Senior Enemy (Systems) Designer - Unannouced Project
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Job description
NaturalMotion is looking for a talented and passionate Enemy Designer to join our London studio, helping shape the combat experience for our first-person shooter mobile title. This role focuses on implementing well known enemies, adapting existing enemies and adding new compelling enemies to bring an authentic console experience to mobile
Sitting at the intersection of design, art, animation, audio, and engineering, you will ensure enemy encounters are polished, purposeful and fun. A core responsibility will be working with Level Design & Combat Design to ensure every enemy encounter is polished, purposeful, and fun. We are looking for someone who brings both craft knowledge and a genuine love of action games.
We embrace a hybrid work environment. Within this role you will work 2 days per week in our London office and the remaining days at home. What Youāll Do:
- Ownership of designing, prototyping, and implementing enemy behaviours, AI systems, boss encounters & other features that align with the creative vision of the game
- Take enemies and bosses from paper design through to shipping quality, ensuring they are complete, polished and fun for players
- Work with Level Design & Combat Design to ensure enemies, factions, and NPCs meet their goals at every stage of development. Define required metrics to track and achieve them
- Collaborate closely with art, animation, audio, design and engineering teams to build content and solve problems in a multi-disciplinary environment
- Develop and balance a diverse roster of enemies, bosses, mutators & more
- Create compelling AI behaviours & attack patterns that provide an exciting experience and appropriately challenging for players
- Analyse combat data, player feedback, and internal playtests to refine and iterate on enemy and boss designs
- Work concurrently on multiple features at varying stages of development, managing priorities effectively as content pipelines run in parallel
- Document and communicate enemy and boss design concepts clearly to ensure alignment across all development teams
Requirements
- Previous experience in Combat / Enemy Design or an equivalent role in the video game industry
- At least one shipped title in a design role for a Shooter / Action / RPG title
- Experience designing and implementing enemy AI, behaviours, and encounters for action games
- Experience working on a first-person or third-person game
- Familiarity with the Unreal game engine
- Ability to analyse gameplay data and player feedback to inform and balance design decisions
- Strong visual & verbal communication skills with the ability to work effectively across cross-disciplinary teams
- The ability to manage multiple designs in a fast-paced development environment
- Passionate about action games with a deep understanding of what makes enemy designs engaging and memorable
Bonus Points:
- Background in live service games and/ or mobile games with an understanding of ongoing balancing and content updates
- Experience with visual scripting or rapid prototyping tools
- An avid gamer with a genuine enthusiasm for crafting memorable and inventive enemy designs
Benefits & conditions
- Competitive salary and discretionary annual bonus scheme
- 26 days holiday, plus bank holidays & 2 paid personal days
- 6 months fully paid maternity/adoption leave and 16 weeks fully paid paternity leave (eligibility criteria applies)
- Pension plan, with a double matching employer contribution
- Private medical & dental insurance and healthcare cash plan
- Life insurance, personal accident insurance and income protection
- Mental health and neurodiversity support programs
- Company Employee Stock Purchase Plan (eligibility criteria applies)
- Fitness reimbursement plan, worth £600 per annum
- Flexible working hours
- Weekly happy hours, seasonal parties and monthly social events
- Annual rail season ticket advance and cycle to work scheme
About the company
Level Up Your Career with Zynga!
At Zynga, we bring people together through the power of play. As a global leader in interactive entertainment and a proud label of Take-Two Interactive, our games have been downloaded over 6 billion times-connecting players in 175+ countries through fun, strategy, and a little friendly competition.
From thrilling casino spins to epic strategy battles, mind-bending puzzles, and social word challenges, our diverse game portfolio has something for everyone. Fan-favorites and latest hits include FarmVille , Words With Friends , Zynga Poker , Game of Thrones Slots Casino , Wizard of Oz Slots , Hit it Rich! Slots , Wonka Slots , Top Eleven , Toon Blast , Empires & Puzzles , Merge Dragons! , CSR Racing , Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells , Match Factory , and Color Block Jam -plus many more!
Founded in 2007 and headquartered in California, our teams span North America, Europe, and Asia, working together to craft unforgettable gaming experiences. Whether youāre spinning, strategizing, matching, or competing, Zynga is where fun meets innovation-and where you can take your career to the next level., Please be aware that Zynga does not conduct job interviews or make job offers over third-party messaging apps such as Telegram, WhatsApp, or others. Zynga also does not engage in any financial exchanges during the recruitment or onboarding process, and will never ask a candidate for their personal or financial information over an app or other unofficial chat channel. Any attempt to do so may be the result of a scamp or phishing attack, and you should not engage. Zyngaās in-house recruitment team will only contact individuals through their official Company email addresses (i.e., via a zynga.com, take2games.com, naturalmotion.com, smallgiantgames.com, themavens.com, gram.gs email domain).
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