My First Discord Bots: Noob Era, No OOP, Just Fun
I created several Discord bots just for fun and for friends' servers. It was pure tinkering, but seeing my scripts run live and people actually using them felt like magic.
Overview
When I started coding Discord bots, I barely knew the basics of Python, and OOP was complete gibberish to me. I made total noob bots: a slot machine, a bot where you could invest in fake crypto, manage portfolios, buy/sell, all that beginner stuff. I followed YouTube tutorials, copied code without really understanding, and was just happy when it worked.
Problem
I wanted to automate things, add funny commands, and mostly just feel like a real dev. Even if my bots were basic (and sometimes buggy), just seeing friends play with them was the best reward.
Constraints
- No knowledge of OOP or software architecture
- Didn't know how to debug properly, no AI to help
- Learning everything on the fly, via Stack Overflow and YouTube
- Discord API was sometimes incomprehensible, rate limits, permissions, etc.
- Bots hosted on my own PC, so uptime was... random!
Approach
I started with super simple commands (slot machine, ping, fake crypto). I copy-pasted code, broke everything, fixed it in a messy way, and learned like that. I discovered JDA (the Java API) much later: at first, it was all JS with discord.js, and honestly, I didn't get much at the beginning.
Key Decisions
Follow YouTube tutorials and Discord.js docs
It was the only way to get results fast, even if I didn't understand everything.
- Do everything from scratch (impossible at my level)
- Use Python (I tried, but JS was easier for Discord)
Host the bots on my own PC
No cloud budget, and it was cool to see the bot running at home.
- Cloud hosting (useless for small bots)
Tech Stack
- Node.js
- discord.js
- JavaScript
- A bit of Python at the very beginning
Result & Impact
- +InfBots created
- 0 (well only my private servers lol)Servers used on
- Depended on my PC (reboots, crashes...)Uptime
Making Discord bots made me want to keep coding. Even if it was all duct tape, it taught me how to learn, how to search for solutions, and how fun it is to see people use your scripts, even for silly games.
Learnings
- You really learn by breaking and fixing things yourself
- Tutorials and docs are life when you're starting out
- Seeing people use your code is super motivating
- Reliability matters, even for fun bots
- You don't need perfect code to make something people enjoy and to progress
Why Discord Bots Were So Fun
Back then, there was no AI to generate code or fix bugs for you. I just wanted to make something cool for my friends, so I followed tutorials, copied code, and tried stuff until it worked. Every time my bot replied in chat, I felt like a real developer, even if, looking back, the code was a mess and the architecture was non-existent. But it worked, and that was all that mattered.
I loved the feeling of building something people actually used, even if it was just a silly meme command or a basic moderation tool. It was my first taste of “shipping”, and it made me want to keep learning and building more.