Pernicious Games logo Pernicious Games

Independent game & software contractor · Est. 2014

Gameplay & systems code for games that ship.

Pernicious Games provides gameplay, systems, and Unreal Engine programming to game studios, with contract credits on Borderlands 3 and Borderlands 4. The company also develops its own games, engine technology, and open source software.

Get in touch See the work
Contract credits
  • Borderlands 4
  • Borderlands 3
10M+

downloads across published World of Warcraft addons

2

AAA contract credits: Borderlands 3 and Borderlands 4

UE5

plugins, tooling, and platform-layer systems

01 / Services

Services

Contract engineering for games and software, spanning gameplay features, core systems, engine plugins, and standalone applications.

Gameplay programming

Player abilities, AI behaviors, combat, and UI integration for shipping titles.

Systems & engine work

Save systems, serialization, platform layers, and performance-sensitive C++.

Unreal Engine plugins

Consulting and custom plugin development for Unreal Engine 5, including cross-platform and asynchronous systems.

Tools & applications

Client/server applications, libraries, and tools outside of games, in Lua, JavaScript, C#, and C++.

02 / Selected work

Track record

  1. 01

    Borderlands 3 & 4

    Contract · AAA

    Contract gameplay and systems programming on Borderlands 3 and Borderlands 4.

    • Unreal Engine
    • C++
    • Gameplay
    • Systems
  2. 02

    Async savegame plugin for UE5

    Consulting · Unreal Engine

    Consulted on and built a cross-platform, asynchronous savegame plugin for Unreal Engine 5 — non-blocking saves across PC and console targets.

    • UE5
    • C++
    • Cross-platform
  3. 03

    IceHUD & WoW addons

    Published · 10M+ downloads

    World of Warcraft addons written in Lua, led by IceHUD, that have collectively passed ten million downloads and been maintained across many expansions.

    • Lua
    • UI
    • Live maintenance
  4. 04

    Cross-platform 2D engine

    In-house technology

    A custom C++ game engine for 2D projects targeting Windows, macOS, and Linux — the foundation for Pernicious’s own titles.

    • C++
    • Engine
    • Rendering
  5. 05

    Open source contributions

    Protobuf · Gitea · libgit2

    Upstream fixes and features contributed to widely used open source projects, including Protocol Buffers, Gitea, and libgit2.

    • C
    • C++
    • Go
  6. 06

    Pentair pool controller library

    Open source author

    An open source JavaScript and C# library for communicating with and automating Pentair pool controllers.

    • JavaScript
    • C#
    • Hardware
  7. 07

    Rec league scheduling platform

    Client / server application

    Designed and built a server and client application that manages schedules for recreational sports teams.

    • Backend
    • Client app
    • Full-stack

In development

An original 2D multiplayer action-platformer

Between contracts, Pernicious is building its own game for Windows, macOS, and Linux — something smaller and more fun-first than the average AAA title, running on the studio's in-house C++ engine.

03 / Contact

Contact

For inquiries about Pernicious Games or any of its projects:

[email protected]