About the Project

When an ancient orb shatters over a tropical archipelago, a young apprentice recovers a fallen shard and begins uncovering its secrets. Master your class, battle through dungeons and raid bosses, and collect the remaining shards before a rogue sorceress finds them first, all in a single-player world that lives like an MMO.

Where We Are

We're a tiny team of roughly seven being led by two newbies to the gaming industry. We're in pre-production. The world, themes, and high-level story beats are defined, and core systems are being built out. What we don't yet have is a formalized combat direction: the pillars, conventions, and class framework that everything else will be designed against. Part of this engagement is guiding us on best practices and helping us figure out what we don't yet know we need.

You'd be joining at an incredibly formative stage. The combat pillars, progression philosophy, and class conventions you help establish now will define how the entire game gets made.

About the Role

We're looking for a Combat Systems Designer to define what fighting in our world is, and then help us build it. The style of combat we're aiming for is MMO combat in a single-player game: class kits, rotations, cooldowns, and dungeon and raid-style encounter mechanics, supported by a party system that recreates the holy trinity of tank, healer, and damage. You'll author the combat design foundation that acts for combat what a style guide is for art, then grow into designing individual classes end to end.

What You'll Be Responsible For

Vision and pillars: Define the pillars of our combat (pace, readability, challenge, player fantasy) and the conventions that keep every ability, enemy, and encounter consistent with them
Progression design: Define how player power and complexity grow over time: ability acquisition, talent trees, and how the combat experience evolves from the first hour to endgame
Class and ability design: Establish the class framework (roles, fantasies, resource models) with example ability kits and example talent trees, then design full classes in later phases
Player expectations: Know how players in this genre think about class design, fantasy, and balance, and where we should meet those expectations or deliberately break them
Systems collaboration: Partner with systems designers and engineers so combat, quest rewards, and progression reinforce each other
Documentation: Write clear, structured design documentation that any team member can pick up and act on
Guidance: Advise us on combat design process, tooling, and best practices, including what we haven't thought of yet

Phases

We're breaking this up into three distinct phases with different payment structures.

Phase 1: Discovery (Fixed Contract)

Payment: Fixed fee, negotiated based on agreed scope.

Get up to speed on the game: our GDD, story outline, systems work so far, and the fantasy we're going for. This phase ends with a short findings write-up: your read on our combat vision, the open questions we need to answer, and a recommended plan for Phase 2.

Phase 2: Combat Pillars & Framework (Fixed Contract)

Payment: Fixed fee, negotiated based on agreed scope.

Author the combat design foundation, the combat equivalent of a style guide. This includes shaping how much build flexibility players have to customize, experiment, and express themselves within each class. This covers:

Combat vision document: The pillars of our combat, the feel and fantasy targets, and the conventions (readability, telegraphing, etc.) that all future combat content must follow
Progression framework: How power, abilities, and complexity unlock over time, from onboarding through endgame
Class framework: The roles, fantasies, and resource models our classes are built from
Example ability kits: A worked example of one or two ability kits demonstrating the conventions & synergy in practice
Example talent trees: A worked example of a talent tree showing structure, choice cadence, and reward philosophy
Tuning models: The starting spreadsheet models (power curves, damage and resource baselines) that future classes will be balanced against
Tooling: Identify the tools and workflows that will speed up our ability to prototype, test, and experiment with combat as it comes online
Review: We review together, flag gaps, and iterate

Work is organized around agreed milestones, with regular async check-ins so we can course-correct early.

Phase 3: Class Design (Ongoing Contract)

Payment: Fixed fee per deliverable (for example, per class designed), negotiated toward the end of Phase 2. (Alternatively, an hourly rate capped at an agreed-upon number of hours; we're open to discussing what structure works best.)

With the foundation in place, the role transitions into designing individual classes end to end: full ability kits, talent trees, rotations, and tuning targets, built to the framework from Phase 2. This phase also includes a basic balance and tuning assessment, along with identifying any tooling we need to support combat design as a whole while we iterate.

Deliverables

Documentation will live in Notion as pages. Tuning models will live in shared spreadsheets.

What We're Looking For

3-5+ years of game design experience with significant focus on combat or systems design, with at least one shipped title (or a substantial released project)
A track record of authoring design foundations others can build on, demonstrated through a portfolio or case studies: vision docs, shipped combat systems, class designs, or talent trees
Deep fluency in class-based combat: ability kits, rotations, roles, resource models, and how MMO-style mechanics translate to a single-player context
Able to break down what makes combat in the games you love fun and engaging, and turn that analysis into design decisions
Strong grasp of progression design: talent trees, power curves, and complexity ramps
Proficiency with spreadsheets (Excel or Google Sheets) for tuning models, power curves, and balance math
Able to weigh conflicting viewpoints, make a clear recommendation, and commit once a decision is made
Ability to receive, give, and act on feedback with a collaborative attitude
Excellent documentation and communication skills
Comfortable working async and remote with a small indie team
Fluent in English (written and spoken)

Nice to Have

Unity experience: practical familiarity with working in the engine
Experience designing boss fights or enemy AI on a shipped action title
Background in MMOs, ARPGs, or other class-based, combat-dense genres
Experience with combat metrics, telemetry, and data-informed balancing
A trained eye for game feel: animation timing, hit reactions, and feedback

What to Expect

Hours: Contract (part-time, est. 5-15 hours per week depending on phase)
Rate: $60-75/hour
Schedule: Fully remote and largely asynchronous. You manage your own time, with occasional syncs with the team.
Communication: We work primarily through written channels, so clear async communication matters as much as availability.

How to Apply

Send us your resume/CV along with a portfolio that shows both sides of your craft: systems thinking (vision docs, class or ability designs, talent trees) and shipped or released work.

Required: Include a sample ability kit or talent tree design, accompanied by a written explanation of your process: what didn't work, what did, and why.

Lead Combat Systems Designer