Hi, I’m Malachy Kennedy
President // Video Game Development Club at UCI
Co-Founder & Game Engineer // Burnt Out Games, LLC
Game Design & SWE student // UCI (class of 2027)
2 shipped Steam titles · 1 approved for release
Unreal Engine 5 · Unity 6
Gameplay engineer specializing in combat systems, animation pipelines, and engine-level tooling.
Selected Work
Game Project
EXO
Unreal Engine 5.6
Aug 2024 - Present
Third-person movement shooter on spherical planets, where speed is the weapon.
EXO
Unreal Engine 5.6
C++
Blueprints
GAS
Wwise
Perforce
- 3rd Place, ICS Project Expo. Sole programmer on a team of 11.
- Rebuilt Unreal’s directional gravity for spherical traversal.
- Engineered enemy archetypes around what stays readable at 300 MPH: predictive drones, arching chargers, and area bosses.
- Integrated Discord API, Niagara VFX, UMG, O(1) pooling, tick splitting, and GAS data layer using C++.
See More
Game Jam
The Fallen
Unreal Engine 5.8
Jun 2026 - Jul 2026
Action RPG combat kit built in one week, tuned to shipped-game feel.
The Fallen
Unreal Engine 5.8
C++
Blueprints
GAS
Perforce
- Solo-programmed all player combat on a team of 8, built in a one-week jam.
- Rewrote the GAS damage pipeline in C++ for custom damage types, formulas, modifier, and split callbacks; modeling 9 derived stats to create build variety and status interactions.
- Engineered 4-hit chain + charged attacks, and special and ultimate abilities with input buffering, hitstop, and cancel windows; sequenced through AnimNotify hitboxes.
- Built C++ targeting that blends movement via custom anim warping, directional camera shake, and knockback resolution.
See More
Game Project
Kawai’ian Isolation
Unreal Engine 5.3
Apr 2024 - Jan 2026
First-person narrative adventure horror. 30+ contributors.
Kawai’ian Isolation
Unreal Engine 5.3
Blueprints
Wwise
Perforce
Apps Script
Steam
- Shipped on Steam - 10,000+ claims in the first 100 hours.
- Scripted mechanics and sequencing for 22 single-player scenes in Blueprints: AI direction, dialogue events, Blackboard checks, saves, level blockouts, and player pathing.
- Engineered a CSV-to-Unreal-to-Wwise dialogue pipeline tool with branching playback that auto-selects lines from caches player choices and world state, allowing for external VO authoring.
- Technical Director for 18+ contributors across audio, design, programming, and writing; ran AWS EC2 Perforce server for 30+.
- Wrote a 56-page game screenplay across 22 scenes.
See More
Game Project
Burning Out
Unity 6
Jan 2025 - Sep 2026
Co-op horror maze escape, lit and lived only by sharing fire.
Burning Out
Unity 6
C#
Mirror Networking
Steamworks
Git
- “How do we make multiplayer horror actually scary?”
- Networking, core mechanics, interactable features.
- Shipped to Steam: first release, and the reason that Burnt Out Games, LLC exists.
- Designed a networked inventory system on Mirror with custom OOP containers and item templates, keeping item state consistent across clients.
- Built the torch-and-fire system - dynamic lighting, flame behavior, torch burndown - as the tension mechanic, rather than a lighting feature.
- Ran playtests with 100+ participants across classes, events, and the Z3 Expo; turning clarity feedback into shipped changes.
- First Steam release, founding Burnt Out Games, LLC.
See More
Also Built
Various Projects
Unreal Engine 5.7, Roblox, Unity 6, Figma, Python, C
Jan 2025 - Sep 2026
Night Walk
First person horror experience. UE5.7
Trick or Treat
Multiplayer Roblox game. Lua.
Loonage
Custom radial physics system using polar coordinates. Unity 6, C#.
Limital
Abstracted OS Interface. Finalist, UCI Design-a-thon 2025. Figma.
Web Crawler & Search Engine
TF-IDF inverted index. Python.
Pintos Thread Scheduler
Preemptive priority scheduler. C, kernel.
