I’m Caitlyn, a game designer based in Virginia.

Unity 2D Video Game Developer ● Photoshop Artist ● Online Code Class Instructor for Create&Learn

Design Disciplines

Level Design

Build thematic levels.  I develop meaningful layouts, environments, and challenges within a game to convey the creator’s intent for the player’s experience.  Each compelling corner of my game spaces invokes submersion with relevant and purposeful design.

Concept Art, VFX, & 2D Sprites

Transform creative ideas into custom assets.  Custom assets enhance a game’s stylistic hook. Imagination meets hand-drawn polished professional artwork with Photoshop to illustrate captivating lore, gorgeous scenes, and memorable characters.

C# Programs

Code the game.  My programming repertoire to generate and modify 2D experiences within the Unity game engine encompasses a full metroidvania-style platformer from start to finish: preload, save, multi-console input, player abilities, UI menus, inventory, plot progression, scene transition, boss fights, health, particle effects, Shader Graphs, and more.

Narrative Systems

Tell a tale. I write and edit detailed dialogue to convey a game’s story, from custom designed font to authorship of text files to the overarching dialogue delivery software. Ink and Unity’s TextMeshPro support versatile and complex plotlines via quest structure, gameplay integration, and branching choices.

2D Animation

Enrich gameplay mechanics. I smoothly transform game art with Photoshop, Timeline, and Unity’s Animator & Animate to take a character or other game object from still image to animated sprite.

Teaching & Mentorship

Teach game design and mods. I am a game development teacher for the online code school Create&Learn. I teach Unity (2D Platformers, Goldberg’s Mazes, First Person Shooters), Minecraft Mods, Scratch, and Roblox (Obstacle Courses) to elementary, middle, and high school students.

*Scroll down to view portfolio samples under the Highlights & Featured Game Design sections of this webpage

Highlights

*These game assets (except AI images & cited artists) were developed by Caitlyn Holzmond for Digital Native and may not be reused without permission

Game Dev

Grand Fantasy

When Does ‘Good’ Become ‘Outstanding?’

    • symbols: fleeting drizzle sof rain becomes a storm

    • guide the eye to beautiful corners

    • combine objects to tell a story via proximity

    • embrace thematic inspiration in popular mythology

    • trigger recognition in players

    • leave freely interpretable negative spaces

  • Item description

Creative & Original Mechanical Hook

    • Right-Side-Blind Silhouette FX, a Challenging Novel Platformer Mechanic: Unity’s Shader Graph

    • C# Program 2D-3D Integration: Visual Studio

AI-Derivative Works

Hand-drawn Frame-By-Frame Game Art

Honored Inspiration

Takato Yamamoto

    • Texture & Shape Reference Images: AI Prompt

    • Game Art Sprites: Photoshop

    • Lighting & Bloom: Unity 2D

    • The Fall of Lucifer

    • Innocence Lost

Visual Story Arc

Jeff Lee Johnson’s Submersive Scenes & Emotional Transitions

Striking Sprite Silhouettes & Strong Sharp Animation Poses

    • Cityscape Reference Images: AI Prompt

    • Cyberpunk Building Game Art Sprites: Hand-drawn in Photoshop

    • Parallax, Lighting, & Bloom: Unity 2D

    • Dystopia

    • Evil Buildings

    • Science Fiction

    • Snake geometry invokes ‘Garden of Eden’ for a ‘Loss of Innocence’ trope

    • Snake Reference Image: AI Prompt

    • Tree Game Object: Photoshop

    • Petal, Cloud, & Rain FX: Unity’s Particle System

    • Wind Zone: Unity’s Physics Engine

    • Texture & Shape Reference Images: AI Prompt

    • Game Art Sprites: Photoshop

    • Right-Side-Blind Silhouette FX: Unity’s Shader Graph

    • Parallax, Player Movement, Lighting, & Bloom: Unity 2D

    • Stars, Cocktails, & Fountain Particle FX: Unity’s Particle System

    • Animations: Unity’s Animator & Animation

    • Gluttony

    • Vampires

    • Outer Space

Asets Done with Super Speed
Artificial Intelligence, Tool of Our Time, Used to Create Meaningful Hand-Drawn Artwork

2D Animation Statement Pieces

Genndy Tartakovsky’s Samurai Jack & Primal

    • Looping animation hand-drawn in Photoshop Timeline

    • 2D animation animated frame-by-frame with Unity’s Animator

    • Transparency of sprites for glass and liquid done in Unity

    • Lighting for 2D-3D VFX done in Unity with Universal Render Pipeline

    • 3-color-gradient background material & shader made in Unity with Shader Graph & C# code

    • Bubble Effect from custom Photoshop brushes

  • Dialogue System

    • Text: Unity’s TextMeshPro

    • Speech Bubbles: Unity’s Particle System

    • User Interface (UI): Unity’s Canvas

    • .JSON Story Narration: Ink

    Font from Scratch

    • Characters: Photoshop

    • Glyphs: Inkscape

One-Side-Blind 2D Platforming Challenge

Narrative & Theme

    • Cityscape Reference Images: AI Prompt

    • Cyberpunk Building Game Art Sprites: Hand-drawn in Photoshop

    • Parallax, Lighting, & Bloom: Unity 2D

    • Dystopia

    • Evil Buildings

    • Science Fiction

Ryōko Kui

Ryōko Kui’s Character Design for Falin & Marcille
Tamsin Muir’s Textual Descriptions for Gideon & Harrow

    • Texture & Shape Reference Images: AI Prompt

    • Game Art Sprites: Photoshop

    • Lighting & Bloom: Unity 2D

    • The Fall of Lucifer

    • Innocence Lost

Fine Lines & Intricate Details

Tetsuya Nomura’s Fantastical Characters in Dreamy Atmospheres

    • Collect a board of on-theme art to derive…

      • Silhouette, Transparency, and Shape

      • Color Palette and Textures

      • Relevant Symbolism

      • Poses

    • Draw over images of posed models in monochrome

    • Derive

    • A doctor runs a shop exclusive to the early game whose greed causes their untimely demise and closes their clinic:

      • Dollar sign shape convention represents currency

      • Rod of Asclepius symbolizes medicine and healing

      • Green colors evoke themes of money and envy - tinted spectacles color their worldview green

Featured Game Design

*These game assets (except AI images & cited artists) were developed by Caitlyn Holzmond for Digital Native and may not be reused without permission

  • Images:

    • a tree with a face: a secret place

    • bees in the trees

    • Airborne Aerie Apothecary

    Unity

    • Lighting

    • Particle FX

    • Day / Night: Visual Studio