About me

Intro

My name is Hallvard Lygre Hetlelid, and I'm a 24-year-old software developer from Bergen. I started programming in late 2018, and what began as a hobby quickly became a passion I plan to carry for life.

I have two bachelor's degrees from the University of Bergen: one in Information Science and one in Media- and Interaction Design. Information Science fed my love for programming and understanding how technology works, while Interaction Design taught me to think creatively and put people at the center of what I make. Together, they've shaped me into a developer who cares about both building things that work and making them easy and enjoyable to use.

How it started

Since 2015, back in secondary school, I've been a huge fan of the incremental game Cookie Clicker. There's something uniquely satisfying about watching numbers climb higher and higher. I realized I wanted to make my own incremental game, but I knew nothing about programming. I didn't know any programming, but I was determined to figure it out. With some questionable JavaScript and some shotty CSS, a prototype for a game called Tree Cutter was born.

In 2018, I dove fully into developing Tree Cutter. I spent countless hours experimenting with CSS tricks, learning how to generate HTML programmatically with JavaScript, and Googling everything I didn't understand.

I never did finish Tree Cutter, but making it was a turning point. It showed me that the best way to learn coding isn't through books or tutorials. It's by building things. The only true way to become a programmer is to set a goal and then figure out whatever it takes to achieve it.

My passion for incremental games never faded. Six years later, I'm working on a new project: Emoji Tycoon. This time, with the experience I've gained, I'm aiming to build a fully-realized mobile game, complete with a robust front-end and back-end.

My plants

Though my biggest hobby is programming, I also have a deep love for plants. Since moving into my own apartment, it has been steadily filled with more and more plants. My favorites are succulents, not only because they are low maintenance, also because they are simply very beautiful plants.