Principal Combat Designer

Responsibilities:

Reporting to the Lead Designer, the Principal Combat Designer is responsible ensuring
the combat and related gameplay have a best-in-class feel while maintaining
accessibility and depth. The ideal candidate will have proven experience in combat
feel, AI behaviors, ability balance, as well as presentation and controls.

Essential Functions:

•  Design, document, and iterate upon combat systems and gameplay loops.
• Design, maintain, and balance Player and NPC Abilities.
• Creation and maintenance of AI Behavior Trees and related scripting.
• Combat Encounter composition and balance.
• Work closely with Engineers to create the back-end systems and tools necessary to drive engaging combat experiences.
• Own the combat experience; participate in playtests and adapt to feedback throughout development.
• Collaborate and communicate with Engineers, Systems Designers, Level Designers, Character Artists, Animators, and VFX Artists.

Preferred Qualifications:

• At least 1 shipped title in a Senior-to-Lead Combat Design Role
• Extensive knowledge of AI Behaviors and scripting
• Experience with balancing Player and NPC Combat Actions and abilities
• Knowledge of current industry trends with regards to combat and gameplay
• Strong problem-solving and time-management skills
• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• Ability to work collaboratively and adapt to feedback, design, and scope changes throughout development
• Experience with Unreal Engine
• Experience with scripting languages (C++, C#, Lua, etc)
• Strong technical writing and documentation skills
• The ability to explain complex topics to non-technical teammates
• Understanding of cinematography, UI, and other concepts that relate to how combat is presented to the Player
• Love of role-playing games and a grasp on the relationships between combat and other gameplay systems to enable Players to solve problems multiple ways