CSColby Saddoris

Software engineering · Game development · Product systems

Software engineer and systems thinker connecting product, operations, and hands-on development.

I began learning programming by creating games, and I have continued building games and software systems ever since. I am strongest when a problem is messy and crosses boundaries: I map how people, workflows, data, and software affect one another, then turn that understanding into practical products. From reusable Unity systems to school operations software and education platforms, I increasingly use AI to accelerate implementation while retaining responsibility for architecture, tradeoffs, testing, debugging, and final decisions.

Selected work Start a conversation
Systems thinking across domains Practical, user-centered problem solving Transparent AI-assisted execution

Selected work

Built around real constraints.

5 representative case studies—not a complete inventory—spanning gameplay systems, education, school operations, and business integration.

012017–Present

Unity / Gameplay Systems

Unity Systems & Game Prototypes

A long-running body of composition-first Unity work spanning reusable systems, editor tooling, and fourteen two-dimensional and three-dimensional prototypes.

My role: Architecture, implementation, editor tooling, testing

  • Developed across 14 two-dimensional and three-dimensional prototypes; the three most recent games selectively reuse and extend parts of the earlier framework.
  • Prototype work includes 2D action and platforming, first-person and multiplayer systems, hover and vehicle mechanics, physics and ragdoll experiments, behavior-tree AI, and loot and inventory systems.
  • Reusable work includes animation, input, interaction, equipment, physics, character, networking, and Unity editor systems.
  • Applied object-oriented design deliberately: composing capabilities at the system level while using focused inheritance within components when it provides a clear, stable model.
UnityC#Animation RiggingNetcodeEditor Tools
022026–Present

Blazor / Education Platform

Game & Grow

A work-in-progress school learning and curriculum-content platform for creating reusable datasets, worksheets, classroom sessions, and game-based activities.

My role: Product architecture, domain design, UX direction, testing and AI-assisted implementation

  • Architected district, school, classroom, teacher, student, ownership, sharing, and approval boundaries for a multi-school product.
  • Designed reusable curriculum datasets for spelling, vocabulary, multiple-choice, math, books, sequences, and future content types, with worksheet and session workflows.
  • Defined engine-agnostic game APIs for launch authorization, content delivery, saved state, answer validation, and item-level learning telemetry.
  • Uses AI-assisted implementation while I retain responsibility for the domain model, UX direction, validation, testing, debugging, and product decisions.
ASP.NET CoreBlazorC#Entity FrameworkSQL ServerREST APIsPhaser / HTML5
032026–Present

Blazor / School Operations

HereHereGone

A locally hosted elementary-school dismissal platform designed around student-data control, dependable classroom workflows, and secure access inside and outside the school network.

My role: Product design, workflow architecture, deployment, testing and AI-assisted implementation

  • Chose a school-managed Windows host with SQLite so core dismissal and student information remain under school control and classroom devices operate over the local network.
  • Used Cloudflare Tunnel for HTTPS QR and administrative access outside the local network without exposing inbound school-network ports.
  • Modeled student dismissal schedules, car pickup, buses, walkers, aftercare, classroom release, exceptions, late events, and auditable event history.
  • Piloted the system in a real elementary-school workflow and iterated from teacher, office, and dismissal-staff feedback.
ASP.NET CoreBlazorC#SQLiteCloudflare TunnelWindows Service
042006–2008

C# / Game Development

Electronic Video Bingo Rewrite

A solo rewrite and mobile-hardware port of an electronic video bingo title using C#, XNA, DirectX, Windows CE, and SOAP services.

My role: Solo software engineer

  • Rewrote another company’s game using a modernized C# technology stack.
  • Targeted constrained mobile gaming hardware.
  • Built runtime-editable UI behavior that accommodated later product changes.
C#XNADirectXWindows CESOAP
052008–2022

C# / Business Systems

Operations Integration Suite

A set of internal applications that connected legacy software, Access data, SQL systems, production requirements, and customer information during a long operational transition.