Everything else→ https://malachek.itch.io/
Professional Experience
Professional Experience
Burnt Out Games
Game Engineer
April 2024 - Present
Co-Founder & Game Engineer
Burnt Out Games, LLC
- Co-founded a 10-developer studio and shipped 2 Steam titles, with a third approved for Q3 2026 release.
- Lead programmer on the studio’s Unreal titles, setting the C++ architecture other developers build against.
- Technical Director across concurrent projects; engine upgrades from UE 5.3 through 5.8, Perforce administration, and build pipelines.
- Drive Steam release engineering: packaging, graphics settings, platform requirements, and hotfixes; and turn post-launch feedback into shipped revisions.
See More
Internship
Taralumen Games
Game Dev Intern
Apr 2025 - Mar 2026
CORA - 2.5D metroidvania about confronting anxiety, Under NDA.
Game Development Intern
Taralumen Games
Unity 6
C#
Trello
Git
- Delivered 40+ playable builds for twice-weekly reviews, iterating on direct CEO and board feedback.
- Prototyped 30+ production-ready mechanics across 3 environments, onw the reference build a co-development studio is using for official production.
- Architected a 6,208-LOC C# codebase: 67 scripts, 31 prefabs, 15 scenes; on SOLID, Strategy Pattern, and Dependency Injection.
- Engineered depth-based collision via layer bitmasking and raycasts to resolve a multi-plane 2.5D gamespace.
See More
Leadership Experience
Video Game Development Club at UC Irvine
President
Jan 2024 - Present
North America’s largest collegiate game development club. 600+ yearly members, 44 officers, 13 departments.
President
Video Game Development Club at UCI
- Grew the club into North America’s largest collegiate game dev organization during a single presidency.
- Increased funding 106%, engagement 104%, and attendance 57%.
- Rewrote the constitution from 26 to 51 pages, defining departmental output and securing the funding increase.
- Onboarded a board 80% new after 30 of 39 officers graduated, rebuilding onboarding and deliberation documentation across 13 departments so the systems outlast any one board.
- Built Google Sheets API tooling for 10-times-weekly event scheduling, social hooks, and attendance trend tracking.
See More
Skills
Languages — C++ · C# · Python · UE5 Blueprints · C · Lua · Java · JavaScript
Engines & Tools — Unreal Engine 5 (5.3–5.8) · Unity 6 · Gameplay Ability System · Niagara · Wwise · Perforce · Git · Roblox Studio
Systems — Combat systems · Animation pipelines · Enemy AI · Networked multiplayer (Mirror) · Custom physics · Build & content pipelines
Open to Summer 2027 internships and new-grad gameplay engineering & design roles.
malachykennedy1@gmail.com
github.com/malachek
linkedin.com/in/malachykennedy
Hi, I’m Malachy Kennedy
President // Video Game Development Club at UCI
Co-Founder & Game Engineer // Burnt Out Games, LLC
Game Design & SWE student // UCI (class of 2027)
2 shipped Steam titles · 1 approved for release
Unreal Engine 5 · Unity 6
Gameplay engineer specializing in combat systems, animation pipelines, and engine-level tooling.
Selected Work
Game Project
EXO
Unreal Engine 5.6
Aug 2024 - Present
Third-person movement shooter on spherical planets, where speed is the weapon.
EXO
Unreal Engine 5.6
C++
Blueprints
GAS
Wwise
Perforce
- 3rd Place, ICS Project Expo. Sole programmer on a team of 11.
- Rebuilt Unreal’s directional gravity for spherical traversal.
- Engineered enemy archetypes around what stays readable at 300 MPH: predictive drones, arching chargers, and area bosses.
- Integrated Discord API, Niagara VFX, UMG, O(1) pooling, tick splitting, and GAS data layer using C++.
See More
Game Jam
The Fallen
Unreal Engine 5.8
Jun 2026 - Jul 2026
Action RPG combat kit built in one week, tuned to shipped-game feel.
The Fallen
Unreal Engine 5.8
C++
Blueprints
GAS
Perforce
- Solo-programmed all player combat on a team of 8, built in a one-week jam.
