Gameplay Software Engineer (Principal/Senior)

Bonfire Studios is looking for a Principal/Senior Gameplay Engineer to partner closely with our development team to both drive and build gameplay features & tools for our first game. We are seeking those who are tinkerers at heart! you will jam on gameplay ideas with designers while breaking down technical boundaries in pursuit of discovering new ways to make the game more fun.
Bonfire Studios is a highly collaborative, cross-disciplinary environment where every developer's voice shapes the company, the game, and the tasks we work on each day. As an engineer on our team, you will have the opportunity to shape the game & technology that powers our first title and create an amazing experience for our players.
About the role...

• Your main focus will be working closely with designers, animators, visual effects artists, and audio designers to continually refine & evolve gameplay to delight players.
• We believe that in-person collaboration is essential to making legendary games. Much of our engineering team is hybrid across the west coast, and we are looking for someone who is excited about collaborating closely in person at our studio in Orange County or comfortable traveling regularly.
• You will develop game technology and tools built in Unity using DOTS via C#. The projects you work on will be a combination of direct feature implementation in ECS and tool development to empower rapid iteration time from creators.
• Projects may include things like optimizing bandwidth on a predicted client to give a better view of the server world for a player, building tools for designers so they can intuitively iterate on character mechanics, implementing animation features to bring characters to life, iterating on camera and controls to ensure the most responsive experience, or creating new game modes that mixup the game.
• We love people who are passionate about multiple areas so you will probably also spend time in other areas such as audio, UI, gameplay systems, optimizations.
• Your ultimate impact on the studio will be unbounded; we lean on each other's passions and embrace one another's unique perspectives on game development to help us all grow as a team together. You will have many opportunities to contribute to areas of the game and the company outside your core focus.

We're excited about you because you...

• Believe, as we do, that great games are the product of great teams that put their people first.
• Have experience working on custom/heavily modified engines for AAA games across PC and modern consoles with multiple shipped titles.
• Deeply believe that improving iteration time allows designers and content creators to achieve quality.
• Have experience and a passion for driving initiatives and alignment across engineering, art and design using skills such as strong communication, context sharing, and mentorship.
• Deeply understand multi-threaded architecture and asynchronous programming paradigms.
• Have experience with ECS paradigms in game engines, and/or are excited about digging deeply into ECS paradigms in game engines.
• Have been a part of building technologies that allow developers to efficiently deliver live service content to players.
• Have deep expertise in one or more of Networking, Animation, Character Physics, Controls, AI.
• Value working with a diverse team and welcome different perspectives.
• Are open, humble, eager, and excited about learning and contributing in multiple areas of the studio. Your curiosity propels you to jump in and dive deep on new problems.
• Want to have a large impact while collaborating with other talented developers in a tight knit AAA studio, rolling up your sleeves and using your passions and interests to shape your role at the company.
• Enjoy jumping deep into an area that you aren't familiar with and figure it out. Value the skill of understanding unfamiliar code.
• Value building trust with the people you work with. Collaborating is your preferred method of working with other engineers and developers.
• Have a growth mindset and also care about helping others develop.
• Are as passionate about the creative process and developing games as we are!

You'll love working at Bonfire because we...

• Have strong values that include transparency, ownership, and trust. We are a people-first studio that also strives for a high bar of excellence in our creations.
• Celebrate craft expertise because we are a small, tight-knit group of highly experienced game developers who are as passionate about our team as we are our game.
• Offer opportunities to learn and contribute beyond your focused discipline in areas of interest or passion.
• Practice candor and feedback, leveling ourselves and each other up in the process.
• Play games and have fun together, kindling our own love for games and learning about each other.

The base salary range for this position is $192,500-$350,000. The range doesn't tell the whole story - we are always open to candidates at different stages in their careers and consider candidates' potential impact holistically, not just their years of experience or skill level. There is also more to our total comp package than salary, we offer equity to every new hire as well as a comprehensive benefits package and more. We will be happy to share more about our compensation opportunities when we chat with you!
You can learn more about Bonfire's studio culture, team, benefits, and perks on our website: Any information you submit is used for recruiting purposes only, and is never shared. You can learn more in our privacy policy.