How I coded a shoot 'em up alone at 18 after learning Lua in a single week

DamixLord — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 16:29:54 +0000

Hey everyone. I'm new to the "real" world of programming because I used to just code alone in my room, strictly on my own PC. My name is NZUKOU DAMIEN (my username is DamixLord), and I'm an 18-year-old developer based in Cameroon.

I've been a fan of programming since I was 12. Since then, I've messed around with several languages: Python, JS, Go, and now Lua. I don't even know why, but I just love Lua for no specific reason, so I wanted to learn it. In one week, I learned variables, functions, tables, and OOP (especially metatables, which I absolutely love). I wanted to build a project to check if my fundamentals were solid enough to reach an intermediate level, and that's how I made SPACE CONQUEROR.

I didn't go with a traditional OOP approach; instead, I mixed it up with metatables because I enjoy it, and honestly, it was a blast. I'm looking forward to your feedback, advice, etc.

Just a quick heads-up (because I have to, since some people on Reddit jumped all over me for this): I did feed my code to an AI to make it more readable (because I do weird things like declaring variables that are as long as a highway), and I copied snippets here and there because my math and logic skills can be pretty bad. I'm not writing my first article to brag or pretend I'm a genius (honestly, I have major imposter syndrome). I'm doing this to get feedback, chat, and learn from my mistakes.

Thanks again! (And one last thing: while making this, I realized that my first real project is very similar to the one Elon Musk coded when he was 12, Blastar. Coincidence? I'll let you be the judge).

The Project : https://github.com/nzukoudamien/Space-Conqueror

DEV Community: DamixLord

How I coded a shoot 'em up alone at 18 after learning Lua in a single week