knowledge vs wisdom.

You require time and patience. Do not expect to be able to move forward and don’t compare your time to another’s. Everyone will learn at a different speed. I once had a dream that I’d make a name for myself and be known as one of those young start-out developers. I’m 17 now and the only thing I have to be prideful of right now is my clanning work and DevForum posting.

You do not require intelligence, necessarily. Obviously you’re going to want something in the head to be able to process what you’re looking through, but I started from absolute zero. I knew nothing about computers, let alone programming. I started from an arguably bad position, which was getting right to the grit rather than reading up on things. Most of what I know comes from self-teaching of API and figuring out what things do, rather than reading up on them.

Don’t think of it as “how do I become a good programmer”. Yes you can be, but this can lead up into delusions and comparing yourself to others. Think about how to better your own craft. Think better, not “good”. If we’re going to stick with the mindset “how do I become a good programmer”, then be ready to also set your own expectations bar for what good means.

Good luck on your journey.

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Realy i can program in aboat 8 languages and roblox studio script is the worst to learn xD (for example html,php is easier only javascript is quite on sae level but litlebit easier)

HTML isn’t quite a coding language so much as it is a markup language (hence Hypertext Markup Language). As for Studio code, you’ll find it’s simpler than other languages - it’s Lua, after all.

Ok but i also know c# and it is also easier

That depends from person to person. I haven’t looked at C# and I decided some time ago that it was out of my learning scope. Results may change because I haven’t looked at it recently, but I still have some things I’d like to learn about Lua and pull off before I feel confident enough in my applications of Lua to be able to move to another ladder.

I’ve been recommended C (since Lua interfaces well with it), JavaScript and Python as my next places to go after I’m comfortable with moving to learn another language.

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Once you have a Successful Game, you’ll become more confident.

  • The term Successful is defined differently by each individual

    • A Top Popular Game
    • A Top Rated Game
    • A Top Earning Game
    • Etc

__

Achieving any Goal / Achievement also helps

Aren’t those just top categories? I know they’re just examples but it’d probably be better to add better goal ideas to help inspire a grounded-but-meaningful starting point. Of course these are instances of success but they’re quite high hurdles for a thread on confidence. I’m thinking success like:

  • Finishing a project
  • Joining a development team
  • Getting a small fanbase for your game
  • Being known amongst some people within the community

Things like that. :slight_smile:

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How “long” did it take you? Months? Years?

How to answer this question I learned lua in 3 weeks but I had 6 years experience with c#, java script, PHP,…