Principal Combat Designer | Fully Remote

Escape Velocity Entertainment; United States; Remote; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous PTO

Holiday closures (Summer/Winter)

Private Medical & Dental

Mental Health scheme

Health & Wellbeing allowance

Discretionary Studio Bonus

Top range tech for home setup

Job summary

Escape Velocity Entertainment is seeking a Principal Combat Designer to lead combat mechanics across diverse characters, ensuring a fun, challenging and engaging experience.

You will collaborate with the Design Director and leads to craft expert-level weapons and abilities, and align with art and engineering to ship polished features. This role rewards collaboration and a strong player focus in a fully remote environment.

Qualifications

• Two shipped AAA titles with mechanics design experience.
• Expert knowledge of design tools and Unreal Engine (UE5 preferred).
• Strong problem-solving and communication skills.
• Player-oriented mindset with collaboration across leads.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate closely with Design Director and Design Leads to drive combat design for a robust online multiplayer experience.
• Design and craft expert-level player combat mechanics, weapons and abilities.
• Coordinate with leads and directors across art and engineering to align on mechanics before development.
• Advocate for the player and prioritise player experience in design decisions.

Skills

AAA titles experience

Unreal Engine

Gameplay mechanics knowledge

Problem solving

Communication

Tools

Unreal Engine

Job description

What we are looking for

As a Principal Combat Designer you will be responsible for creating and improving the combat mechanics for our diverse characters to make our game more fun, challenging and engaging.

What we are looking for

As a Principal Combat Designer you will be responsible for creating and improving the combat mechanics for our diverse characters to make our game more fun, challenging and engaging.

What we will do together

• Collaborate closely with Design Director, and other Design Leads to drive and execute the vision for combat design for a robust online multiplayer experience.
• Design and craft expert-level player combat mechanics, weapons and abilities.
• Communicate with Leads and Directors of other disciplines, particularly art and engineering, and ensure that everyone is on the same page before beginning mechanics/feature development.
• Advocate for the player, always putting the player experience first when considering and making all design decisions.

What you will bring

• A can-do attitude that is player oriented…mechanics design is one of the most hotly debated areas of design, but you remember that simplicity is often a player's best friend.
• At least two shipped AAA titles where you worked in mechanics design capacity
• Expert knowledge of off-the-shelf design tools, and expertise with Unreal Engine (UE5 preferred)
• Deep professional understanding of the many major mechanics and gameplay features found in contemporary game titles, and a keen knowledge for how those mechanics and features work.
• Strong creative and technical problem-solving skills
• Exceptional communication skills

Interested… a bit about Escape Velocity

Escape Velocity is a team of passionate, talented developers working at a studio that offers excellent benefits, on what we believe is a once-in-a-career project with a committed publisher. But that doesn't necessarily make us unique. What does make us special? We value the time, energy, and talent of our players and our colleagues. We want every hour spent developing and playing our games to be an incredibly rewarding and worthwhile use of your time. To that end, we are 'Fully Remote' and support team members nearly anywhere in the world. We prioritize honesty, even when that means sharing bad news. We strive to give everyone autonomy so they can determine how best to work and play, and we care more about what you bring to the game and studio than how many hours you're clocking. We're dedicated to building a culture of play, which not only makes us better game makers, but also strengthens the bonds between us all. We believe in constant improvement across all areas - from the game itself to our production design - and are constantly re-evaluating how we spend our time to ensure that we're not wasting yours and we're all always working on the most important things.

A few benefits you can expect from us

• A generous PTO allowance
• Summer and Winter holidays studio closure (separate to PTO allowance)
• Private Medical & Dental Healthcare
• Private Mental Health scheme
• A generous annual Health & Wellbeing allowance
• Discretionary Studio Bonus
• Top range tech for your home set up
• Other benefits based on your region

Escape Velocity is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to hiring, promoting, and compensating employees based on their qualifications and demonstrated ability to perform job responsibilities.

Applications will be considered regardless of age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, belief, race, or any other protected category.