Hi, my name is Billy Katz and I am a game developer.
I am interested in building meaningful games that help players express themselves and connect with the world around them. This portfolio showcases my ability to manage and ship personal projects, collaborate effectively with teammates at commercial studios, and my passion for game development.
Professional Experience
Fire Opal Media
Unity Software Engineer, December 2023 - Present
At Fire Opal Media, my responsibilities revolve around video poker variants. I build prototypes to test out new gameplay ideas and actively participate in design discussions for upcoming projects. One key focus has been developing front-end features that enable different gameplay modes tailored to each variant. On the back-end side, I've updated APIs to incorporate new ruleset capabilities while ensuring backward compatibility is maintained across all our existing poker variants. In addition to these implementation tasks, I'm also working on an unannounced project that explores novel concepts in the video poker space.
Good Luck Games
Unity Software Engineer, June 2022 - Present
As a software engineer at Good Luck Games, I built out client features like in-game news and emote selection. I also partnered with the art director to design and implement a modular VFX library. With the improved tools, artists were able to create an effect once and use it across multiple VFX.
Hourglass Escapes
Technical Producer, January 2022 - June 2022
As a technical producer at Hourglass Escapes I partnered with artists to set up the environment where they could create 3D scenes in Unity. I collaborated with designers to maintain a 42 page game design document and helped the production team hit major milestones.
Mobile Software Engineer
Mobile Software Engineer, March 2016 - May 2021
With over 5 years of experience building client and backend features for companies like Amazon and Best Buy, I bring a senior perspective on code architecture to promote robust sytems and maintainability. I've led small engineering teams and spearheaded successful initiatives such as Amazon Photos In-App Purchases, which resulted in over 200,000 subscriptions within the first 6 months of launch. My expertise lies in crafting well-engineered solutions that balance technical excellence with business goals.
Independent Projects
Shift Shaft
Shift Shaft is a match-3 roguelike where players can rotate the board. Players move their character around the board by destroying rocks and rotating to change gravity. But watch out because monsters lurk behind every corner!“What really blew my mind with Shift Shaft and the main thing that makes it feel unlike any other game out there is your ability to rotate the entire board at will. It sounds simple but this changes everything… This is truly a thinking person’s matching game.”
- Jared Nelson, TouchArcade.com
Coffee Shop Clues
Coffee Shop Clues is a cozy drink-crafting game where you play as an aspiring witch barista setting up her new cafe. You'll need to whip up custom drinks to satisfy customers, but they only provide vague hints about what they want. Will that be a steaming "Pumpkin Spice Batte" potion for sweet dreams or a "Transylvania Fog" to conjure some cheer? Combine coffee elements however you see fit to make the townspeople happy in this spooky soft opening.
Thin Ice
In the deckbuilding game Thin Ice, players take on the role of a puffin on a mission to clean up the Arctic. What makes this game unique is its dual-deck system - you draw cards from two separate decks, then merge them to form a single card in your hand. This innovative mechanism streamlines the typical complexity of deckbuilders. Instead of numerous keywords and icons to memorize, your cards are simple: movement cards just show arrows, while modifier cards have basic math operations like "+1" and "x2." Thin Ice offers all the strategy of a deckbuilder in a fun, accessible package.
Graphics Programming
I have a passion for animation and VFX and have built out systems to support dynamic targeting projectiles, particle systems, and overall cool-looking effects.
Coffee Cup Effect
I combined two shaders to get a coffee cup effect in Coffee Shop Clues. Learn more.
Swirl Effect
I built a swirl effect to entice players to see and pick-up items. Learn more.
Game Jams
Mycelia
University of Washington's Tri-Campus Game Jam, 2021 In Mycelia, players control a fungal network in a real-time strategy game to revive a once-thriving forest. Players use action points to connect hexes to the central Mother Tree to share resources and attempt to make it through the grueling summer. I designed the tiles to be color-blind accessible and programmed the action point system and tutorial.
Bombs Away
University of Washington Game Jam, 2020Who needs shovels? In this Worms inspired puzzle adventure players use bombs to find buried treasure left behind by the famous pirate Black Beard. On their quest, players spend coins to upgrade their bombs so they can blow up bigger swaths of land. I programmed the destructible terrain maps, tutorial, main menu, and the gameplay. I also taught our level designer how to build maps with tools I created.
