Casey Holtz / Game Designer
About Me
Software:
Unity, UE4
3Ds Max, Maya, Sketchup,
Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere,
Excel, Visio, PowerPoint
Interests:
Drawing, Photography, Live Music, Architecture, History, Mythology/Folklore,
Reading, Skateboarding, Snowboarding, Cycling, Hiking, Camping, Paintball,
Environmentalism, Sustainability
Languages:
English, Japanese (Beginner)
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Casey Holtz is a game designer, entrepreneur, teacher and artist living in Boulder Colorado. Casey has been developing games since he was a teenager and professionally since 2005. Casey studied under industry professionals, such as Steig Hedlund and Bob Steele (Blizzard) while attending Academy of Art University in San Francisco, CA.
While in school he led a team to create an independent game called “Ruin Hunters” using the Quake 3 engine which was written up in "PC Gamer" magazine and included on a demo disk in the UK’s "PC Format" magazine. The game was a mix of Bomber Man, Power Stone and Smash Brothers. Before finishing college, Casey assembled another team to work on a demo for an action/rpg which he pitched to Sony and other companies at E3 in 2004.
Casey got his break in the industry as a designer with Activision, Z-Axis and then Shaba studios. He has worked on games in some of the biggest entertainment properties, including X-men, Tony Hawk, Disney, Tomb Raider, Tron and Sonic the Hedgehog. After working as a lead designer with Planetmoon and THQ on Drawing to Life on the Wii, Casey left to start his own studio, Mechanical Butterfly Studios (MBS) and development original downloadable games.
MBS released Droopy Blocks for the iPad in 2012 to critical reception and a feature from Apple. In 2014 MBS won “Best Multiplayer game” at the Indieprize at Casual Connect for their game Jump Tanks. Jump Tanks was also featured on PC Gamers live show during E3 2015 as well as Gung Ho’s Indie Games live with GameTrailers.com. Along with original titles, MBS provided contract design and engineering to other game companies.
Casey has been the organizer of the San Francisco Game Development Meetup Group since 2002. The group meets monthly to discuss current trends in the industry, demo games and give and receive feedback and for members to look for teammates to collaborate with on projects.
Casey’s passion is working with teams that appreciate and expect innovative design and have the resources and support to push the medium of video games forward.