Expert Combat Designer

Job Description

CD PROJEKT RED is looking for an Expert Combat Designer to help drive the vision and implementation of the combat experience for Project Sirius — an original video game combining beloved aspects of The Witcher world with immersive multiplayer gameplay.

Reporting to the Lead Combat Designer, you will take on everything from the high-level – pitching enemy and weapon types – to the sub-second nitty-gritty – placing I-Frames and damage volumes, tweaking damage-scales, etc. You will work across disciplines, from art and animation to engineering and production, to make our game’s combat fun, satisfying and scalable from the beginning to end.

Responsibilities

• Work on key systems such as: targeting, combat metric, input queuing, player abilities and progression, aggro management (ticket system for AI), enemy behavior tree, enemy ambient behavior, and balancing.
• Develop and refine our approach to combat and foundational combat systems.
• Pitch, prototype, implement, balance and ship a wide variety of enemy types, including core enemies and bosses.
• Tune the combat experience at the micro level: animation lengths, i-frames, damage volumes, etc.
• Implement each character type’s combat behavior using techniques such as behavior trees, animation graphs and blueprint.
• Work with character art, animation, VFX and audio to ship characters with state-of-the-art levels of polish.
• Help balance combat-related systems such as player leveling and experience, weapons, and damage.
• Produce documentation to communicate your proposals and designs, and work with production to ensure they can be implemented with the time and resources available.

Qualifications

• 7+  years of professional experience in the game industry.
• Prior experience shipping a core game as a combat designer.
• Experience developing third person melee action games is required.
• Experience in developing third person action games.
• Curiosity, kindness, and a positive and professional can-do attitude.

Nice to Haves

(Please note that these skills are not required to apply for the position)

• Scripting experience, be it visual (such as Blueprint) or text-based (such as Python, Lua, or C#)
• Unreal Engine 5 experience
• Experience working with motion capture, preparing shot lists, and collaborating directly with animators.

Additional Information

This job can be hybrid/in-office from Boston or fully remote.

Health & Well-Being

• Company-paid medical healthcare (dental, vision, and mental).
• Free mental health support, including access to counseling, psychiatric care, and a variety of well-being webinars.
• Paid leave — 20 days of holiday per year (26 days after two years).
• 401K with employer matching.
• Gym Membership Reimbursement.
• Menstrual leave — employees who menstruate can take one extra day off when experiencing period pain.
• RED Parents Network — support for working parents, including childcare benefits, and family-friendly events.

Perks & Professional Growth

• Flexible working hours.
• Trainings, lectures, and courses — internal workshops, knowledge-sharing initiatives, online tutorials, and e-learning classes are all available.
• A welcome pack filled with goodies — to help you feel right at home once you join the team.

Life in the Office

• Dog-friendly office — bring your pooch with you and look after them while working! There’s always a furry friend or two to meet.
• Truly international working environment — a chance to meet and work with a diverse selection of people from all around the world.
• No dress-code — we like to keep it casual.

If you have observed any irregularities (i.e. legal or ethical violations) in our recruitment process please click here to report them anonymously.

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