Combat Designer

We are looking for a skilled and creative Combat Designer to join our growing remote team. You will be responsible for designing and refining the core combat systems of the game, ensuring smooth gameplay feel, deep skill progression, and engaging player-versus-environment experiences. This role is central to the development of player abilities, skill trees, and enemy combat behaviours, with a strong focus on melee combat. You will report directly to the Game Director, working closely with gameplay programmers, animators, and fellow designers to ensure that combat mechanics feel responsive, polished, and fun. If you’re passionate about building satisfying combat loops, iterating on player movesets, and bringing melee systems to life, this role is for you.

Your Role

• Combat Design & Gameplay Systems Development:

• Take ownership of combat skills, special moves, and core player mechanics.
• Refine player character combat animations and movement implementation.
• Design and balance combat gameplay for multiple melee classes and skill trees.
• Oversee the design and integration of new enemy combat behaviours.
• Develop and present improved designs for player movesets and combat systems.
• Drive implementation of skill trees, energy systems, and held-weapon detection mechanics.
• Collaborate closely with code, design, and animation teams to ensure smooth integration of combat features.

• Iteration & Prototyping:

• Create prototypes to test and refine combat mechanics.
• Balance and iterate skill sets and player progression systems based on playtesting.
• Work within the animation pipeline to align design, code, and visual fidelity.
• Ensure technical feasibility and consistent gameplay feel across combat systems.

We’re Ideally Looking For:

• Must-Haves:

• 4-5+ years of experience in game development, with at least one shipped title.
• Solid experience designing combat systems, with a strong focus on melee combat.
• Proficiency in Unreal Engine and Blueprints.
• Experience collaborating with gameplay programmers and animators.
• Familiarity with skill trees, player progression, and systemic combat mechanics.
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to mentor junior team members.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.

• Example Tasks:

• Designing and implementing player combat movesets and combos.
• Developing and balancing multiple melee class skill trees.
• Overseeing the animation logic for attack, movement, and enemy reactions.
• Collaborating with engineers to refine held-weapon detection and energy bar systems.

• Nice-to-Haves:

• Familiarity with C++ is a plus.
• Experience designing RPG systems, writing, or broader game design.
• Experience implementing animation systems, rigging knowledge is a bonus.
• Exposure to enemy AI behaviours and encounter design.
• Familiarity with skill trees, character progression, and RPG mechanics.

About Couch Heroes

Couch Heroes is a growing, international game studio dedicated to creating a social gaming platform that celebrates creativity, expression, and meaningful player connection. We’re building something new: a modular, social-first game world that lets players shape stories, discover content, and collaborate across experiences. We're a remote-first team with legal entities in the UK and we’re currently scaling operations to support an ambitious multi-year roadmap. Our team blends deep AAA experience with fresh perspectives, and we value autonomy, curiosity, and cross-functional collaboration.

Location: Remote-first

Type: Full-time