Despite what she says about “not being that interesting” and remaining mysteriously tight-lipped about her nickname, Timm is an easy conversationalist and quite the adventurer. One might guess at Tim Burton being one of her inspirations both for name and art style, but while the second part is true… yeah, that’s not right either.
Originally from Virginia, Timm grew up in Maryland, went to school in Florida, and twice in her life now, has moved halfway across the country with little more than high hopes. She’s also proof that cold emailing a link to your portfolio can work when job hunting because that’s basically the story of how she came to work at Vector Unit.
Timm was in Austin, Texas when she started doing freelance contract work for VU. That turned into a 6-month in-office contract, then a full-time job. Beach Buggy Blitz feels a lot like “her baby” because it was the first project she really worked on. Timm loves that it reflects her art style and takes pride in having conceptualized so much of it. As an artist with such a small team, she enjoys the immense creative freedom she gets, as well as being able to wear so many different (job) hats, that she never gets bored. While modelling and texturing are her favorite parts of the job, she loves being able to see assets go all the way from concept to in-game animation. There’s also a great level of communication with this awesome team.
As a kid, Timm grew up playing games like Star Fox, Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Pokémon Stadium, and Super Smash Bros. with her older brother, taking turns when necessary. She attributes her love for video games to him (who got her into video games in the first place), and who is mainly the reason why she enjoys multiplayer gaming and being part of a community. Her favorite games include the Metal Gear Solid series, Left 4 Dead, and Mario Kart 64. But her absolute favorite arcade game is the classic Sunset Riders. If you find it in an arcade, please let her know since there are only two she knows of in the Bay Area. Also, she heavily supports the idea of a Pokémon MMO.
Aside from video games, Timm has an extensive list of hobbies like watercolor and gouache painting, cartooning, sculpting (can you tell she’s an artist?), sewing, hiking, and playing with her dog (she loves animals in general). She also loves cooking and would do it more if it weren’t for her currently tiny (and poorly laid out from the sounds of it) kitchen. That’s okay, she’s moving soon.
In terms of advice for future game developer artists, she says, “Keep learning; don’t stop doing what you love; and keep practicing, even if you can’t find a job. Or at least stop moping.”
