{"id":867337,"url":"https://alion.io/job/tolans-principal-gameplay-engineer-unity","title":"Principal Gameplay Engineer - Unity","company":{"id":697608,"name":"Tolan","domain":"tolans.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/tolans","size_band":"51-200","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":75,"open_postings":4,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":1,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":null,"computed_at":"2026-11-03T05:54:40Z"}},"role":"Games","role_family":"Games","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["San Francisco, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":200000,"max":300000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":300000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Unity","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2025-11-14T23:35:41Z","employer_posted_date":"2025-11-14","last_verified_at":"2026-11-04T01:32:29Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":354,"trust":{"level":"stale","repost_count":0,"flags":["stale"],"days_open":353},"description":"Tolan is building personal AI that helps people think, reflect, and take action in their real lives.\nWe're an experienced team that previously founded Even, acquired for $300M in 2022. Tolan is backed by the designers and founders behind Instagram, Retro, Behance, Vimeo, and Notion.\nThe Role\nWe're hiring a Principal Gameplay Engineer to define and own the core interactions of the Tolan world and the moment-to-moment \"juice\" that makes the app feel alive. You'll obsess over the stuff users notice instantly (even if they can't name it): snappy easing, micro-animations, secondary motion, haptics, camera shake, VFX, anticipation/overshoot, responsive UI motion - think \"game feel\" in the Super Meat Boy/Balatro/Hades sense: tight, expressive, and beautiful. You'll work shoulder-to-shoulder with Product and Creative, turning rough ideas into playable prototypes and putting them in front of people constantly.\nWhat You'll Do\nRapidly develop prototypes of new features, iterate quickly, and ship to users.\n\nOwn \"feel\" across everything 3D - including character interactions, navigation, and world moments.\n\nAdd impact and delight with tiny details that make everything feel reactive and alive.\n\nCollaborate tightly with Product, Design, and Creative to translate \"vibes\" into concrete behaviors and tuning knobs.\n\nCreate juicy systems that can be quickly and easily deployed across multiple areas of the app.\n\nWho We're Looking For\nIndie feel. You've shipped experiences where the magic comes from timing, simplicity, and cohesion.\n\nUnity or Unreal fluency. You're comfortable working in either engine at a high level.\n\nHands-on systems thinker. You prefer being a hands-on developer who can think systemically while nailing the details.\n\nPolish obsessed. You love spending time on timing curves, easing, responsiveness, visual feedback, and tactile feel.\n\nPrototype pusher. You can take a rough prototype and push it to \"wow\" through iteration and tasteful restraint.\n\nTight feedback loops. You're energized by showing prototypes early and often.\n\nBonus points if you:\nHave experience with procedural animation and physics-based motion.\n\nHave a strong eye for VFX/UI motion and can make things feel premium without being noisy.\n\nEnjoy working in stylized worlds where personality beats realism.\n\nHave built or tuned character controllers, interaction systems, or expressive character behaviors.\n\nCompensation: $200,000-300,000 base salary + equity + benefits","description_format":"text","description_chars":2463,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":[],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-13T14:26:32Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":7,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.247,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":353,"expected_fill_days":30,"reasons":["conf:0","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-11-03T05:54:40Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":300000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/tolans-principal-gameplay-engineer-unity","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/tolans-principal-gameplay-engineer-unity.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-04T05:11:53Z","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":8082,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-05T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"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":697608},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=697608"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Ftolans-principal-gameplay-engineer-unity"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"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%2Ftolans-principal-gameplay-engineer-unity"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"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%2Ftolans-principal-gameplay-engineer-unity"},{"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/tolans-principal-gameplay-engineer-unity\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Ftolans-principal-gameplay-engineer-unity"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":867337}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"tolans.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":867337},"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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