The year was 2005, and I was in my second year of Computer Science. I loved web development and wanted to learn a language that could help me build real applications.

At the time, tabletop RPG players(myself included) had a problem. Games like Vampire: The Masquerade required groups to meet in person, but as we grew older, got jobs, and scattered across cities, gathering became impossible. There were no online tools to play RPGs with friends.

So I decided to build one.

I bought a PHP book and dove in. But I quickly realized: Programming isn’t learned by reading alone. You have to be hands-on! So I set out to create a platform where game masters could form groups, manage players, and run sessions with a chat and dice-rolling system.

But keep in mind that this was 2005. There were no YouTube or Stack Overflow. What I had was forums (like Orkut) and the PHP manual.

Somehow, I made it work. The code was spaghetti, the frontend used HTML tables for layout (CSS was a mystery), and deployment meant FTP-ing files via FileZilla. But it worked.

I announced the tool on Orkut’s RPG communities. People went crazy. I had those counters we used to have on all websites back then, where we would show visitors and registered users. I couldn’t believe the numbers: 1k registered users and 7k visitors in the first month.

I was euphoric, dreaming of new features. But I didn’t know how to build new features and keep the website running at the same time. I didn’t know what version control was and GitHub wouldn’t exist for another 4 years. My thought was “I have to take the web app down while I write new features, and then when it’s finished, I’ll put it back up.”

Between my day job and inexperience, I never wrote those features. Years passed. I kept paying for the domain… until 2015, when I finally let go.

But I’ve learned a lot through this experience. The most important lesson: Programming is about practice. You’re only going to get good at it if you practice. Learn the theory, but practice more. Write code. Read code. Try. Fail. Practice every day.

Don’t get discouraged if things don’t work out as you expected. Just build. Eventually, you’ll get it right.

PS.

Two decades later, I’m finally building again. Not for glory, but for the joy of creating.

So if you’re into movies, check this out: Frame6 - A game quiz about movies. You can play alone or with your friends.