Game Designer (2D Combat / Melee / Shooting) in Hampshire, Portsmouth

This is an appointment for our UK dev team - BITMAP BUREAU.

About Bitmap Bureau: Founded in 2016 by industry veterans Matt Cope and Mike Tucker, Bitmap Bureau is a game development studio based in Southampton. Bitmap Bureau are truly passionate about retro games and are dedicated to creating new titles that hark back to gaming’s golden era through 2D graphics, authentic packaging and a traditional hands-on approach to coding and development. Notable releases include Xeno Crisis, Final Vendetta, and Terminator 2D: NO FATE, with He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Dragon Pearl of Destruction coming soon!

We are looking for a Game Designer to work with our team on a new 2D action/adventure title.

The Role: This is a hands-on gameplay design position focused on combat, boss encounters, progression systems and difficulty balancing. You will work closely with the Production team and Gameplay Programmer to evolve, create and refine the game’s core system and mechanics. This is a full-time, office-based role in Southampton.

Responsibilities:

• Combat & Boss Design: Design and iterate on enemy behaviors and combat encounters, create varied and distinct, multi-phase boss fights, balance player abilities against evolving enemy challenge, tune the overall game difficulty curve.
• Progression & Systems: Balance the character progression and upgrade systems, make sure combat, level design, and progression all support each other.
• Feedback & Iteration: Internalize and respond constructively to stakeholder and playtest feedback, translate feedback into gameplay improvements, iterate on combat, level flow, and systems based on review cycles, clearly communicate design reasoning when proposing changes.
• Cross-Discipline Collaboration: Work closely with 2D artists and animators to ensure gameplay requirements are clearly defined, align enemy behaviors, attack timings, and boss mechanics with animation constraints, ensure strong visual telegraphing and mechanical readability, collaborate across disciplines to deliver cohesive gameplay moments.
• Benchmarking & Research: Refer to genre benchmarks in 2D action-adventure games, reference comparable titles when proposing gameplay features or changes, use benchmarking to support gameplay suggestions.
• Documentation: Maintain and evolve relevant sections of the GDD, clearly communicate design intent to programmers and artists, produce structured documentation, diagrams, and gameplay breakdowns.

Required Experience:

• 2–5+ years experience in gameplay design.
• Clear and structured documentation skills.
• Experience working on a 2D action or adventure game.
• Understanding of combat systems (melee and gunplay) and boss design.
• Experience balancing difficulty and player progression.
• Experience collaborating closely with artists and animators.

Highly Desirable:

• Programming skill and familiarity with source control systems, ideally C#, Haxe, git.
• Experience with level editing in Tiled.

Above and Beyond:

• Experience working on a licensed IP.
• Experience with Unity.
• Shipped console title.

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: £30,000.00-£40,000.00 per year

Benefits: Life insurance, Private medical insurance.

Ability to commute/relocate: Southampton SO18 1NP: reliably commute or plan to relocate before starting work (preferred).

Application question(s): Will you now or in the future require visa sponsorship to work in the UK?

Experience: Gameplay Design: 2 years (required), 2D action/adventure game development: 2 years (required).

Work authorisation: United Kingdom (required)

Location: Southampton SO18 1NP (preferred)

Work Location: In person