Combat Designer

We have an exciting opportunity for an enthusiastic and proactive Combat Designer to join our busy studios and support driving our games forward as we experience exponential growth. You’ll be joining the team on an ambitious and original open world survival game with a horror thematic. We’re putting a unique twist on the formula, both in mechanics and the environmental challenges we set for the player. Visual quality is paramount, so we’re building in Unreal Engine 5.

A career at CI Games is about being part of a team working on some of the most creatively rewarding and ambitious projects to be found in any entertainment medium. You would be welcomed to a dedicated and inclusive environment where you can learn and collaborate with some of the most talented people in the industry.

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop our approach to combat by building upon and refining the project core systems.
• Pitch, prototype, implement, balance and ship a wide variety of enemy archetypes and/or bosses.
• Implement character combat behaviours using Unreal features such as behaviour trees, animation graphs and blueprints.
• Tune the combat experience at the micro level: animation lengths, I-frames, Hit boxes, etc.
• Work with other departments (Character Art, Animation, VFX, Audio, etc.) to ship characters with state-of-the-art levels of polish.
• Collaborate and structure enemy behaviour in conjunction with overarching RPG mechanics and game progression (weapon levelling, game stats, character builds…)
• Create clear and concise, visually oriented design material explaining mechanic, features and systems.
• Provide Gameplay programmers with comprehensive technical requirements and collaborate to achieve the desired feature implementation.
• Coordinate with Leads and Producers to ensure development within available resource and project timeframe allocation.
• Solve problems, iterate via rapid prototyping, provide multiple solutions while always keeping in mind the player experience and perspective as the end goal.
• Build basic combat level setups to communicate design intents to other departments (LD, Art, Production) facilitating testing and collaboration to meet goals and deadlines.
• Ensure constant follow up and support on topics related to your tasks with the different departments involved during development.
• Address bugs and gameplay issues to assure a stable and polished product.
• Help to assess the project progress and quality by using results from usability, focus and in house playtests.
• Provide constructive feedback and propose solutions to improve the quality of the current project or a feedback that might be applicable to future projects.

Key Requirements:

• 3+ years of experience in Combat Designer role or 3+ years experience as Gameplay Designer in 1st/3rd person melee combat design
• As least 1 shipped title (preferably AAA) in a Combat Designer role
• Passion for horror and survival genre
• Excellent knowledge of gameplay mechanics and game features
• Familiarity with Unreal Engine and experience with the creation of Blueprints or demonstrable ability to quickly learn new engines and game technologies
• A great knowledge of games and an excellent understanding of what makes them work
• Excellent communication, interpersonal, and organisational skills
• Ability to work well under pressure and with deadlines
• Open and creative mind

What we offer:

• Attractive remuneration, holidays and social events. Our environments thrive with collaborative teamwork with people from all around the world, different nationalities, and languages.
• A supportive community inclusive of LGBTQ+, and any age, ethnicity, religion, or disability. We care about the wellbeing of our employees and have a dedicated employee wellbeing programme.
• Flexibility with our core hours, and no-notice holidays.
• Annual discretionary studio bonus
• Free games and merchandise
• Wrap parties for game releases
• Remote/Homeworking with flexible working schedules (core hours 10am - 4pm CET), a fun environment, and a relaxing culture, including the opportunity to work with the leading technology and creative minds in the world.
• Learn as you work and be part of something real that changes the face of gaming - forever

We are an equal opportunities employer with a commitment to building a diverse workforce, representative of the world we live and game in!

Accessibility is at the heart of our games and we reflect that in how we operate as a business. Should you require adjustments or flexible arrangements to interview, or take up a role at with us, please let us know in your application and we will accommodate to the best of our ability.