About me

Hi there! I'm Markus Torkkell, a 25-year-old student from Kotka, Finland.

Gaming has been a fascination for my whole life ever since I picked up an NES controller as 3-year-old. Growing up with games in my life, I've accumulated a ton of experience and knowledge around them. Playing all kinds of genres ranging from platformers, shooters, puzzles, adventures, racing games and so on, on all kinds of hardware through the history, made me appreciate everything that got gaming to this point. And my mission is to make it go even further.

Currently, I'm studying at Xamk to become an engineer in gaming technologies. I believe this is a great gateway to become a part of the gaming industry. I am very thankful for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Skills

Although I don't have proper work experience yet, I have worked on multiple gaming related projects, attended game jams and done 3D modelling on my own. I also have a bunch of useful and unique skills that makes me stand out from the rest of the crowd.

An artist and a photo editor

I have sufficient skills in GIMP, having almost 10 years of experience with the software. I'm able to create and edit images to anyone's liking. I've also tried my hands on digital art with Krita and a Wacom drawing tablet, and I still continue on exploring and experimenting with it. I've done and still do a whole lot of traditional art, with just a pen and a paper. I'm very interested in the world of art and want to exercise my skills more and learn more about it.

A 3D Modeller

I've used Blender since the spring of 2020 and have accumulated a lot of experience making and modelling stuff, animating, video editing and so on. When the COVID-19 hit at the start of the 2020, I thought it was a good time to finally learn 3D-modeling, since it was a skill I wanted to have for a long time. So, I started with what most people start when learning Blender: Blender Guru's Donut Tutorial Series. After completing Blender Guru's tutorials, I was competent to do projects on my own. For example, I've modelled my previous apartment in Blender and brought it to VR with Unity and VRChat.

An Engineer

I also have a bit of knowledge in electric and mechanical engineering, as was studying mechanical engineering at Lappeenranta University of Technology for four years. For example, I've taken part speed building an electric trike with a team, for the opening of the J. Hyneman Center prototype lab, with the assistance of - yes - the one and only Jamie Hyneman!

Specialities

My speciality is my attention to detail and doing as detailed work as possible. Although my creative process is on a bit of a slower side, it's just for assuring that everything is as good as they can be to the smallest detail.

Interest in XR and Future Technologies

I have a great interest in VR and AR technologies, and want to improve and develop them, the software and the games you can run on them. I'm also very interested about other kinds of technologies and accessories that can have uses in the gaming and simulation, such as racing simulators, special controllers, haptics and threadmills. I want to bring the most potential out of the technology to make games even more immersive.

A Game Collector

One of my hobbies is game collecting. Ever since I got my first gaming console - the original PlayStation - I've been steadily growing my collection of games, consoles and other hardware and accessories. I have a wide range of different games for different platforms and played most of them, so I have a broad knowledge of the history of gaming and testing out different games on different hardware. I've done some modding, tinkering and fixing, too!

A Car and Racing Enthusiast

Besides gaming, art, and 3D-modeling, maybe my biggest passion is cars and racing. I was hooked on watching Formula One and WRC as a kid, and my life-long friend introduced me to the car culture as a whole. That's why racing games is my favourite genre and the type of game I (usually) excel at, favourite series being Gran Turismo, Forza Motorsport & Horizon, Burnout, FlatOut, Colin McRae Rally, DiRT and Need for Speed. And of course, I've played more racing games than just the ones I mentioned, even on the 2600.

I don't enjoy just virtual cars, as I'm a car enthusiast in real life, too. I have a broad knowledge about cars, although not too much mechanically. My daily driver is a Subaru, and I've driven a bunch of different cars from classics to moderns, and from a Smart car to huge military trucks. I've been in many racing events such as WRC's Rally Finland event around the Jyväskylä area and the local racing and rally events. I even own a go-kart and have a bit of experience in go-kart racing.

My aim is to work on a racing game at some point of my career, so if you want to give me that opportunity, I'd be more than happy!

So, if I piqued your interest, you can contact me over here.