Senior Technical Combat Designer

Side; Los Angeles (CA); Remote; USD 83,000 - 124,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Dynamic environment

Global company

Career progression

Job summary

Side is seeking a Senior Technical Combat Designer to help create and refine boss encounters, enemies, and combat systems in Unreal Engine. This role blends design with animation and implementation, taking a combat character or encounter from concept to in-engine execution.

This is a remote freelance contract for approximately 3–6 months, with up to 40 hours per week of support. Candidates must be available to overlap with the CET team's working hours; location is otherwise flexible.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience designing and implementing combat for video games.
• Ownership of 2+ combat characters or equivalent systems.
• Strong understanding of animation principles and combat feel.
• Hands-on Unreal Engine experience with Blueprints, Behavior Trees, Animation Blueprints, and related animation systems.
• Experience with third-person combat, fighting games, shooters, or other combat-focused titles.
• Ability to author or modify animation using Maya, MotionBuilder, Blender, or similar tools.
• Basic C++ knowledge and comfort using AI-assisted coding tools to support gameplay implementation.
• Ability to work independently, take ownership of craft, and drive problems to solutions.

Responsibilities

• Build and balance bosses and enemies in Unreal Engine, owning at least two combat characters or equivalent systems.
• Design attacks end to end, including animation hookup, hitbox timing, cancel windows, hit reactions, i-frames, and telegraphs.
• Increase combat variety and improve the overall combat experience through hands-on iteration and balancing.
• Apply strong animation principles around weight, timing, anticipation, and readability to create responsive, impactful combat.
• Author or modify animations in Maya, MotionBuilder, Blender, or similar tools and integrate them into gameplay.
• Diagnose combat and animation issues using frame data concepts.

Skills

Combat design

Unreal Engine

Animation principles

Blueprints/BTs/Animation Blueprints

C++ basics

Independent work

Industry experience with combat titles

Tools

Unreal Engine (Blueprints)

Maya

MotionBuilder

Blender

Niagara

Job description

At Side, we partner with some of the world's leading developers and publishers to solve complex production challenges and help bring exceptional games to life. From concept through live operations, our co-development teams work as trusted extensions of our clients' studios, contributing expertise across design, engineering, art, audio, QA, and production.

We're looking for a hands-on Senior Technical Combat Designer to help create and refine engaging boss encounters, enemies, and combat systems in Unreal Engine. This role is ideal for someone who understands combat not just from a design perspective, but from an animation and implementation standpoint, and who can take a combat character or encounter from concept through in-engine execution and iteration.

This is a remote freelance contract for approximately 3–6 months, with up to 40 hours per week of support needed. Candidates must be available to overlap with the CEST team's working hours; location is otherwise flexible.

As these are project-based opportunities, positions may be amended, postponed, or withdrawn as a result of changing client requirements and project priorities.

Requirements

What you’ll be doing:

Combat & Encounter Design

• Build and balance bosses and enemies in Unreal Engine, with ownership of at least two combat characters or equivalent systems.
• Design attacks end to end, including animation hookup, hitbox timing, cancel windows, hit reactions, i-frames, and telegraphs.
• Increase combat variety and improve the overall combat experience through hands‑on iteration and balancing.

Animation & Combat Feel

• Apply strong animation principles around weight, timing, anticipation, and readability to create responsive, impactful combat.
• Author or modify animations in Maya, MotionBuilder, Blender, or similar tools and integrate them into gameplay.
• Diagnose combat and animation issues using concepts such as frame data, startup/active/recovery, hitstop, input buffering, and cancel windows.

Unreal Implementation

• Implement combat using Unreal Blueprints, Behavior Trees, Animation Blueprints, state machines, blend spaces, montages, and animation notifies.
• Use Niagara to prototype combat effects and visual feedback.
• Collaborate with engineering, animation, VFX, and design teams to troubleshoot and iterate on gameplay.

What we’re looking for:

• 5+ years of experience designing and implementing combat for video games, including ownership of 2+ combat characters or equivalent systems.
• Strong understanding of animation principles and combat feel, with the ability to identify why an attack doesn’t land, read, or feel as intended.
• Hands‑on Unreal Engine experience with Blueprints, Behavior Trees, Animation Blueprints, and related animation systems.
• Experience with third‑person combat, fighting games, shooters, or other combat‑focused titles.
• Ability to author or modify animation using Maya, MotionBuilder, Blender, or similar tools.
• Working knowledge of combat frame data, hitstop, input buffering, cancel windows, hit reactions, and i‑frames.
• Basic C++ knowledge and comfort using AI‑assisted coding tools to support gameplay implementation.
• Ability to work independently, take ownership of craft, and drive problems to solutions.

Nice to have:

• Experience creating and balancing complex boss encounters.
• Experience with Niagara and gameplay VFX prototyping.
• Experience working in a co‑development or external development environment.

Benefits

• Competitive Salary.
• Dynamic, multicultural and fun environment.
• You will be working for the world's leading provider of game services.
• We empower our people and offer regular progression opportunities to ensure our employees flourish.

About Side

Side (formerly PTW) is a global video game development and services provider, offering technical and creative solutions to many of the largest developers and studios around the world. Founded in 2009 and drawing on 30+ years' experience from our parent company in Japan, Side has since grown to become a global force with 20 studios in 14 countries across North America, Europe, South America, and Asia.

Our industry-leading services include game development, art production, audio production, quality assurance, localization, localization QA, player support, community management, and datasets.

Experience our side of life. For more information, visit www.side.inc