My role: Operations leader, software designer and developer

  • Unified information from disconnected production and accounting systems.
  • Allowed a legacy uniform system to remain useful while a replacement platform was introduced.
  • Combined hands-on software work with responsibility for teams of more than 85 employees.
C#WPFSQL ServerAccessSystems Integration

Technical range

The work extends beyond the case studies.

I have continuously built games, tools, visual assets, and physical systems across languages and platforms, grounded in object-oriented design and pragmatic choices about composition, inheritance, and abstraction.

Game-development path

Languages and platforms

  • Since 2017Unity / C#
  • EarlierLibGDX / Java
  • EarlierC# / MonoGame
  • EarlierC# / XNA
  • 2004C++ / DirectX
  • 2002C#
  • 2001Turbo Pascal
Physical & interactive systems

Software that reaches beyond the screen

  • Built an Arduino and physical-sensor prototype for laundry soil sorting in 2020.
  • Built a custom Raspberry Pi arcade machine in 2016.
  • Experimented with creating VR experiences; useful exposure rather than deep production experience.
Visual production

Technical work with a visual foundation

  • Previously proficient with 3ds Max; experience is meaningful but not recent.
  • Practical Photoshop and Illustrator experience spanning game assets, layouts, branding, and advertising.
  • Comfortable moving between engineering constraints and how a finished product communicates visually.

How I approach software

See the whole system, then make it workable.

01

Map relationships and failure modes

I naturally look for how people, data, rules, tools, and downstream consequences affect one another. That usually reveals the real pressure points before I commit to an implementation.

02

Translate between domains

I am comfortable moving between software architecture and the operation around it—turning what users do, where workflows break, and what leaders need into a system people can actually use.

03

Question and refine

I rarely accept the first plausible answer. I test behavior, trace failures, challenge abstractions, and revise when a system is coherent on paper but wrong in practice—including when AI wrote the implementation.

04

Control scope deliberately

Systems thinking can make every dependency feel important. I counter that by separating the smallest workable release from the larger architecture and testing ideas against actual use.

Experience

Engineering and operational leadership.

2022–Present

Independent Software & Game Developer

  • Continued independent Unity development by selectively reusing, adapting, and expanding gameplay systems across newer 2D and 3D projects.
  • Designed, deployed, and iterated HereHereGone around a real elementary-school dismissal workflow.
  • Architected Game & Grow, a school-focused platform for reusable learning datasets, worksheets, sessions, browser games, and item-level results.
  • Created supporting tools, including a project launcher, and increasingly used AI to accelerate implementation while retaining responsibility for architecture, testing, debugging, and final decisions.
2018–2022

VP Operations · United Linen

Executive planning, production and plant-engineering leadership, plus custom C# automation replacing vendor-dependent workflows.

2008–2018

Internal Software Development → Production & Sales Leadership · United Linen

  • Started in an internal software role, building a WPF human-resources application and a report generator using data from a vendor-managed SQL database.
  • Moved into production management to learn and lead the physical production process.
  • Built a custom branding and apparel business line, integrated it into the company's delivery model, and designed the non-software order workflow needed to operate it.
  • Learned to operate and maintain embroidery software and equipment and created quarterly magazine advertising in Illustrator and Photoshop.
2006–2008

Software Engineer · Lightning Games

Solo C# rewrite and mobile port of an electronic video bingo game using XNA, DirectX, Windows CE, and SOAP.

2006

B.S. Software Engineering · GPA 3.85

Formal software-engineering foundation followed by two decades of practical system building.

A note on recent web work

AI-assisted does not mean hands-off.

I use modern AI tools to accelerate implementation, especially in recent Blazor projects. I remain responsible for the product architecture, requirements, domain model, testing, debugging, iteration, and final decisions. I describe that division honestly because understanding the system matters more than pretending every line was typed manually.