Yuniverse

Hi, I’m Yuni.

Welcome to the Yuniverse! I’m a 3D Artist and Technical Animator for Games. My real name is Leonie, but I go by Yuni online.

Currently I am employed at the Berlin game developer studio Maschinen-Mensch. Aside from that I am freelancing in my various projects listed below.

An image of me in a sunset setting looking into the camera.

This is what I do

3D Technical Art & Animation

With six years of working experience within the Games Industry, I provide stylized 3D character and environmental assets with textures, custom rigs and animations. Check out my portfolio below.

3D-Portfolio
Illustration

Digital illustration is my other creative outlet aside from technical arts. No matter if you are in need of illustrations for your business & private uses, or looking for custom emotes for Twitch & Youtube, I got you covered.

2D-Portfolio
Stage Host & Speaker

For as long as I have been working in the games industry, I have been a speaker for all topics regarding marginalized devs in the industry. Additionally, I’ve been working in front of the camera as a host or guest in live shows with a focus on Game Development.

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Project & Event Management

Since 2019, I’ve been actively been working in event organisation and community management in the non-profit organisation #FemDevsMeetup. In 2022 I also co-founded GAME:IN, an organisation that aims to tackle sexism and discrimination within the German games industry.

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Livestreaming

In 2021 I started live-streaming my day-to-day work, indie games and art-related content on Twitch. Over the years I have built a lovely and active community with whom I share my work endeavours and bits of my daily life on Twitch and Discord.

Twitch Channel

Want more info?

Résumé

Special games that I have worked on

Harold Halibut

Harold Halibut is a handmade narrative game about friendship and life on a city-sized spaceship submerged in an alien ocean. My responsibilities for this game included cleaning and preparing hours of Motion Capture animations in Motion Builder.

Steam
Mother Machine

Mother Machine is a 1-4 player co-op action-rpg platformer in which you explore alien caves full of emergent surprises. With the exception of the main characters, I rig and animate anything that moves in this game, regardless if it's a creature or foliage.

Steam
Derpy Conga

Derpy Conga is a cute and colorful physics-based puzzle-platformer about the importance of friendship. As the sole character artist, I was responsible for creating all rigged characters, animations and several props.

Nintendo E-Shop
Wormworld Saga

The Wormworld Saga is a graphic novel by Daniel Lieske. Together with the team at Treecastle games, I created characters, rigs and animations for a yet to be published video game adatation.

Graphic Novel
We Stay Behind

We Stay Behind is a single-player third-person mystery between dreams and reality. For this project I have created several characters and animations, built the character art pipeline, and also worked on the engine implementation.

Steam
Knights of Fortune

Knights of Fortune is a multiplayer battle arena designed for web browsers; mobile & desktop. For this projet I have created several characters and skins with countless animations, as well as environmental assets.

Game
Dead Letters

Dead Letters is an original comedic dark fantasy adventure about facing monstrous manifestations of your inner fears. I have been creating 3D assets, textures and animations for this prject.

Trailer

Tools & Software

Blender

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Substance Painter

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Photoshop

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Procreate

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Unreal Engine

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Unity 3D

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Codecks

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Jira

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G-Suite

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Blender • Substance Painter • Photoshop • Procreate • Unreal Engine • Unity 3D • Codecks • Jira • G-Suite •

Publications & Awards

NRW Förderpreis for young female developers

I was awarded with the NRW award for young female developers at the Deutsche Entwicklerpreis gala 2023 for my work in game development, as well as my efforts in supporting women and marginalized developers in the German games industry. Next to the Deutsche Coputerspielpreis, the Deutsche Entwicklerpreis is the second largest awardshow in the German games industry.
Special jury award of Deutscher Computerspielepreis for #FemDevsMeetup

In 2023, #FemDevsMeetup was awarded with the special jury award of the Deutsche Computerspielpreis. This award honors a personality, an institution, a company, an event or similar who has made a special contribution to computer and video games or the computer and video game industry. I accepted the award on behalf of #FemDevsMeetup.
Heart of Gaming gamescom award for GAME:IN

After the launch of GAME:IN just one year prior, our initiative was awarded with the Heart of Gaming Award with at gamescom in 2023. This award honors extraordinary games, add-ons, technologies, people, institutions, companies, concepts, or terms.
XBOX Mentorship Program

I am part of the official XBOX Mentoring Programm in partnership with GAME:IN. The Xbox Mentoring Program is led by leading women in the gaming industry who are amplifying their voices - and now sharing their insights through individual coaching sessions.
Künstlerinnenpreis NRW

In 2017 I was awarded with the funding award of the Künstlerinnenpreis NRW for my contributions as an artist to the game scene of North-rhine Westphalia by the Frauenkulturbüro NRW.
Bachelor Thesis Publication

After graduation from my Bachelor’s program in 2018, I published my thesis “Depression and Digital Games: An Investigation of Existing Uses Leading to the Proposal of a Therapeutic Game” in: Violence | Perception | Video Games. transcript‑publisher.