Combat Designer

FLIX INTERACTIVE; West Midlands; Hybrid; GBP 65,000 - 95,000; Full time

Job summary

Flix Interactive Ltd in the UK is seeking a highly skilled Combat Designer to craft engaging enemy AI, combat encounters, and boss battles. You will collaborate with design, animation, engineering to refine systems and ensure player satisfaction.

This role focuses on prototyping, tuning, and balance, with strong emphasis on boss mechanics, player counterplay, and polish. Remote work is welcome, with the option for West Midlands-based collaboration.

Qualifications

• Proven experience designing enemy AI, combat encounters, or boss battles on published titles.
• Strong understanding of game AI and enemy behaviour design, including state machines and targeting.
• Familiarity with Unreal Engine and Blueprint-based gameplay implementation.
• Deep understanding of combat mechanics across FPS, melee, and third-person action games.
• Ability to prototype AI behaviours quickly and iterate through tuning.
• Excellent communication and collaboration across disciplines.
• Experience leading major boss battles or set-piece encounters.
• Experience with AI frameworks, trees, state machines, or similar systems.
• Experience with Unreal Engine Behaviour Trees, EQS, or AI systems.

Responsibilities

• Design, prototype, and iterate on enemy AI, combat behaviours, and encounter systems.
• Lead the design and setup of boss battles, including patterns and phases.
• Collaborate with engineering, animation, VFX, audio, and level design from concept to final polish.
• Design and implement AI behaviours: navigation, targeting, positioning, attack selection, and group behaviours.
• Balance and tune different enemy archetypes for tactical variety.
• Create and maintain design docs covering enemy behaviours and combat systems.

Skills

Enemy AI

Boss battles

Gameplay design

Unreal Engine

Blueprints

AI behaviour

Balancing

Tools

Unreal Engine

Blueprints

EQs

AI Perception

Job description

UK Remote or West Midlands-based / Full-Time Contractor

Please note: We welcome applicants who prefer to work from home; however, we cannot offer visa sponsorship for this opportunity at this time.

Role and Purpose:

We are seeking a highly skilled and experienced Combat Designer to join our team. In this role, you will be responsible for designing and refining engaging, responsive, and challenging combat experiences that are central to our title's gameplay. You'll work closely with cross-functional teams including design, animation, and engineering to ensure that our combat systems are intuitive, immersive, and rewarding for players.

This position is ideal for someone who is not only passionate about combat design but also dedicated to enhancing player experience through innovative mechanics and gameplay systems.

Responsibilities:

• Design, prototype, and iterate on enemy AI, combat behaviours, and encounter systems, creating enemies that are readable, challenging, varied, and engaging to fight.
• Take a leading role in the design and setup of boss battles, including boss behaviours, attack patterns, phases, vulnerabilities, difficulty progression, and player counterplay.
• Work closely with engineering, animation, VFX, audio, and level design to take boss encounters from initial concept through implementation, tuning, and final polish.
• Design and implement AI behaviours including navigation, targeting, positioning, attack selection, group behaviours, reactions, state changes, and combat decision-making.
• Build and tune different enemy archetypes, ensuring they create distinct tactical challenges and work effectively together within combat encounters.
• Develop, prototype, and iterate on core combat mechanics, including player controls, enemy AI, weapon systems, and character abilities.
• Collaborate with level designers to establish appropriate combat spaces, encounter composition, enemy placement, reinforcement behaviours, and arena layouts.
• Work closely with animators to ensure AI behaviours and boss attacks are clearly communicated through animation, telegraphing, reactions, and movement.
• Collaborate with narrative, VFX, and audio teams to ensure enemies and boss encounters feel integrated into the game world and deliver appropriate spectacle and character.
• Use player feedback, telemetry, and playtest data to tune enemy behaviours, boss difficulty, damage models, attack timings, encounter pacing, and combat balance.
• Create and maintain clear design documentation covering enemy behaviours, combat systems, boss mechanics, encounter structures, player counterplay, and implementation requirements.

Requirements:

• Proven experience designing and implementing enemy AI, combat encounters, or boss battles on at least one published title.
• Strong practical understanding of game AI and enemy behaviour design, including behaviour/state systems, targeting, navigation, positioning, attack selection, reactions, and combat decision-making.
• Familiarity with Unreal Engine including hands-on experience implementing gameplay through manipulating blueprints.
• Deep understanding of combat mechanics across first-person shooters, first-person melee, and third-person action combat, including weapons, player abilities, enemy behaviours, controls, and damage systems.
• Ability to rapidly prototype AI behaviours and encounters and take them through iteration, tuning, and polish.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to communicate complex AI and combat behaviours clearly across disciplines.
• Strong attention to detail and a commitment to delivering polished, high-quality enemy behaviours and combat experiences.
• Experience owning or playing a significant role in the development of major boss battles or set-piece combat encounters.
• Experience developing AI frameworks, behaviour trees, state machines, utility systems, encounter managers, or similar gameplay systems.
• Experience with Unreal Engine Behaviour Trees, EQS, Blueprints, AI Perception, or equivalent AI systems.
• Strong knowledge of successful enemy and boss design across contemporary games, with an understanding of current player expectations and developments in gameplay AI.

Based just outside Birmingham,Flix offers a friendly, nurturing work environment with the opportunity to build games as part of an extremely talented, ambitious studio. The team is made up of welcoming, passionate, active gamers that support one another in all aspects of development.

If you have the drive and skills for making games and think you have what it takes to work within our team then we'd love to hear from you.

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Flix Interactive Ltd is an equal opportunities employer committed to inclusion and diversity. We welcome applications from all suitable candidates regardless of age, disability, gender, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity status, race, religion or belief, and marriage or civil partnership status. We also encourage applications from underrepresented groups in the gaming industry.

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