Timothy
Matthews
I'm a gameplay engineer who has spent ten years at studios like NetherRealm, Telltale, and Hangar 13 building the systems beneath the surface — the combat logic, the AI decisions, the architecture that holds it all together. I never want to stop being hands-on with the craft.
From MK1's console combat AI to Mafia III's open-world perception layer — I build both the fight framework and the enemy brain. Move sets, Gameplay Ability System pipelines, behavior trees, and hit detection owned end-to-end across AAA and mobile.
Deep UE4 and UE5 expertise in C++ and Blueprint — character modular systems, Gameplay Ability System architecture, and designer-facing tooling across multiple shipped titles. Also shipped Unity-based mobile titles at Crowdstar / Glu.
Shipped and maintained MK Mobile and Injustice 2 Mobile simultaneously in live production — new fatalities, moves, buffs, debuffs, and tournament infrastructure delivered continuously without downtime.
Shipped base game and DLC on a 50+ person team. Owned combat AI systems end-to-end in Unreal Engine 5 for console platforms.
Led a team of gameplay engineers developing the game's combat system for a fully autoplay/AI-driven mobile RPG. Designed a custom Blueprint targeting rules engine.
New fatalities, move sets, combos, buffs and debuffs, and tournament systems in a live-ops environment — C++ and data-driven GAS pipeline.
Extended hero abilities, move data, buffs, debuffs, and tournament infrastructure. Reused the modular GAS architecture built across NetherRealm mobile titles.
Extended AI capabilities to react dynamically to world events — explosions, vehicles, low health, and teammate coordination — creating a more realistic and believable open-world environment.
Combat and AI systems in a fast-paced episodic pipeline across PC, console, and mobile alongside multiple simultaneous titles.
Shipped two full episodes across PC, PS4, and mobile with tight delivery cadence and cross-platform requirements.
Deep Unity UI architecture, memory-saving compression, custom touch layer detection, HLSL shaders, and C++ localization tooling for a top-grossing mobile title.
Timothy Matthews is a gameplay engineer based in Chicago, Illinois, with over ten years of professional experience building the systems that make games feel alive. His career spans some of the most demanding development environments in the industry — from the high-polish combat of Mortal Kombat 1 at NetherRealm Studios to the breakneck episodic pipeline of Telltale Games.
Timothy's deepest expertise lies in combat. He has designed and engineered fight systems across console, mobile, and prototype platforms — including AI-driven autoplay combat for MK: Onslaught, where he led a team of gameplay engineers developing the game's combat system. He developed deep Gameplay Ability System expertise, and mentored engineers on Unreal Engine architecture throughout.
Before NetherRealm, Timothy contributed to Mafia III DLC at Hangar 13, extending AI capabilities to react dynamically to world events for a more realistic open-world environment. He served on Telltale's gameplay team across Batman and Minecraft: Story Mode, delivering multiplatform episodic titles at a demanding cadence.
He is growing toward a principal or lead engineering role — staying hands-on with combat systems while taking on greater architectural ownership, mentoring, and technical direction.
Ten years building combat systems and gameplay architecture at studios including NetherRealm, Telltale, and Hangar 13 / 2K. Reach out directly.
Team-oriented.