Level/Experience: Mid-to senior-level role.

Location: This is a hybrid role, and you have the choice to work from home, or join us in the office in central Brighton. Relocation and visa support is also available to the right candidate.

We are looking for an AI / Gameplay Programmer to join the team, working on our flagship survival horror game, The Lost Wild, published by Annapurna Interactive. You'll be instrumental in crafting unique creature encounters and gameplay features working alongside world-class artists, designers and programmers to help bring our unique game world to life.

You'll be responsible for crafting and expanding upon our game's core animal encounters and gameplay features, working closely with the Lead Game Designer and Lead Level Designer to fully realise the game's vision.

The Lost Wild features large natural terrains peppered with structural points of interest and indoor spaces. You should possess some level design sensibilities that align with these requirements, understanding how different spaces bleed together to support the wider gameplay and pacing from a design and AI perspective.

As a crucial part of a mid-sized indie team with AAA ambitions, your workweek will be quite varied and may involve focusing on an AI animal encounter one day and then having a hand in more general gameplay systems the next.

What the Job Entails

• Distilling the vision statement of what our animals mean in our game into functional AI actors which exhibit interesting and dynamic interactive behaviour.

• Work alongside game designers and animators to craft the player experience as far as interaction with AI agents is concerned, which may include combat interactions.

• Have a hand in building or extending general gameplay systems in service of realising the game's core vision, even outside of AI encounters.

• Responsible for the look and feel of animal behaviours, including fixing bugs, jank, and immersion-breaking situations in general, with support from our Animation Programmer.

• Creating prototypes to help build suitable frameworks that can support and inform the design team.

• Suggest improvements if necessary by designing and implementing new systems.

• Collaborate with designers and animators in discussing constraints and establish the technical possibilities of AI behaviours.

• Suggest innovations based on other industry-leading games and techniques.

• Program in Blueprints and C++ in a clear and structured way, taking into account simplicity, readability, maintainability, and performance (where necessary).

• Verify that newly developed systems meet project AI requirements and align with the game's core pillars.

• Document the work so as to transfer knowledge and enable team members of other disciplines to understand how to use the new AI systems and functionality.

Requirements

• Solid Blueprint and C++ programming skills.

• Strong understanding of AI principles and techniques; knowledge of behaviour trees, state machines, EQS, etc.

• Excellent problem-solving ability.

• Self-motivation in taking ownership over your work while being proactive in your collaboration with team members.

• Great team communication skills, especially in remote contexts.

• Passion for playing and creating cutting-edge, single-player video game experiences.

Plusses

• Involvement in a shipped game using Unreal Engine 4 or 5.

• Worked at a AAA or AA studio.

• Experience solving complex AI problems (navigation, turning, route planning, multiple agent interaction, etc.).

• Experience working on pathfinding or AI movement/behaviours for characters, preferably bipedal and quadrupedal animals and/or creatures.

• Strong mathematical ability; knowledge of vectors, matrices, and linear algebra.

• Experience working with complex animation graphs, procedural animation, and/or foot and spine IK.

• Knowledge and interest in mentoring and coaching junior roles.

• Excited to be a part of an indie studio with big ambitions!

• A penchant for survival horror games.

• Into dinosaurs.

Benefits

• A four-day (32h) workweek as standard.

• Work from home or the office – it's up to you.

• A genuine, company-wide aversion to crunch.

• Private health, dental and life insurance via Vitality.

• Annual salary reviews.

• 31 days’ paid holiday during each holiday year, including all bank holiday entitlements plus your birthday.

• Extra time off for special days/events or emergencies. No questions asked.

• Fast-growing studio with plenty of room good potential for career advancement.

• Team meetups (always optional) a few times a year.

• One hour a week of paid exercise and wellness time.

• Annual allowance for personal and career development courses.

• A flexible perks package – spend points on whatever you want.

  
  

If you feel you have something to offer this role, even if you don’t think you qualify for all the above, please still apply. We are an inclusive employer and if you have potential, talent and a great work ethic, we want to hear from you. 🙏