{"id":3817765,"url":"https://alion.io/job/abstraction-senior-combat-designer","title":"Senior Combat Designer","company":{"id":4417638,"name":"Abstraction","domain":"abstraction.games","url":"https://alion.io/company/abstraction-2","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":null},"role":"Design","role_family":"Design","seniority":"senior","employment_type":"contractor","work_mode":"remote","remote_scope":"stated_countries","remote_scope_basis":"posting_text","remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"explicit","locations":["Eindhoven, Netherlands"],"countries":["NL"],"hiring_countries":["DE","GB","NL"],"hiring_countries_total":3,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":6,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Unreal Engine","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-11-05T13:55:33Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-11-05","last_verified_at":"2026-11-08T14:21:52Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":3,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":3},"description":"Abstraction is a Dutch game co-development studio aiming to deliver cutting-edge game experiences. Specializing in technically demanding projects, we have collaborated on renowned IPs like Halo, Dune, Mass Effect, and Baldur’s Gate. Our portfolio contains over 60 titles, reflecting our commitment to quality and technical prowess. We're not just partners with industry giants such as BioWare/EA, 343/Microsoft, Funcom, Sega, and others; we're innovators in our field.\nAs aSenior Combat Designer, you will focus on the design and implementation of player combat and prototypes, with a particular emphasis on enemy creation. You will take enemies from concept through to fully playable, polished opponents, working closely with the animation team to deliver grounded, realistic combat.\nYour expertise in combat design, animation, and AI will ensure every encounter is readable, responsive, and satisfying, enhancing both gameplay and player experience.\nThis is a fixed 3-month contract starting ASAP. The contract may be extended beyond the initial 3 months.\nResponsibilities\nDesign, build and implement enemies end-to-end in Unreal Engine 5, from initial behaviour concept to a polished, shippable character.\n\nDesign realistic, grounded melee combat, including enemy movesets, attack patterns, hit reactions and combat flow.\n\nProcess and integrate motion capture data, selecting, cutting and adapting takes for enemy attacks, reactions and locomotion.\n\nSet up and adjust Animation Montages, tuning attack timing, anticipation, active frames and recovery so that enemy moves are readable and fair.\n\nConfigure animation blending and motion warping so enemies track, close distance and connect with the player convincingly.\n\nBuild and maintain enemy AI behaviour using State Trees, including decision-making, attack selection, group coordination and reactions.\n\nScript and balance combat encounters to keep gameplay challenging yet fair, iterating quickly based on playtests and feedback.\n\nWork closely with other departments to identify technical requirements and improve tools and workflows for enemy creation.\n\nWrite clear documentation for enemy movesets, behaviours and tuning values.\n\nUnderstand and adapt to technical constraints related to animation budgets, engine specifics, and framerate targets.\n\nKnowledge & Experience\nBachelor's degree in Video Game Design, Computer Science or related field, or equivalent experience.\n\n6-8 years of experience working in games in a relevant design role.\n\nGame Designer credits on at least 2+ released AAA titles.\n\nSpecialised knowledge in industry-standard software package tools.\n\nSpecialised knowledge and understanding of commonly used game engines (i.e. Unreal or similar proprietary engine) and platforms (i.e. PC and consoles) to be able to follow technical discussions.\n\nAdvanced verbal and written communication skills in English.\n\nVery good presentation and pitch skills.\n\nNote: Abstraction can only hire employees based in the Netherlands, Germany, and the UK. We are open to freelancers from other regions.\nWe are dedicated to fostering an inclusive and equitable work environment where all individuals, regardless of their background, are encouraged to thrive, and we empower all team members to bring their unique perspectives to the table.","description_format":"text","description_chars":3298,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":6,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[{"language":"English","level":"All levels","optional":false}]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"Germany","iso":"DE","kind":"country"},{"name":"United Kingdom","iso":"GB","kind":"country"},{"name":"Netherlands","iso":"NL","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Game Development"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-11-05T16:43:32Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"NL","licensed_sponsor":true,"adverts_offering_sponsorship_24m":0,"sanctioned_now":false,"evidence":"Recognised sponsor of the Dutch immigration service (IND)","filings_12m":null,"filings_prev_12m":null,"green_card_filings_12m":null,"median_offered_wage_usd":null,"route":"Highly skilled migrants and regular labour","cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-11-08T10:45:15+00:00","sources":["IND: public register of recognised sponsors (work)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":86,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.86,"p_room":1,"age_days":2,"expected_fill_days":30,"reasons":["conf:3","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-11-08T05:47:12Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/abstraction-senior-combat-designer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/abstraction-senior-combat-designer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-08T15:45:26Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":33253,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-09T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":4417638},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=4417638"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fabstraction-senior-combat-designer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":2,"usd":0.2},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fabstraction-senior-combat-designer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fabstraction-senior-combat-designer"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/abstraction-senior-combat-designer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fabstraction-senior-combat-designer"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":3817765}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"abstraction.games","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":3817765},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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