Hybrid Combat Game Designer

at FunPlus

• Job title: Combat Game Designer
• Job type: Full Time
• Experience level: Mid level, Senior
• Salary: Not specified
• Degree requirement: Bachelor's Degree
• Location requirements: Hybrid, Lisbon, Portugal

About the role

• Combat Game Designer at Studio Ellipsis developing engaging combat systems for a third-person action game. Collaborating with a senior team to create a deep, replayable combat experience.

Responsibilities

• Implement, tune, and balance combat systems, weapons, abilities & enemy behaviors.
• Own the feel of combat: responsiveness, hit timing, recovery, rhythm, etc.
• Calibrate interactions between player mechanics, AI logic, and camera to achieve a clean, deterministic combat model.
• Maintain and evolve combat parameters: damage curves, stamina systems, tracking logic, invulnerability frames, and cooldowns.
• Build, document, and maintain data-driven balance frameworks for PvE and PvP encounters.
• Partner with Animation, Engineering, and AI teams to refine movement fidelity, impact feedback, and rhythm.
• Analyze playtest data and player telemetry to validate tuning, surface edge cases, and evolve the meta.
• Ensure every weapon, archetype, and enemy type has a distinct combat identity and tactical role.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in combat or systems design for 3rd-person or action titles (PvE and/or PvP).
• Deep understanding of melee and ranged combat design fundamentals — spacing, timing, recovery, and player feedback.
• Proven ability to tune deterministic combat systems for balance and consistency across latency and skill tiers.
• Strong grasp of camera, lock-on, targeting, and animation-driven gameplay.
• Experience with combat data management: tuning tables, curves, and debug visualization.
• Fluent in Unreal Engine (Blueprints, DataTables, tuning workflows).
• Analytical mindset — able to diagnose subtle feel issues through metrics and iteration.
• Comfortable working within clear design direction and taking ownership of executional detail.
• Experience designing and implementing gameplay systems in Unreal Engine.
• Shipped at least one game using Unreal Engine.

Benefits

• Join a small, senior team crafting genre-defining experiences.
• Opportunity to build combat that’s elegant and replayable.