Ever since I was 6 years old, I wanted to make my own Mario levels and would doodle scenes with crayons on paper. Fast forward to 2002 when I was a moderator of a rom hacking forum. There were a few games we hacked just for fun: Mario, Metroid, Megaman, and Castlevania. Sure, we had tools to facilitate our hobbies but that was limited to whatever the tools could do for us. If we wanted to do something drastic like introduce a new enemy or add weather effects, etc, we had to understand ASM. This is a very low-level programming language used in old-school games and required an understanding of how memory addresses and routines worked. Even if you understood how to program in ASM, the process of doing so was VERY tedious, even down to tile editing for graphics. Working with only 13 usable colors per 16 color palette was difficult enough.
I wanted to try making a Mario game and decided to give Game Maker a try. The idea was that nothing was limited to memory addresses or any such nonsense. I wanted to build a game that was open source and easily editable by anyone wanting to make their own Mario game. My first attempt was terrible of course and I relied on drag-and-drop functions. There were countless limitations to resources back then but I continued trying. Although my dream of building a Mario game never came true, I sought out other pursuits. Over the years I've drastically improved and it wasn't until about 2009 that I got serious about programming in general. I enrolled in programming classes, aced them all, and eventually got a job as a software developer. My hobby became my passion, and my passion became my career. It saved me from the hell of being stuck in a cubicle for 8-hours taking internet tech-support calls.
Now I use all core programming concepts I've learned from college AND my job to develop my current project. I am always trying to find new ways to improve my programming skills and I will NEVER STOP. I feel like I've found my purpose. Programming makes me happy and I know I'll be doing this for the rest of my life. And it all started with the iconic little plumber I've known my entire life that inspired me to develop my own video games.