What are the responsibilities and job description for the Senior Combat Designer position at LightSpeed Studios?

About the Hiring Team

Welcome to Lightspeed LA, the first U.S.-based, AAA game development studio for Tencent Games. Lightspeed LA is focused on building open-world games that emphasize an ambitious living world, sophisticated player-driven gameplay, and mature, thoughtful storytelling. We are developing the first in a series of genre-defining titles.

Why join Lightspeed LA?

For us, it's not only about the exciting, new AAA open world game we're developing but also about team values and studio culture. We foster an open and transparent environment where everyone feels comfortable providing constructive feedback about all aspects of our games.

We encourage the showing of work that's still in progress.
We don't attack or question unfinished work, we celebrate its promise.
We have a No Blame Culture where we blame the problem, not the person.

This is a safe place to fail, and we don't view failure as a negative, but as the natural result of pushing boundaries and trying new things. We create together. We face Challenges Together. We succeed together.

What the Role Entails

Lightspeed LA is seeking a Senior Combat Designer to lead and drive Player 3Cs and enemy combatants for our AAA open world project.

In this role, you will report to Lead Combat Designer who has oversight on combat, vehicles and systems design. You will lead a team of combat designers and feature pods to realize our combat vision and push for excellency in processes, best practices and quality. To achieve this vision, you will work closely with leads and members from disciplines including Engineering, Animation, Narrative, Mission, Ambient World, Character Art, VFX, SFX and Production.

Drive combat gameplay features and content from initial concepts through specs, implementation, iteration and completion.

Vision holder of our Player 3Cs and combat mechanics.

Vision holder of high-level combat gameplay goals for enemy factions and combat roles for enemy combatants.

Collaborate closely with Mission and Ambient World teams to anticipate and solve problems arise during content creation for their respective domains.

Work closely with production partners and other leads to create road maps and milestone / sprints goals for combat features and content.

Represent combat team to various disciplines as the go-to-person for solutions and manage their expectations.

Hands-on design and implementation of features and content and set examples for other combat designers to follow.

Mentor and manage combat designers.

Depend on candidate's strengths and interests, this role can be solely contribution focus as a principal designer or with additional management duty as a lead designer. Either role will require hands-on contribution in designing and implementing features and content.

Who We Look For

5 years of experience in combat design, including senior, principle or lead experience.

Extensive experience in tuning and balancing firearms.

Extensive experience and grasp at crafting melee combat gameplay, animation timing and feel.

Extensive experience in design, implementation, troubleshoot and tuning of Player 3Cs, traversal and combat mechanics.

Extensive experience in design, implementation, troubleshoot and tuning of enemy combatants and AI behaviors.

Must be fluent with Unreal Editor and Blueprint scripting; text-based scripting experience is a plus.

Must be experience in collaborating with animators to create gameplay friendly animations that strike the right balance between fidelity, fluidity and responsiveness.

Experience in designing combat gameplay based on mo-cap performances; experience in directing mo-cap performance is a plus.

Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to convey difficult and abstract concepts to all disciplines.

Preferred Qualifications

Possess an extensive knowledge of competing products and a deep understanding of the complex overlap between combat and open world gameplay systems.

Shipped at least one AAA title from inception to finish.

Why Join Us?

Perks and Benefits :

Just some of the benefits of working with us here at our newly built studio in Irvine, CA.

Free daily lunch

Beverages, fresh fruit, and snacks

401k with employer match

Monthly Cell phone bill reimbursement

Financial wellness sessions

Flexible spending account

Team building and company outings

Parental leave for new parents

Company paid health insurance

Life and disability insurance

Employee assistance program

Wellness training

Travel insurance

Preventive care

If the above sounds like you, or if you'd like to know more about the role, we'd love to hear from you to see if we might be a good fit for each other! Contact us for more information about this exciting opportunity.

Location State(s)

California

The base pay range for this position in the state(s) above is $89,640.0 to $186,840.0 per year. Actual pay is based on market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. A sign on payment, relocation package, and restricted stock units may be provided as part of the compensation package, as well as other medical, financial, and / or other benefits, dependent on the specific position offered.

Equal Employment Opportunity at Tencent

As an equal opportunity employer, we firmly believe that diverse voices fuel our innovation and allow us to better serve our users and the community. We foster an environment where every employee of Tencent feels supported and inspired to achieve individual and common goals.

Salary : $89,640 - $186,840

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