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Character Mechanics Programmer Avalanche Studios

The Position

Avalanche Studios Group is now looking for a talented Character Mechanics Programmer to join a top-tier, experienced team to create fun and engaging game experiences to an unannounced AAA project.

Work side by side with designers, animators and producers to realize complex and realistic animal behavior. Take part in designing and implementing their senses and needs using and extending existing tools as well as implementing game systems related to pathfinding, decision making, group movement and locomotion. This role will require you to take high level design ideas and translate them into practical solutions. You will join the Avalanche engineers in developing and maintaining our proprietary Apex Engine.

It is expected that you see your responsibility as delivering a successful end-user experience, together with your team-mates, rather than just handing off technological solutions to content creators. Much of the success of well executed player characters is down to how successfully they are integrated with all of the systems within the game engine, e.g. physics, animation, camera, control scheme, UI, SFX, VFX, dialog, etc. Previous experience and proven ability to work with multiple systems and stakeholders is a definite advantage. Finally, as with any other programming role, you will have to be able to balance functional requirements with technical requirements in the areas of performance, stability, memory usage, interoperability.

Required Qualifications

• A good understanding of what makes a great playable character experience
• A passion for creating fun gameplay
• Experience with modern animation techniques including layers, additive animations, state machines, blending techniques, IK, facial animation, etc.
• Experience with character control and locomotion systems.
• Able to write readable, robust and performant code in C++
• Prior experience working as a programmer on at least one shipped title on current-gen consoles from start to finish

Beneficial Qualifications

• Experience of ranged and melee combat systems
• Experience creating control schemes on gamepad controllers
• Experience working with game physics
• Experience of collision detection and spatial querying
• Experience of profiling and optimization
• Knowledge of asset pipelines for animation content, such as data representation, compression / processing, aggregation, meta data tagging, etc.

Employee promise

We provide goals, instead of instructions, and the opportunity to do the best work of your career.

Our Values

At Avalanche Studios Group, we believe in worlds beyond limits, we are committed to developing a diverse and inclusive workplace. We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. Everyone at Avalanche Studios Group has a shared responsibility to create an open and inclusive work environment where everyone is treated equally and with respect. Being part of our world is not contingent on where you’re from, your gender, or sexual orientation. It’s all about your passion and creativity. Avalanche Studios Group believes in a healthy work/life balance and is an industry-leader in vacation days and supporting a flexible work policy for parents. Taking a cue from our Swedish roots, our NY office offers 100% health care coverage. Additionally, Avalanche will be involved in the Visa application process if you are an international applicant.

How to Apply

We will only consider applications that consist of both a cover letter and a CV. In your cover letter you should include why you want to work at Avalanche Studios Group. For this role you need to be able to work full-time in our New York office. To apply for this position please register below. All further information is provided under non-disclosure agreement only.

We offer our full time employees 100% company paid Medical/Dental/Vision Insurance and 5 weeks of PTO including 2 weeks of Summer break. Employees enjoy the company’s commitment to work-life balance and working with a talented team on an exciting AAA game.