About me
Hello! My name is Jaakko Ylimäki, and I’m a game development student from Finland. My skills and interests in the field revolve around design, music, sound design and visual arts, but I also have a little experience with production and being a team lead. I’m now on my third year of studying, and I’m currently looking for internship opportunities!
I’ve been dabbling in video game content creation ever since I was young. In my childhood I created maps for Roblox and created a map in AdvetureCraft, a standalone mod for Minecraft. I even planned some dungeons of my own for a hypothetical Zelda game, story and all. These never became significant projects, but I’d like to think they paved the way for my future passion for game development.
Playing video games has always been a hobby close to my heart, and a couple of years back I decided to try and step beyond the curtain; from being (only) a player of games to being a developer of games. I’ve tried my hand at fulfilling many different positions in teams, and past projects have accumulated a decent amount of experience under my belt from various disciplines. My greatest strengths lie in game design, level design, 3D & 2D animation and most things related to audio, but my background in visual arts and interest in production work has made sure I can be useful in those fields as well. Being a curious person to my core, I never want to stop learning new things when it comes to interests and passions of mine. Even though I have shortcomings in the industry, such as programming, I’m not reluctant to find ways to help me learn the necessary skills and improve as a developer. All of the development disciplines are linked to each other after all, so the more aspects of development one has knowledge of, the better!
When it comes to playing games, I consider myself mostly as a fan of Nintendo and indie games. I grew up with consoles like the Nintendo Gamecube and Wii, so I have a lot of love for the Japanese giant and their games, but in recent years I’ve spent more time playing indie games on the PC (some of my favorites include Heroes of Hammerwatch and Dead Cells.) I’ve also played some “endless games” like Hearthstone and Team Fortress 2, but nowadays I tend to only play them in phases with long breaks in between them. I also enjoy playing board games, and in addition to playing Magic: the Gathering, games like Samurai Sword or good ol’ Trivial Pursuit are always a good time.
If I had to describe my personality, I’d say I’m thoughtful, calm and kind to a fault. I can be very passionate when it comes to my hobbies and interests, and I’m willing to work hard to achieve something or to help others. Said hobbies and interests include playing games as mentioned before, producing and mixing music, watching cartoons, doing digital art and dancing occasionally.
