Combat Designer

PixelOpus, creator of the award-winning action-adventure PS4 game Concrete Genie, is seeking outstanding talent to join our passionate and creative team in crafting an exciting new PlayStation 5 title in collaboration with Sony Pictures Animation.

PixelOpus is one of the Global Game Development Studios within the PlayStation Studios family. Located at PlayStation's HQ in San Mateo, CA, this unique innovative studio is looking for a hands-on game designer with combat experience to work on our most ambitious game yet. Our ideal candidate has experience with enemy design, AI behaviors, combat/weapons, class design, skills/progression, and boss encounters. Reporting to the Lead Designer, this position will work alongside other game designers, using their combat design knowledge to help create an incredible new combat experience for our players.

• Design and develop combat gameplay, including enemy AI and boss designs from concept to completion
• Analyze fun factor and comprehension of combat, identifying issues and opportunities for improvement
• Write and maintain clear and concise documentation for feature specs, mechanics, and behaviors.
• Rapidly prototype new concepts in UE5 to test feasibility
• Blueprints & behavior tree scripting to develop and tune gameplay systems
• Collaborate with animation, engineering, audio, art, visual effects to deliver extraordinary feeling combat experience
• Encounter layout and gameplay tuning in collaboration with level design and narrative
• Balance combat difficulty progression, embracing regular play-testing as a key part of the process

• 2+ years working experience in Console Game industry
• Combat design experience on a console/PC title that shipped
• Proven track record to implement heroes, enemies, bosses or combat systems
• Passion for combat games and their game mechanics
• Ability to think logically with a strong level of attention to detail
• High quality communication skills, able to convey abstract concepts verbally, and in documentation
• Excellent partnership skills - especially interdepartmental - we foster an inclusive and collaborative work space
• Scripting experience (e.g. visual scripting, Lua, C# or python)
• Computer Science or Game Design degree a plus
• Unreal Engine experience preferred