Who is Janni?
My name is Janni, legally Ioannis Toptsis. I'm a passionate developer on a
continuous journey to deepen my knowledge and skills, and a gamer from Hessen, Germany. From an
early age, I found a safe haven in technology, a place where I could truly be myself. What began
with video games quickly evolved into a deep interest in the systems behind them.
Even in my youth, I built my own servers and wrote my first lines of code in
Lua, Java, and later C# and JavaScript, mostly without formal instruction, driven purely by
curiosity and the joy of creating. Whether it was Minecraft plugins, scripts for GTA multiplayer
mods, or entire roleplay servers: every project was a new challenge, but above all, a learning
experience.
My projects were never created alone, many of them were built together with
longtime friends I've grown close to over the years. Today, I use my portfolio not only to
showcase my work but also to bring structure to my ideas and projects.
At the heart of everything I do is the same motivation as back then: a
passion for technology and the drive to learn about the things that truly interest me.
My Journey
I was born on May 30, 2002, in Offenbach am Main and have lived a life marked
by psychological challenges. From an early age, I searched for a place where I could feel safe
and free. I found that place in technology. Computers, games, scripting, and programming became
the space where I could truly be who I wanted to be.
I played my first video game at the age of seven; as far as I can remember,
it was Call of Duty: World at War. Year after year, I followed each new Call of Duty release on
the PlayStation 3. Looking back, I wish I had been a “Nintendo kid.” Today, I love Nintendo and
am making up for lost time. From today’s perspective, the PlayStation is actually my “least
favorite console.” Still, I owned almost every generation: PS1, PS2, PSP, PS3, PS4, as well as
the original Xbox and Xbox 360. But in hindsight, my absolute favorite was the original Xbox.
Around 2013, my fascination with PCs began, marking a deeper dive into
technology and software. The game that had a lasting impact on me was GTA: San Andreas. It was
the starting point for real friendships that still last today. Inspired by Gronkh, I started my
first YouTube channel back then. My first Let’s Plays were recorded directly from the screen
using a basic touchscreen phone, very rudimentary. A school friend then introduced me to the
multiplayer modification MTA (Multi Theft Auto) for GTA: San Andreas. That was the beginning of
a very special time.
Through the Energy Reallife server, I met my first online friends. I became
curious about how the technology behind the game mode worked, so I started exploring an
open-source script called Vio-Lite on my own. That was my entry into Lua scripting. Later,
together with my first online friend Chris, I set up our own MTA server. For that, we bought a
ready-made Reallife script called LoSa from a seller named Shady. The script had legendary
status for us, a modern look, clean folder structure, and an incredible faction system for its
time. When we acquired it, we toasted with milk that evening, a moment I will never forget.
Of course, not everything went smoothly. The journey was bumpy, full of
setbacks, but also packed with learning moments. Although the server soon went offline, we kept
starting new attempts, often with new friends we met along the way. We were young, enthusiastic,
and full of ideas.
Through another contact from Energy Reallife, I happened to meet other people
who were running a local Minecraft server via Hamachi at the time. That gave me the idea to rent
my own Minecraft server through Nitrado. I regularly asked my mother for a Paysafecard to
finance the server. I had taken over the map from my friends, and once again, my curiosity grew
about whether I could implement cool features here too, like with MTA.
So, I taught myself Java and programmed my first plugin: a scoreboard that
displayed how many times a player had died. I was incredibly proud of it and showed it to all my
friends. Their enthusiasm became my motivation to keep going. That’s how our server „Greentown“
came to be, limited to our circle of friends, but everyone had a lot of fun with it.
At the same time, I restarted my YouTube channel, this time with the goal of
exciting smaller YouTubers about „Greentown.“ Through this, I met another person who had a
strong impact on my life. I also launched my first Minecraft network: byPrefix.net, heavily
inspired by GommeHD.net. I experimented with BungeeCord, the technology behind it fascinated me
deeply. Although the project ended after about two years and never had many users, that didn’t
matter to me. For me, it was a valuable learning experience. Even though others called it a
„failure,“ it was an important learning project on my journey to what I do today with Janni.fun.
This phase played a major role in my decision to become an IT specialist in application
development.
After that, there was a quieter period. I focused more on gaming and only
worked on smaller side projects. Then I discovered GT-MP, the first multiplayer modification for
GTA V. Immediately, that old MTA feeling was back. Chris and I checked out the German RP server
GVMP right away, which back then didn’t even have character creation or voice chat. For us, that
was normal; nowadays, it’s hard to imagine. Unfortunately, I didn’t yet have the knowledge to
write my own scripts for GT-MP, especially since C++ was too complex for me. So, for the time
being, I stayed a player, also on platforms like RageMP, altV, and later FiveM.
With FiveM came a great opportunity: Lua support and a community providing
many open-source resources. I used the ESX framework and developed my first own GTA RP server on
it. The project was well-structured and modern, with high standards influenced by the LoSa
script, which still shapes me today. Unfortunately, there weren’t enough active players to
enable real roleplay. Later, I invested in the paid altV script „Valea,“ my first real project
with C# and JavaScript. I learned an incredible amount from this script and began customizing it
according to my vision. The result was my own, revised RP server on altV.
I was never alone in any of my projects. Chris has been my closest partner
from the very beginning, whether in programming, designing, or managing projects together. I am
endlessly grateful to him for that. In recent years, I have also had support from friends like
Dustin and Leon, whom I met through the server myLife. We remain close friends to this day.
The most recent projects went better than many before, but in hindsight,
much was chaotic, unorganized, and often overly ambitious. There were too many fresh starts and
too many loose ends. However, all these experiences led to a clear goal: I want to bring order
to my projects. That’s exactly why this website exists.
It is not just my portfolio, but the starting point for everything to come:
structured, thoughtful, and with a clear vision.
