Thought Pennies Entertainment is a Role-Playing Game studio creating games focused on social storytelling. We celebrate diversity and a people-first approach to game development. We are fully remote.
The Senior Combat Designer brings creativity and cohesiveness to AI combat encounters. The Senior Combat Designer is a critical role and is instrumental in concepting, designing, and balancing the different aspects of AI behaviors and its subsystems. This role will be working very closely with the Lead Combat Designer and the rest of the design team and animators to develop and execute the combat system.
This role requires a deep understanding of action-based gameplay mechanics, touch and feel, and visual storytelling through motion and action. The ideal candidate has a strong history in designing and working with multi-character combat systems, fight mechanics and animations, combat balancing, and satisfying touch and feel on multiple commercial releases.
What you do:
- Collaborate with animators, engineers, audio and FX artists to implement gameplay features.
- Collaborate with the Lead Combat Designer to help oversee the design and implementation of new enemies and behaviors.
- Oversee encounter spawning, keeping a close eye on groupings that can become frustrating rather than challenging
- Help Troubleshoot gameplay and applicable technical issues that arise
- Contribute to a studio culture committed to craft, collaboration, and empowerment
What you bring:
- 3+ years' experience in game development with experience with the technical aspects of combat systems; group encounters, and multiplayer interactions
- Passion for designing and implementing combat/fight systems for 3rd person action games.
- Experience with Unreal, in particular Behavior Trees, and an understanding of blueprints.
- An understanding of game engine pipelines, technologies, limitations, editing tool conventions, scripting, troubleshooting, and debugging game content experience
- General knowledge of gameplay and mechanics across numerous genres, and an understanding of what makes them work or not work in the context of each game
- A passion for exploring and developing new and exciting combat concepts to enhance player engagement
- Ability to develop and discuss designs not just at the purely theoretical level, but also at an achievable one
- Willingness to give and receive feedback
Plus if you have it:
- Prior experience making 3rd person action games in Unreal, specifically using Blueprint
- Experience working with non bipedal enemies and understanding the additional challenges they can represent.
- Basic understanding of animbps, and montage viewer, and familiarity with animation setup and support.
- Working knowledge of scripting languages (Python, Lua, etc.)
- High interest in martial arts, combat sports, and/or action/fantasy films
Application Materials:
Please provide samples of combat systems you have created and implemented in a previous project. Please be ready to discuss the methodology and principles behind its design and implementation.
