Burnt Out Games, LLC
An indie studio with three titles on Steam.
Co-Founder & Game Engineer · 10 developers · Apr 2024 – Present
2 shipped · 1 approved for release · Unreal Engine 5 · Unity 6
Overview
Type
Role
Team
Founded
Engines
Tools
Output
Indie Games Studio (LLC)
Co-Founder & Game Engineer
10 signed developers, 4 additional on contract
April 2024
Unreal Engine 5 (5.3-5.8), Unity 6
Perforce, Git, AWS EC2, Steamworks, Figma, C++, C#
2 titles shipped, 1 approvedfor Q3 2026
Why We Incorporated
We founded Burnt Out Games to publish Kawai’ian Isolation and Burning Out, and kept it because being an entity changes what you're allowed to do.
Most doors in this industry need one. Festivals, showcases, funding, and publishing all ask for a legal entity before they ask anything else. Steam gives you legal protection you don't get as an individual.
The other reason was positioning. Conner and I both wanted to be developers, not student developers. Our games are meant to reach people, and "student project" is a box that decides how far something travels before anyone has played it.
We also wanted to be in the business of the business. You learn the industry faster as a verified contributor inside it than as someone studying it.
Conner is a business major and handled the legal side with the UCI law clinic. We're a full entity, Schedule Bs and all.
What I Built
The output. The problem it was all built against is in Designing for Sustainability, below.
The Technical Side
- Release engineering: Steam submission, store setup, platform requirements, packaging, graphics settings, and post-launch hotfixes.
- Source control: each project runs its own Perforce server on its own AWS EC2 instance, with access management and onboarding docs. Git on the Unity side.
- Engine upgrades: UE 5.3 through 5.8, run across live projects without stalling them.
- Architecture: lead programmer on the studio's Unreal titles, writing the C++ layer the other developers build against.
Studio Logistics
Conner and I drafted the revenue model. Developer share is points-based:
- Role points scale with seniority and quarters involved.
- Active points come from standups attended against standups expected, with grace.
- A developer's share is their points over the total.
Revenue splits 45% to developers, 40% to the company, 10% to business administration, and 5% across everyone involved in the project and related ones.
Pitching Exo
I build the publishing materials for our games. For EXO that's a full pitch package:
- Playable assets: the build, and access for reviewers.
- Video assets: elevator pitch video, game trailer, raw footage.
- Documentation: elevator pitch, pitch deck, GDD, development roadmap, three comparables, traction data.
- Business and financials: total budget ask, budget to date, dev months needed, launch window, estimated RRP, target platforms, target age rating.
Assembling that package is its own education. Three comparables forces you to say honestly which games yours sits beside, and a budget ask forces you to price your own remaining work.
Brand and Identity
I build the publishing materials for our games. For EXO that's a full pitch package:
- Playable assets: the build, and access for reviewers.
- Video assets: elevator pitch video, game trailer, raw footage.
- Documentation: elevator pitch, pitch deck, GDD, development roadmap, three comparables, traction data.
- Business and financials: total budget ask, budget to date, dev months needed, launch window, estimated RRP, target platforms, target age rating.
Assembling that package is its own education. Three comparables forces you to say honestly which games yours sits beside, and a budget ask forces you to price your own remaining work.
My side was directing that work and then applying it everywhere the studio shows up:
- The studio website, which I designed against the guide. https://burntoutgames.com/
- Team business cards. Those of us who went to GDC had them printed and handed them out everywhere.
- A merch run for the studio.
Brand Guide
Business Cards
Merch Run
How Incorporating Changed the Work
The output. The problem it was all built against is in Designing for Sustainability, below.
A commercial release has to hold a player past two hours, because that's Steam's refund window. That single number shapes scope, pacing, and what counts as finished.
It also means positioning the game on a market it has to survive in, which is why marketing and branding stopped being optional for the games and for the studio.
It changed how we work with people. Non-studio members joining a project sign NDAs and contracts now.
Conner and I drafted the revenue model. Developer share is points-based:
- Role points scale with seniority and quarters involved.
- Active points come from standups attended against standups expected, with grace for missed ones.
- A developer's share is their points over the total.
Revenue splits 45% to developers, 40% to the company to keep it running, 10% to business administration, and 5% across everyone involved in the project and related ones.
Building that model meant deciding what contribution actually means when nobody is drawing a salary. Seniority, tenure, and showing up were the three things we could measure without arguing about them later.
Where It’s Taken Us
Incorporating made us findable. The same work posted as a studio reaches people it didn't reach as students.
- Mentorship from people at USC Games in publishing, Riot Games in UX, and Naughty Dog in marketing and community.
- A studio visit and tour at Riot Games.
- Booths for Burning Out and EXO.
- GDC, with our own business cards.
- A conversation with the Mycopunk team on taking a student team through to a Devolver Digital pickup.