- Rewrote the GAS damage pipeline in C++ for custom damage types, formulas, modifier, and split callbacks; modeling 9 derived stats to create build variety and status interactions.
- Engineered 4-hit chain + charged attacks, and special and ultimate abilities with input buffering, hitstop, and cancel windows; sequenced through AnimNotify hitboxes.
- Built C++ targeting that blends movement via custom anim warping, directional camera shake, and knockback resolution.
See More
Game Project
Kawai’ian Isolation
Unreal Engine 5.3
Apr 2024 - Jan 2026
First-person narrative adventure horror. 30+ contributors.
Kawai’ian Isolation
Unreal Engine 5.3
Blueprints
Wwise
Perforce
Apps Script
Steam
- Shipped on Steam - 10,000+ claims in the first 100 hours.
- Scripted mechanics and sequencing for 22 single-player scenes in Blueprints: AI direction, dialogue events, Blackboard checks, saves, level blockouts, and player pathing.
- Engineered a CSV-to-Unreal-to-Wwise dialogue pipeline tool with branching playback that auto-selects lines from caches player choices and world state, allowing for external VO authoring.
- Technical Director for 18+ contributors across audio, design, programming, and writing; ran AWS EC2 Perforce server for 30+.
- Wrote a 56-page game screenplay across 22 scenes.
See More
Game Project
Burning Out
Unity 6
Jan 2025 - Sep 2026
Co-op horror maze escape, lit and lived only by sharing fire.
Burning Out
Unity 6
C#
Mirror Networking
Steamworks
Git
- “How do we make multiplayer horror actually scary?”
- Networking, core mechanics, interactable features.
- Shipped to Steam: first release, and the reason that Burnt Out Games, LLC exists.
- Designed a networked inventory system on Mirror with custom OOP containers and item templates, keeping item state consistent across clients.
- Built the torch-and-fire system - dynamic lighting, flame behavior, torch burndown - as the tension mechanic, rather than a lighting feature.
- Ran playtests with 100+ participants across classes, events, and the Z3 Expo; turning clarity feedback into shipped changes.
- First Steam release, founding Burnt Out Games, LLC.
See More
Also Built
Various Projects
Unreal Engine 5.7, Roblox, Unity 6, Figma, Python, C
Jan 2025 - Sep 2026
Night Walk
First person horror experience. UE5.7
Trick or Treat
Multiplayer Roblox game. Lua.
Loonage
Custom radial physics system using polar coordinates. Unity 6, C#.
Limital
Abstracted OS Interface. Finalist, UCI Design-a-thon 2025. Figma.
Web Crawler & Search Engine
TF-IDF inverted index. Python.
Pintos Thread Scheduler
Preemptive priority scheduler. C, kernel.
Everything else→ https://malachek.itch.io/
Professional Experience
Professional Experience
Burnt Out Games
Game Engineer
April 2024 - Present
Co-Founder & Game Engineer
Burnt Out Games, LLC
- Co-founded a 10-developer studio and shipped 2 Steam titles, with a third approved for Q3 2026 release.
- Lead programmer on the studio’s Unreal titles, setting the C++ architecture other developers build against.
- Technical Director across concurrent projects; engine upgrades from UE 5.3 through 5.8, Perforce administration, and build pipelines.
- Drive Steam release engineering: packaging, graphics settings, platform requirements, and hotfixes; and turn post-launch feedback into shipped revisions.
See More
Internship
Taralumen Games
Game Dev Intern
Apr 2025 - Mar 2026
CORA - 2.5D metroidvania about confronting anxiety, Under NDA.
Game Development Intern
Taralumen Games
Unity 6
C#
Trello
Git
- Delivered 40+ playable builds for twice-weekly reviews, iterating on direct CEO and board feedback.
- Prototyped 30+ production-ready mechanics across 3 environments, onw the reference build a co-development studio is using for official production.
- Architected a 6,208-LOC C# codebase: 67 scripts, 31 prefabs, 15 scenes; on SOLID, Strategy Pattern, and Dependency Injection.
