Principal Combat Designer

Scopely is looking for a top-performing Principal Combat Designer to join us in a remote or hybrid basis (Culver City) for an exciting unannounced project in development.

Join a team that is early in its journey to build a new F2P Open World Adventure title with World Class IP. You’ll shape the vision for our combat, leveraging your expertise in the 3Cs (camera, character, controls) and enemy AI to deliver gameplay that is approachable, creative, and endlessly replayable.

At Scopely, we care deeply about what we do and want to inspire play, every day - whether in our work environments alongside our talented colleagues or through our deep connections with our communities of players. We are a global team of game lovers who are developing, publishing, and innovating the mobile games industry, connecting millions of people around the world daily.

What You Will Do 

• Own both our player and enemy combat systems, including weapons and abilities.
• Define our core AI systems to support a wide variety of dynamic and challenging encounters.
• Champion combat’s role in the broader sandbox, partnering with other gameplay, content, and level designers to foster player creativity and emergent play.
• Ensure combat appeals to a broad audience while still delivering deep engagement and replayability.
• Collaborate across disciplines (animation, art, audio, VFX, engineering, UI/UX) to deliver responsive, readable, and impactful gameplay.
• Shape combat’s progression and personalization systems so they enhance gameplay and support our live-service.

What We’re Looking For

• Extensive combat design experience, with multiple shipped titles showcasing your craft.
• Proven success balancing and evolving combat systems in live-service.
• Passion for developing action sandboxes that prioritize player expression and creativity.
• Experience defining core AI systems to support a wide variety of engaging enemies.
• Deep understanding of camera and control paradigms for third-person action.
• Fluency in how animation, audio, and effects shape the feel of combat.
• Strong thematic sense, able to wrap mechanics in evocative, resonant presentation.
• Hands-on implementation ability with enthusiasm for building gameplay directly.
• Systemic and goal-driven design process, with a focus on developing and validating gameplay through playtesting and iteration.
• Clear communicator and culture leader.

Bonus Points

• Mobile design background, especially on mobile games with real-time action.
• Familiarity with designing for cross-platform games.
• History of building gameplay to appeal to a broad audience.
• Unity game engine knowledge, especially its AI, animation, and gameplay systems.
• Expertise in leading inter-disciplinary pods and mentoring or directing other designers.