Hero Designer Lead: Combat, Traversal & 3Cs Mastery

Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.; United States; Remote; USD 148,000 - 222,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Top-tier benefits package

Bonus potential

Job summary

Insomniac is seeking a Staff level Hero Designer focused on combat, traversal, and the 3Cs (Camera, Character, Controls) for an upcoming project. You will lead design and technical prototyping for hero characters, collaborating with Gameplay Programmers, Animators, and Artists to deliver world-class, polished gameplay.

The role requires hands-on implementation, strong collaboration, and leadership to guide one or more pod teams toward high-quality milestones while maintaining project vision.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional game design experience with at least one shipped title as primary design owner for player combat/character systems.
• Expertise in creating, tuning, and polishing movement, combat, controls, and gameplay balance.
• Deep knowledge of 3rd person design in narrative games.
• Proficiency with modern engines (Unreal or similar); scripting and prototyping experience.
• Excellent written, verbal, and visual communication across disciplines.

Responsibilities

• Own hero character systems and core combat design for one or more playable characters.
• Prototype, implement, and iterate hero combat and traversal using internal tools and scripting.
• Collaborate with Gameplay Programming, Animation, VFX, and Character teams to ensure cross-discipline polish.
• Lead development pods, plan milestones, set priorities, and align feedback with project goals.
• Document player systems and create tutorials/videos to support the team.
• Monitor progress, gather feedback, and ensure on-screen quality targets at each milestone.

Skills

Gameplay design

Hero design leadership

Prototyping

Unreal Engine

Scripting/iteration

Communication

Tools

Unreal Engine

Unity

Maya

Job description

Insomniac is seeking a Staff level Hero Designer focused on combat, traversal, and the 3Cs (Camera, Character, Controls) for an upcoming project. You will lead design and technical prototyping for hero characters, collaborating with Gameplay Programmers, Animators, and Artists to deliver world-class, polished gameplay.

The role requires hands-on implementation, strong collaboration, and leadership to guide one or more pod teams toward high-quality milestones while maintaining project vision.