- Engineered depth-based collision via layer bitmasking and raycasts to resolve a multi-plane 2.5D gamespace.
See More
Leadership Experience
Video Game Development Club at UC Irvine
President
Jan 2024 - Present
North America’s largest collegiate game development club. 600+ yearly members, 44 officers, 13 departments.
President
Video Game Development Club at UCI
- Grew the club into North America’s largest collegiate game dev organization during a single presidency.
- Increased funding 106%, engagement 104%, and attendance 57%.
- Rewrote the constitution from 26 to 51 pages, defining departmental output and securing the funding increase.
- Onboarded a board 80% new after 30 of 39 officers graduated, rebuilding onboarding and deliberation documentation across 13 departments so the systems outlast any one board.
- Built Google Sheets API tooling for 10-times-weekly event scheduling, social hooks, and attendance trend tracking.
See More
Skills
Languages — C++ · C# · Python · UE5 Blueprints · C · Lua · Java · JavaScript
Engines & Tools — Unreal Engine 5 (5.3–5.8) · Unity 6 · Gameplay Ability System · Niagara · Wwise · Perforce · Git · Roblox Studio
Systems — Combat systems · Animation pipelines · Enemy AI · Networked multiplayer (Mirror) · Custom physics · Build & content pipelines
Open to Summer 2027 internships and new-grad gameplay engineering & design roles.
malachykennedy1@gmail.com
github.com/malachek
linkedin.com/in/malachykennedy
Hi, I’m Malachy Kennedy
2 shipped Steam titles · 1 approved for release // Unreal Engine 5 · Unity 6
Gameplay engineer specializing in combat systems, animation pipelines, and engine-level tooling.
Selected Work
Game Project
EXO
Unreal Engine 5.6
Aug 2024 - Present
Third-person movement shooter on spherical planets, where speed is the weapon.
EXO
Unreal Engine 5.6
C++
Blueprints
GAS
Wwise
Perforce
- 3rd Place, ICS Project Expo. Sole programmer on a team of 11.
- Rebuilt Unreal’s directional gravity for spherical traversal.
- Engineered enemy archetypes around what stays readable at 300 MPH: predictive drones, arching chargers, and area bosses.
- Integrated Discord API, Niagara VFX, UMG, O(1) pooling, tick splitting, and GAS data layer using C++.
See More
Game Jam
The Fallen
Unreal Engine 5.8
Jun 2026 - Jul 2026
Action RPG combat kit built in one week, tuned to shipped-game feel.
The Fallen
Unreal Engine 5.8
C++
Blueprints
GAS
Perforce
- Solo-programmed all player combat on a team of 8, built in a one-week jam.
- Rewrote the GAS damage pipeline in C++ for custom damage types, formulas, modifier, and split callbacks; modeling 9 derived stats to create build variety and status interactions.
- Engineered 4-hit chain + charged attacks, and special and ultimate abilities with input buffering, hitstop, and cancel windows; sequenced through AnimNotify hitboxes.
- Built C++ targeting that blends movement via custom anim warping, directional camera shake, and knockback resolution.
See More
Game Project
Kawai’ian Isolation
Unreal Engine 5.3
Apr 2024 - Jan 2026
First-person narrative adventure horror. 30+ contributors.
Kawai’ian Isolation
Unreal Engine 5.3
Blueprints
Wwise
Perforce
Apps Script
Steam
- Shipped on Steam - 10,000+ claims in the first 100 hours.
- Scripted mechanics and sequencing for 22 single-player scenes in Blueprints: AI direction, dialogue events, Blackboard checks, saves, level blockouts, and player pathing.
- Engineered a CSV-to-Unreal-to-Wwise dialogue pipeline tool with branching playback that auto-selects lines from caches player choices and world state, allowing for external VO authoring.
- Technical Director for 18+ contributors across audio, design, programming, and writing; ran AWS EC2 Perforce server for 30+.
- Wrote a 56-page game screenplay across 22 scenes.
See More
Game Project
Burning Out
Unity 6
Jan 2025 - Sep 2026
Co-op horror maze escape, lit and lived only by sharing fire.
