Timm Johnson

01
About Me

Independent game developer with 6 years industry experience.

Current Projects


- DRIFT BOOM BOOM Top-Down Combat Racing Game
- Open for Work on Part Time / Short Term Contracts

Key Experience

- Unreal Engine Blueprinting, C++
- Unity Engine Development
- XR & Multiplayer Games
- Scalable Designer-Friendly Software Architecture
- Managing Small Teams
- Game & Level Design, Iterating Designs based on Feedback

Social Media



02
Selected Experience

DRIFT BOOM BOOM
Isometric Combat Racing Game


2023-Ongoing


DRIFT BOOM BOOM is a top-down combat racing game with similarities to Rock n Roll Racing. It will feature a "Story Mode" with character dialogue and varied objectives, as well as a "Challenge Mode" in which players race to earn money to upgrade their cars and take on increasingly challenging AI opponents. All game modes support up to four players.
I chose Unity Engine for its robust Asset Store, mature porting tools, and fast iteration time.
Seeking publisher support soon. Project has a long way to go, but it's far enough along to be fun.


Unreal Plugins


2023-2024
Part-Time Development of Assets for the Unreal Engine Marketplace


Created several plugins and content packs for use in Unreal Engine 5.
Focused on scalability and efficiency so that my plugins could be used for Indie or AA titles with few modifications.

  • Planned, Architected, Developed modular assets from scratch
  • Update and maintain assets, respond to user questions
  • Took extra time to set up assets as Plugins when possible, making them easier to update and harder to break by separating the plugin code from project-specific code

In addition to my published assets, I spent substantial time developing RTS systems including a HUD, and data-driven units whose stats could be easily modified from a spreadsheet. Unfortunately the RTS Template project is not far enough along to be sellable.


Project Highlight: Realistic Train & Rails System


The Realistic Train & Railroad System is a full turn-key train and railroad system that allows you to add a moving train to an Unreal map in less than five minutes.

The system was originally developed during a game jam, and then cleaned up and fleshed out further for release as a Content Pack.

  • Rails can be placed in the world. Splines can be used to configure their paths. Rails may optionally loop back upon themselves and rail visuals can be customized.
  • Trains can be placed in the world and assigned to follow a rail at a configurable speed.
  • Trains can be configured to determine what blueprints should be used for the train engine and train cars, as well as number of cars.
  • Bundled realistic diesel engine and boxcar have easily configurable paint color options and make realistic sounds based on their movement speed. Boxcar doors may be open or closed.
  • Trail "bogeys" / wheel cairrages and couplers rotate accurately as trains move around curving tracks.
  • Documentation provided on how to add custom engine and train car types. Add your own steam engines, tanker cars, etc.


Virtual Heroes
Serious Games Developer


2019-2023
Full-Time Programmer using Unreal Engine, C++



Virtual Heroes, a division of Applied Research Associates, uses Unreal Engine to develop serious games (training games) and simulations.
Projects are mostly military and medical.

  • Built and debugged systems for our various projects, including VR & Multiplayer projects
  • Gave in-person VR demos & presentations for clients
  • Maintain and integrate cross-project plugin code


Project Highlight: VTAK


VTAK is the 3D and VR implementation of TAK. Basically a soldier or emergency worker can use it to import terrain of a real-world location, walk around the location at 1:1 scale, plan a mission, and monitor the mission in real-time from a virtual command center. It syncs up with GPS-tracked phones and other devices in the real world in real-time.

Some of my contributions to VTAK and VTAK-adjacent projects:

  • Overhauled the User Interface to give it full feature parity across VR and Non-VR modes
  • Helped design and implement a multiplayer-like mode
  • Overhauled VR Keyboard based on user testing
  • Faithfully recreated UI of real digital devices, then implemented "physical" button interactions for them in VR.
  • Developed an inventory system that works across VR and Desktop


Survios
Game Programming Intern


2019
Survios develops VR Games using the Unreal Engine.


Aside from oversight and guidance, Survios interns are treated like their other developers.



"MU Skyview" AR Map


2018
Grant Project for Marshall University


An augmented reality map of Marshall University. If user is on-campus, it will highlight their current location. Its main goal is to give new students and visitors a better understanding of the campus layout by showing it to them in a 3D and interactive format.

  • Developed under a grant from the Marshall University Research Corporation.
  • Available on Google Play as of 2019.
  • This project was based on a virtual Marshall University project made in Unreal the previous year by Cameron Asbury and myself.
  • Most of the buildings were originally modeled by "sintusha" on the 3d Warehouse. I modeled the rest using a drone to create photogrammetry.


Marshall University


Class of 2019
B.S. in CIT, Area of Emphasis in Game Design & Development


Learned C++, C#, Unity, Unreal and a smattering of other things. GPA 3.9

  • President of the game development club. Set up game jams, "Dev Talks" and weekly meetings.
  • Minor in Digital Humanities
  • Certificate in Information Assurance


With each game I work on I want to leave the player with something positive or useful.
Games should be a tool for improving people's lives.

03
Contact

See my smaller game projects on itch.io.
Discord: sonictimm

LinkedIn, Github