Senior Combat Designer

Founded in 2002, we have been creating globally recognised titles twenty years. The fan-celebrated Sniper Ghost Warrior franchise has sold over 14 million copies worldwide, while the action RPG, Lords of the Fallen, has been enjoyed by over 10 million players across the globe.
Our Hexworks studio is currently working on The Lords of the Fallen, the highly ambitious follow-up to the original 2014 hit.
Steering the franchise in a new direction towards dark fantasy, the action role-playing game will feature a fully revised, challenging combat system, and promises to be CI Games' most ambitious project currently in development!
Underdog Studio is the internal development team responsible for the highly successful and long running Sniper Ghost Warrior series.
With a name that encapsulates the determination and hard working attitude of the 50-strong crew, the team is mainly spread across Europe.
As the SGW franchise continues to go from strength to strength with each new iteration, the Underdog team looks forward to achieving even higher standards of quality in their upcoming titles.
 Founded in 2018, United Label is a publishing house specialising in highly ambitious, lovingly-crafted video games.
Röki , the studio's inaugural release, received critical acclaim upon its launch in late 2020, with Eldest Souls and Tales of Iron both releasing in 2021 to great reception from media and players.
Driven by a desire to work with the most innovative game creators around the globe, from highly experienced teams to passionate start-ups, United Label offers a platform to deliver titles with a unique vision and a publishing structure for success.
Join CI Games and be part of shaping the future of gaming .
As we embark on an ambitious strategic roadmap with major releases planned for 2025-2028, we're seeking a talented and dedicated Senior Gameplay Programmer to help us create ground-breaking experiences that captivate players worldwide.
A career at CI Games is about being part of a team working on some of the most creatively rewarding and ambitious projects to be found in any entertainment medium.
You would be welcomed to a dedicated and inclusive environment where you can learn and collaborate with some of the most talented people in the industry.
Key Responsibilities: Develop our approach to combat by building upon and refining the project core systems.
Pitch, prototype, implement, balance and ship a wide variety of enemy archetypes and/or bosses.
Implement character combat behaviours using Unreal features such as behaviour trees, animation graphs and blueprints.
Tune the combat experience at the micro level: animation lengths, I-frames, Hit boxes, etc.
Work with other departments (Character Art, Animation, VFX, Audio, etc.)
to ship characters with state-of-the-art levels of polish.
Collaborate and structure enemy behaviour in conjunction with overarching RPG mechanics and game progression (weapon levelling, game stats, character builds…) Create clear and concise, visually oriented design material explaining mechanics, features and systems.
Provide Gameplay programmers with comprehensive technical requirements and collaborate to achieve the desired feature implementation.
Coordinate with Leads and Producers to ensure development within available resource and project timeframe allocation.
Solve problems, iterate via rapid prototyping, provide multiple solutions while always keeping in mind the player experience and perspective as the end goal.
Build basic combat level setups to communicate design intents to other departments (LD, Art, Production) facilitating testing and collaboration to meet goals and deadlines.
Ensure constant follow up and support on topics related to your tasks with the different departments involved during development.
Address bugs and gameplay issues to assure a stable and polished product.
Help to assess the project progress and quality by using results from usability, focus and in house playtests.
Provide constructive feedback and propose solutions to improve the quality of the current project or feedback that might be applicable to future projects.
Key Requirements: 5+ years of Games Design experience Preferably have shipped at least 1 AAA title Demonstrable prior experience as Combat Designer for several years or comparable role Excellent knowledge of gameplay mechanics and game features Familiarity with Unreal Engine and experience with the creation of Blueprints or demonstrable ability to quickly learn new engines and game technologies A great knowledge of games and an excellent understanding of what makes them work Excellent communication, interpersonal, and organisational skills Ability to work well under pressure and with deadlines Open and creative mind What we offer: Attractive remuneration and annual discretionary bonus.
Generous benefits supporting your wellbeing.
Opportunities for professional development within a supportive and collaborative team.
Remote work with flexible schedules (core working hours 10am-4pm CET), allowing you to work alongside talented individuals from around the world.
An opportunity to work with cutting-edge technologies and stay at the forefront of the gaming industry.
A diverse and inclusive workplace that celebrates all backgrounds, regardless of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, or social status.
Studio events and wrap-up parties, access to all games released by CI Games and company merchandise.
A chance to be part of something ground-breaking as we shape the future of gaming.
Recruitment Process: Once our Talent Acquisition team receives your application, together with the hiring team, we will review your CV, portfolio and the answers you provided in the application form and if all the boxes are ticked, we're moving to the next stage.
Initial call with Talent Acquisition Specialist - During this call you'll learn about the company and we learn about you.
We'll talk about your experience & expectations with working in a fully remote environment and we'll talk about your expertise.
We'll finish this call with some admin questions.
There will be an opportunity for you to ask any questions as well.
After the initial call, usually 1 or 2 interviews with the hiring team follows.
These interviews will be a bit more technical and will go deeper into your experience, skills & knowledge.
As you would have signed an NDA by now, you'll also learn a bit more about the project you would work on.
During these interviews we'll also focus on finding out whether you're a good fit for our company culture and that we share the same values.
We may or may not ask you to do the test - this is decided on an individual basis and you will receive instructions with the test.
If everything goes well, the last step in the recruitment process is the offer presentation call with the Talent Acquisition Specialist and your future line manager to discuss the offer and next steps to get you successfully on board.
We are an equal opportunities employer with a commitment to building a diverse workforce, representative of the world we live and game in!
Accessibility is at the heart of our games and we reflect that in how we operate as a business.
Should you require adjustments or flexible arrangements to interview, or take up a role at with us, please let us know in your application and we will accommodate to the best of our ability.