Burning Out
Unity 6
C#
Mirror Networking
Steamworks
Git
- “How do we make multiplayer horror actually scary?”
- Networking, core mechanics, interactable features.
- Shipped to Steam: first release, and the reason that Burnt Out Games, LLC exists.
- Designed a networked inventory system on Mirror with custom OOP containers and item templates, keeping item state consistent across clients.
- Built the torch-and-fire system - dynamic lighting, flame behavior, torch burndown - as the tension mechanic, rather than a lighting feature.
- Ran playtests with 100+ participants across classes, events, and the Z3 Expo; turning clarity feedback into shipped changes.
- First Steam release, founding Burnt Out Games, LLC.
See More
Also Built
Various Projects
Unreal Engine 5.7, Roblox, Unity 6, Figma, Python, C
Jan 2025 - Sep 2026
Night Walk
First person horror experience. UE5.7
Trick or Treat
Multiplayer Roblox game. Lua.
Loonage
Custom radial physics system using polar coordinates. Unity 6, C#.
Limital
Abstracted OS Interface. Finalist, UCI Design-a-thon 2025. Figma.
Web Crawler & Search Engine
TF-IDF inverted index. Python.
Pintos Thread Scheduler
Preemptive priority scheduler. C, kernel.
Everything else→ https://malachek.itch.io/
Professional Experience
Professional Experience
Burnt Out Games
Game Engineer
April 2024 - Present
Co-Founder & Game Engineer
Burnt Out Games, LLC
- Co-founded a 10-developer studio and shipped 2 Steam titles, with a third approved for Q3 2026 release.
- Lead programmer on the studio’s Unreal titles, setting the C++ architecture other developers build against.
- Technical Director across concurrent projects; engine upgrades from UE 5.3 through 5.8, Perforce administration, and build pipelines.
- Drive Steam release engineering: packaging, graphics settings, platform requirements, and hotfixes; and turn post-launch feedback into shipped revisions.
See More
Internship
Taralumen Games
Game Dev Intern
Apr 2025 - Mar 2026
CORA - 2.5D metroidvania about confronting anxiety, Under NDA.
Game Development Intern
Taralumen Games
Unity 6
C#
Trello
Git
- Delivered 40+ playable builds for twice-weekly reviews, iterating on direct CEO and board feedback.
- Prototyped 30+ production-ready mechanics across 3 environments, onw the reference build a co-development studio is using for official production.
- Architected a 6,208-LOC C# codebase: 67 scripts, 31 prefabs, 15 scenes; on SOLID, Strategy Pattern, and Dependency Injection.
- Engineered depth-based collision via layer bitmasking and raycasts to resolve a multi-plane 2.5D gamespace.
See More
Leadership Experience
Video Game Development Club at UC Irvine
President
Jan 2024 - Present
North America’s largest collegiate game development club. 600+ yearly members, 44 officers, 13 departments.
President
Video Game Development Club at UCI
- Grew the club into North America’s largest collegiate game dev organization during a single presidency.
- Increased funding 106%, engagement 104%, and attendance 57%.
- Rewrote the constitution from 26 to 51 pages, defining departmental output and securing the funding increase.
- Onboarded a board 80% new after 30 of 39 officers graduated, rebuilding onboarding and deliberation documentation across 13 departments so the systems outlast any one board.
- Built Google Sheets API tooling for 10-times-weekly event scheduling, social hooks, and attendance trend tracking.
See More
Skills
Languages — C++ · C# · Python · UE5 Blueprints · C · Lua · Java · JavaScript
Engines & Tools — Unreal Engine 5 (5.3–5.8) · Unity 6 · Gameplay Ability System · Niagara · Wwise · Perforce · Git · Roblox Studio
Systems — Combat systems · Animation pipelines · Enemy AI · Networked multiplayer (Mirror) · Custom physics · Build & content pipelines
Open to Summer 2027 internships and new-grad gameplay engineering & design roles.
malachykennedy1@gmail.com
github.com/malachek
linkedin.com/in/malachykennedy