Lightfox Games is hiring Senior Combat Designer, 2026

Festybay; Seattle (WA); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 145,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity options

401(k) match

Comprehensive health insurance

Commuter benefits

Supportive studio culture

Job summary

Lightfox Games in Seattle is searching for a Senior Combat Designer to own the combat systems and mechanics of their games. You'll work collaboratively with teams to create responsive and engaging gameplay, utilizing Unity to implement designs directly. With a competitive salary range of $120,000 – $145,000, the company also provides equity options and comprehensive health benefits.

The ideal candidate will have over 5 years in game design, a robust portfolio, and exceptional communication skills. Join a culture that encourages creativity and collaboration in a hybrid workplace.

Qualifications

• A strong portfolio highlighting explicit ability and encounter design.
• Hands-on experience building and implementing gameplay features in Unity.
• 5+ years of experience with senior-level ownership in combat or core gameplay design.

Responsibilities

• Define, tune, and iterate on core combat feel.
• Collaborate with the Combat Team on enemy AI behaviors.
• Design and script responsive player abilities and weapon profiles.

Skills

Combat game feel

Input buffering

Player psychology

Hands-on engine tuning

Cross-functional communication

Education

5+ years of professional game development

Tools

Unity

Balance/Data Spreadsheet Systems

Job description

Lightfox Games is seeking a talented, enthusiastic, and gameplay-focused Senior Combat Designer to join our tight-knit team in Seattle. In this role, you will hold senior-level ownership over our moment-to-moment combat loops—partnering with the Combat Lead to conceive, prototype, and polish satisfying gameplay mechanics from the ground up.

The ideal candidate is a blend of a mechanical tactician and an engine mechanic. You must possess a strong instinct for what makes actions feel responsive and punchy, a deep grasp of player psychology, and the hands‑on technical literacy needed to tune parameters directly inside the game engine. Working in tandem with art, engineering, and systems teams, you will make combat look magnificent, feel immaculate, and integrate smoothly into long‑term player progression.

Job Overview : Senior Combat Designer

Job Details Specification

Job Title Senior Combat Designer

Studio / Employer Lightfox Games

Location Seattle, WA (Downtown Hub)

Working Pattern Hybrid (Approx. 50% Onsite / 50% Remote)

Core Software Stack Unity Engine, Balance/Data Spreadsheet Systems

Target Platforms Mobile (Unannounced Global IP & Publisher)

Target Range $120,000 – $145,000 Base + Equity + 401(k) Match

As a Senior Combat Designer, your daily workflow will balance tactical prototyping with cross‑disciplinary systems balancing:

1. Combat Tuning, Feel & Behavior Design

• Moment-to-Moment Excellence: Define, tune, and continuously iterate on the core combat feel—meticulously tweaking frame timing, animation pacing, hit responsiveness, and screen shake to deliver satisfying feedback loops.
• Enemies & Encounters: Collaborate with the Combat Team to map out diverse enemy AI behaviors, complex combat archetypes, and exciting encounter structures that test player skill.
• Abilities & Systems: Design and script responsive player abilities, cooldown mechanics, weapon profiles, and status effects that empower players to form distinct builds.
• Hands-on Engine Tuning: Drive combat assets from initial gray‑box prototyping to final shippable status by implementing and tuning systems directly within the game engine (Unity).
• Scalable Documentation: Author and maintain comprehensive combat design bibles, balance spreadsheets, standards documentation, and mechanical best practices that scale seamlessly as the studio grows.
• Data-Driven Playtesting: Playtest the game extensively, parsing both qualitative feedback from team sessions and quantitative telemetry data from player tests to direct combat iteration.
• Systems Synchronization: Partner with the Systems Design team to guarantee that combat mechanics sync flawlessly with broader game design pillars, live‑ops roadmaps, player progression loops, and economic frameworks.

Requirements & Qualifications

We are looking for a veteran combat designer with a proven track record of shipping real‑time action mechanics:

Core Technical Profile

• Industry Tenure: 5+ years of professional game development experience, with explicit senior-level ownership over combat or core gameplay design.
• Shipped Credits: At least 1 successfully shipped title under your belt where you directly shaped the combat or action architecture.
• Engine Literacy: Hands‑on experience building, scripting, and implementing gameplay features within a modern engine, with Unity strongly preferred.
• Design Fundamentals: A profound understanding of combat game feel, hit‑stop mechanics, input buffering, difficulty curves, enemy pacing, and player psychology.
• Elite Portfolio: A strong portfolio or collection of shipped breakdown work highlighting explicit ability, encounter, and AI design with clear design intent.
• Cross-Functional Communication: Exceptional verbal and written communication skills; entirely comfortable pitching mechanics to artists, calculating logic budgets with engineers, and presenting systems to stakeholders.
• Thriving in Ambiguity: Highly self‑motivated with a comfort level operating in an early‑stage, fast‑moving production environment where broad ownership is encouraged.

Highly Desirable Assets (Nice to Have)

• Direct experience designing combat loops or systems for free-to-play mobile games.
• Familiarity with Action RPG (ARPG) combat mechanics, ability build diversity, and stat scaling systems.
• Experience tuning combat systems tailored specifically for isometric, top‑down, or strategy-oriented camera perspectives.
• Prior studio experience working within a major licensed property or highly established global IP.
• Experience exploring or utilizing emerging AI tools to accelerate prototyping, documentation workflows, or numbers tuning.

Lightfox Games offers a competitive total rewards package designed to support your lifestyle balance, health, and financial security:

• Competitive Base Salary: $120,000 – $145,000 per year (commensurate with background and portfolio depth).
• Financial & Ownership: Lucrative company equity options alongside a structured 401(k) retirement plan featuring an employer match.
• Health & Wellness: Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance coverage options for you and your family.
• Commuter Subsidies: Robust commuter benefits to streamline your travel to and from our downtown Seattle studio space.
• Collaborative Culture: A supportive, low-ego studio environment centered around small, high-impact teams with massive autonomy.

Lightfox Games is hiring Senior Combat Designer, 2026