Touring Riot Games
Boothing Burning Out
Boothing Exo
Open to Summer 2027 internships and new-grad gameplay engineering & design roles.
malachykennedy1@gmail.com
github.com/malachek
linkedin.com/in/malachykennedy
Burnt Out Games, LLC
An indie studio with three titles on Steam.
Co-Founder & Game Engineer · 10 developers · Apr 2024 – Present
2 shipped · 1 approved for release · Unreal Engine 5 · Unity 6
Overview
Type
Role
Team
Founded
Engines
Tools
Output
Indie Games Studio (LLC)
Co-Founder & Game Engineer
10 signed developers, 4 additional on contract
April 2024
Unreal Engine 5 (5.3-5.8), Unity 6
Perforce, Git, AWS EC2, Steamworks, Figma, C++, C#
2 titles shipped, 1 approvedfor Q3 2026
Why We Incorporated
We founded Burnt Out Games to publish Kawai’ian Isolation and Burning Out, and kept it because being an entity changes what you're allowed to do.
Most doors in this industry need one. Festivals, showcases, funding, and publishing all ask for a legal entity before they ask anything else. Steam gives you legal protection you don't get as an individual.
The other reason was positioning. Conner and I both wanted to be developers, not student developers. Our games are meant to reach people, and "student project" is a box that decides how far something travels before anyone has played it.
We also wanted to be in the business of the business. You learn the industry faster as a verified contributor inside it than as someone studying it.
Conner is a business major and handled the legal side with the UCI law clinic. We're a full entity, Schedule Bs and all.
What I Built
The output. The problem it was all built against is in Designing for Sustainability, below.
The Technical Side
- Release engineering: Steam submission, store setup, platform requirements, packaging, graphics settings, and post-launch hotfixes.
- Source control: each project runs its own Perforce server on its own AWS EC2 instance, with access management and onboarding docs. Git on the Unity side.
- Engine upgrades: UE 5.3 through 5.8, run across live projects without stalling them.
- Architecture: lead programmer on the studio's Unreal titles, writing the C++ layer the other developers build against.
Studio Logistics
Conner and I drafted the revenue model. Developer share is points-based:
- Role points scale with seniority and quarters involved.
- Active points come from standups attended against standups expected, with grace.
- A developer's share is their points over the total.
Revenue splits 45% to developers, 40% to the company, 10% to business administration, and 5% across everyone involved in the project and related ones.
Pitching Exo
I build the publishing materials for our games. For EXO that's a full pitch package:
- Playable assets: the build, and access for reviewers.
- Video assets: elevator pitch video, game trailer, raw footage.
- Documentation: elevator pitch, pitch deck, GDD, development roadmap, three comparables, traction data.
- Business and financials: total budget ask, budget to date, dev months needed, launch window, estimated RRP, target platforms, target age rating.
Assembling that package is its own education. Three comparables forces you to say honestly which games yours sits beside, and a budget ask forces you to price your own remaining work.
Brand and Identity
I build the publishing materials for our games. For EXO that's a full pitch package:
- Playable assets: the build, and access for reviewers.
- Video assets: elevator pitch video, game trailer, raw footage.
- Documentation: elevator pitch, pitch deck, GDD, development roadmap, three comparables, traction data.
- Business and financials: total budget ask, budget to date, dev months needed, launch window, estimated RRP, target platforms, target age rating.
Assembling that package is its own education. Three comparables forces you to say honestly which games yours sits beside, and a budget ask forces you to price your own remaining work.
My side was directing that work and then applying it everywhere the studio shows up:
- The studio website, which I designed against the guide. https://burntoutgames.com/
- Team business cards. Those of us who went to GDC had them printed and handed them out everywhere.
- A merch run for the studio.
Brand Guide
Business Cards
Merch Run
How Incorporating Changed the Work
The output. The problem it was all built against is in Designing for Sustainability, below.
A commercial release has to hold a player past two hours, because that's Steam's refund window. That single number shapes scope, pacing, and what counts as finished.
It also means positioning the game on a market it has to survive in, which is why marketing and branding stopped being optional for the games and for the studio.
It changed how we work with people. Non-studio members joining a project sign NDAs and contracts now.
Conner and I drafted the revenue model. Developer share is points-based:
- Role points scale with seniority and quarters involved.
- Active points come from standups attended against standups expected, with grace for missed ones.
- A developer's share is their points over the total.
Revenue splits 45% to developers, 40% to the company to keep it running, 10% to business administration, and 5% across everyone involved in the project and related ones.
Building that model meant deciding what contribution actually means when nobody is drawing a salary. Seniority, tenure, and showing up were the three things we could measure without arguing about them later.
Where It’s Taken Us
Incorporating made us findable. The same work posted as a studio reaches people it didn't reach as students.
- Mentorship from people at USC Games in publishing, Riot Games in UX, and Naughty Dog in marketing and community.
- A studio visit and tour at Riot Games.
- Booths for Burning Out and EXO.
- GDC, with our own business cards.
