Senior Technical Animator Jobs in Bothell, WA (NOW HIRING)

Lightfox Games is seeking a talented, enthusiastic, and gameplay-focused Senior Combat Designer to join our tight-knit team in Seattle. In this role, you will hold senior-level ownership over our moment-to-moment combat loops—partnering with the Combat Lead to conceive, prototype, and polish satisfying gameplay mechanics from the ground up.

The ideal candidate is a blend of a mechanical tactician and an engine mechanic. You must possess a strong instinct for what makes actions feel responsive and punchy, a deep grasp of player psychology, and the hands‑on technical literacy needed to tune parameters directly inside the game engine. Working in tandem with art, engineering, and systems teams, you will make combat look magnificent, feel immaculate, and integrate smoothly into long‑term player progression.

Job Details Specification

Job Title Senior Combat Designer

Studio / Employer Lightfox Games

Location Seattle, WA (Downtown Hub)

Working Pattern Hybrid (Approx. 50% Onsite / 50% Remote)

Core Software Stack Unity Engine, Balance/Data Spreadsheet Systems

Target Platforms Mobile (Unannounced Global IP & Publisher)

Target Range $120,000 – $145,000 Base + Equity + 401(k) Match

As a Senior Combat Designer, your daily workflow will balance tactical prototyping with cross‑disciplinary systems balancing:

• Moment-to-Moment Excellence: Define, tune, and continuously iterate on the core combat feel—meticulously tweaking frame timing, animation pacing, hit responsiveness, and screen shake to deliver satisfying feedback loops.
• Enemies & Encounters: Collaborate with the Combat Team to map out diverse enemy AI behaviors, complex combat archetypes, and exciting encounter structures that test player skill.
• Abilities & Systems: Design and script responsive player abilities, cooldown mechanics, weapon profiles, and status effects that empower players to form distinct builds.
• Hands-on Engine Tuning: Drive combat assets from initial gray‑box prototyping to final shippable status by implementing and tuning systems directly within the game engine (Unity).
• Scalable Documentation: Author and maintain comprehensive combat design bibles, balance spreadsheets, standards documentation, and mechanical best practices that scale seamlessly as the studio grows.
• Data-Driven Playtesting: Playtest the game extensively, parsing both qualitative feedback from team sessions and quantitative telemetry data from player tests to direct combat iteration.
• Systems Synchronization: Partner with the Systems Design team to guarantee that combat mechanics sync flawlessly with broader game design pillars, live‑ops roadmaps, player progression loops, and economic frameworks.

We are looking for a veteran combat designer with a proven track record of shipping real‑time action mechanics:

• Industry Tenure: 5+ years of professional game development experience, with explicit senior-level ownership over combat or core gameplay design.
• Shipped Credits: At least 1 successfully shipped title under your belt where you directly shaped the combat or action architecture.
• Engine Literacy: Hands‑on experience building, scripting, and implementing gameplay features within a modern engine, with Unity strongly preferred.
• Design Fundamentals: A profound understanding of combat game feel, hit‑stop mechanics, input buffering, difficulty curves, enemy pacing, and player psychology.
• Elite Portfolio: A strong portfolio or collection of shipped breakdown work highlighting explicit ability, encounter, and AI design with clear design intent.
• Cross-Functional Communication: Exceptional verbal and written communication skills; entirely comfortable pitching mechanics to artists, calculating logic budgets with engineers, and presenting systems to stakeholders.
• Thriving in Ambiguity: Highly self‑motivated with a comfort level operating in an early‑stage, fast‑moving production environment where broad ownership is encouraged.

• Direct experience designing combat loops or systems for free-to-play mobile games.
• Familiarity with Action RPG (ARPG) combat mechanics, ability build diversity, and stat scaling systems.
• Experience tuning combat systems tailored specifically for isometric, top‑down, or strategy-oriented camera perspectives.
• Prior studio experience working within a major licensed property or highly established global IP.
• Experience exploring or utilizing emerging AI tools to accelerate prototyping, documentation workflows, or numbers tuning.

Lightfox Games offers a competitive total rewards package designed to support your lifestyle balance, health, and financial security:

• Competitive Base Salary: $120,000 – $145,000 per year (commensurate with background and portfolio depth).
• Financial & Ownership: Lucrative company equity options alongside a structured 401(k) retirement plan featuring an employer match.
• Health & Wellness: Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance coverage options for you and your family.
• Commuter Subsidies: Robust commuter benefits to streamline your travel to and from our downtown Seattle studio space.
• Collaborative Culture: A supportive, low-ego studio environment centered around small, high-impact teams with massive autonomy.