About the role
Role and Purpose
We are seeking a highly skilled and experienced Combat Designer to join our team. In this role, you will be responsible for designing and refining engaging, responsive, and challenging combat experiences that are central to our title’s gameplay. You’ll work closely with cross-functional teams including design, animation, and engineering to ensure that our combat systems are intuitive, immersive, and rewarding for players.
This position is ideal for someone who is not only passionate about combat design but also dedicated to enhancing player experience through innovative mechanics and gameplay systems.
Location and Logistics
- Location: UK Remote or West Midlands-based.
- Employment Type: Full-Time Contractor.
- Visa Sponsorship: We cannot offer visa sponsorship for this opportunity at this time.
Responsibilities
- Design, prototype, and iterate on enemy AI, combat behaviours, and encounter systems, creating enemies that are readable, challenging, varied, and engaging to fight.
- Take a leading role in the design and setup of boss battles, including boss behaviours, attack patterns, phases, vulnerabilities, difficulty progression, and player counterplay.
- Work closely with engineering, animation, VFX, audio, and level design to take boss encounters from initial concept through implementation, tuning, and final polish.
- Design and implement AI behaviours including navigation, targeting, positioning, attack selection, group behaviours, reactions, state changes, and combat decision-making.
- Build and tune different enemy archetypes, ensuring they create distinct tactical challenges and work effectively together within combat encounters.
- Develop, prototype, and iterate on core combat mechanics, including player controls, enemy AI, weapon systems, and character abilities.
- Collaborate with level designers to establish appropriate combat spaces, encounter composition, enemy placement, reinforcement behaviours, and arena layouts.
- Work closely with animators to ensure AI behaviours and boss attacks are clearly communicated through animation, telegraphing, reactions, and movement.
- Collaborate with narrative, VFX, and audio teams to ensure enemies and boss encounters feel integrated into the game world and deliver appropriate spectacle and character.
- Use player feedback, telemetry, and playtest data to tune enemy behaviours, boss difficulty, damage models, attack timings, encounter pacing, and combat balance.
- Create and maintain clear design documentation covering enemy behaviours, combat systems, boss mechanics, encounter structures, player counterplay, and implementation requirements.
Requirements
- Proven experience designing and implementing enemy AI, combat encounters, or boss battles on at least one published title.
- Strong practical understanding of game AI and enemy behaviour design, including behaviour/state systems, targeting, navigation, positioning, attack selection, reactions, and combat decision-making.
- Familiarity with Unreal Engine including hands-on experience implementing gameplay through manipulating blueprints.
- Deep understanding of combat mechanics across first-person shooters, first-person melee, and third-person action combat, including weapons, player abilities, enemy behaviours, controls, and damage systems.
- Ability to rapidly prototype AI behaviours and encounters and take them through iteration, tuning, and polish.
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to communicate complex AI and combat behaviours clearly across disciplines.
- Strong attention to detail and a commitment to delivering polished, high-quality enemy behaviours and combat experiences.
Desirable Skills
- Experience owning or playing a significant role in the development of major boss battles or set-piece combat encounters.
- Experience developing AI frameworks, behaviour trees, state machines, utility systems, encounter managers, or similar gameplay systems.
- Experience with Unreal Engine Behaviour Trees, EQS, Blueprints, AI Perception, or equivalent AI systems.
- Strong knowledge of successful enemy and boss design across contemporary games, with an understanding of current player expectations and developments in gameplay AI.
Application Requirements
- Please include your CV, portfolio and cover letter (optional).
- If examples are from previous works with another studio, ensure samples are cleared for release by copyright owners.
- Links to an online portfolio are preferable; showreels accepted via Dropbox or other secure sharing platforms.
- Applications should be sent to the studio or directed to the recruitment team at 01527 958 177.
Studio Environment
- Based just outside Birmingham.
- Friendly, nurturing work environment with the opportunity to build games as part of a talented, ambitious studio.
- Team consists of welcoming, passionate, active gamers.
- Flix Interactive is an equal opportunities employer committed to inclusion and diversity, welcoming applications from all suitable candidates regardless of age, disability, gender, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity status, race, religion or belief, and marriage or civil partnership status. Encourages applications from underrepresented groups in the gaming industry.
GDPR Compliance
- Applicants authorize Flix Interactive to store application information and distribute it to appropriate senior team members for review.
- Data is stored on a private cloud-based online system for processing.
- Requests to update, delete, or refine application data can be made by emailing the studio; requests will be appended within 30 days.
- In compliance with GDPR law, data is used for recruitment purposes only.