- A conversation with the Mycopunk team on taking a student team through to a Devolver Digital pickup.
Touring Riot Games
Boothing Burning Out
Boothing Exo
Open to Summer 2027 internships and new-grad gameplay engineering & design roles.
malachykennedy1@gmail.com
github.com/malachek
linkedin.com/in/malachykennedy
Overview
Type
Role
Team
Founded
Engines
Tools
Output
Indie Games Studio (LLC)
Co-Founder & Game Engineer
10 signed developers, 4 additional on contract
April 2024
Unreal Engine 5 (5.3-5.8), Unity 6
Perforce, Git, AWS EC2, Steamworks, Figma, C++, C#
2 titles shipped, 1 approvedfor Q3 2026
Why We Incorporated
We founded Burnt Out Games to publish Kawai’ian Isolation and Burning Out, and kept it because being an entity changes what you're allowed to do.
Most doors in this industry need one. Festivals, showcases, funding, and publishing all ask for a legal entity before they ask anything else. Steam gives you legal protection you don't get as an individual.
The other reason was positioning. Conner and I both wanted to be developers, not student developers. Our games are meant to reach people, and "student project" is a box that decides how far something travels before anyone has played it.
We also wanted to be in the business of the business. You learn the industry faster as a verified contributor inside it than as someone studying it.
Conner is a business major and handled the legal side with the UCI law clinic. We're a full entity, Schedule Bs and all.
What I Built
The technical side of three releases. Why it works this way is in How Incorporating Changed the Work, below.
The Technical Side
- Release engineering: Steam submission, store setup, platform requirements, packaging, graphics settings, and post-launch hotfixes.
- Source control: each project runs its own Perforce server on its own AWS EC2 instance, with access management and onboarding docs. Git on the Unity side.
- Engine upgrades: UE 5.3 through 5.8, run across live projects without stalling them.
- Architecture: lead programmer on the studio's Unreal titles, writing the C++ layer the other developers build against.
Studio Logistics
Conner and I drafted the revenue model. Developer share is points-based:
- Role points scale with seniority and quarters involved.
- Active points come from standups attended against standups expected, with grace.
- A developer's share is their points over the total.
Revenue splits 45% to developers, 40% to the company, 10% to business administration, and 5% across everyone involved in the project and related ones.
Pitching Exo
I build the publishing materials for our games. For EXO that's a full pitch package:
- Playable assets: the build, and access for reviewers.
- Video assets: elevator pitch video, game trailer, raw footage.
- Documentation: elevator pitch, pitch deck, GDD, development roadmap, three comparables, traction data.
- Business and financials: total budget ask, budget to date, dev months needed, launch window, estimated RRP, target platforms, target age rating.
Brand and Identity
We hired a professional graphic designer to build the studio's brand. Paying for that was a deliberate call: an identity is the one thing every future touchpoint inherits, and a student-made logo would have undercut the positioning we incorporated for in the first place.
What came back is a full guide: a main logo, secondary logo, and logomark, a six-colour palette, a pattern, type rules, and logo safety and sizing. The flame carries the name, and the uneven stems in the "U"s read as a fluctuating health bar.
My side was directing that work and then applying it everywhere the studio shows up:
- The studio website, which I designed against the guide. https://burntoutgames.com/
- Team business cards. Those of us who went to GDC had them printed and handed them out everywhere.
- A merch run for the studio.
Brand Guide
Business Cards
Merch Run
How Incorporating Changed the Work
Incorporating changed how we design, for the better.
A commercial release has to hold a player past two hours, because that's Steam's refund window. That single number shapes scope, pacing, and what counts as finished.
It also means positioning the game on a market it has to survive in, which is why marketing and branding stopped being optional for the games and for the studio.
It changed how we work with people. Non-studio members joining a project sign NDAs and contracts now.
Conner and I drafted the revenue model. Developer share is points-based:
- Role points scale with seniority and quarters involved.
- Active points come from standups attended against standups expected, with grace for missed ones.
- A developer's share is their points over the total.
Revenue splits 45% to developers, 40% to the company to keep it running, 10% to business administration, and 5% across everyone involved in the project and related ones.
Building that model meant deciding what contribution actually means when nobody is drawing a salary. Seniority, tenure, and showing up were the three things we could measure without arguing about them later.
Where It’s Taken Us
Incorporating made us findable. The same work posted as a studio reaches people it didn't reach as students.
- Mentorship from people at USC Games in publishing, Riot Games in UX, and Naughty Dog in marketing and community.
- A studio visit and tour at Riot Games.
- Booths for Burning Out and EXO.
- GDC, with our own business cards.
- A conversation with the Mycopunk team on taking a student team through to a Devolver Digital pickup.
Touring Riot Games
Boothing Burning Out
Boothing Exo
Open to Summer 2027 internships and new-grad gameplay engineering & design roles.
malachykennedy1@gmail.com
github.com/malachek
linkedin.com/in/malachykennedy