Gameplay AI Engineer

About the Studio

We are building the next generation of gameplay-driven interactive entertainment. Our studio focuses on acquiring and evolving legacy gaming IP that helped define entire eras of players. We seek out franchises with proven impact and passionate communities, and bring them forward using modern technology, deeper gameplay systems, and a player-first design philosophy.

Our current project centers around a well-known legacy sports IP that previously sold millions of copies. Our goal is not simply to recreate what existed before, but to evolve it — pushing gameplay systems, design, and competitive depth to a new level. We believe the best games emerge when technical excellence, physics engines, and player-first design intersect.

The Role

We are looking for a Gameplay AI Engineer who understands that great game AI is not about being unbeatable — it is about being believable, reactive, and fun to play against. The AI in this game needs to feel like an opponent with a personality, not a decision tree in a uniform. It needs to challenge players who want a challenge, and give newer players room to breathe without feeling patronizing.

You will design and build the AI systems that power our CPU-controlled opponents and crowd behaviors, working closely with designers and engineers to make sure the AI serves the game rather than fighting against it.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement AI systems for CPU-controlled opponents across difficulty levels
• Build behavior trees, state machines, or equivalent systems that produce believable, reactive opponent behavior
• Collaborate with the Game Designer — Mechanics to ensure AI behavior aligns with and reinforces core design intent
• Implement difficulty scaling that feels natural rather than mechanical
• Build crowd and ambient AI systems that contribute to the atmosphere of the game
• Profile and optimize AI performance — it needs to run clean alongside physics and gameplay systems
• Create tuning tools that let designers adjust AI behavior without engineering support

Qualifications

• Strong C++ and Unreal Engine experience — familiarity with Unreal's AI framework is a plus
• Experience implementing game AI for at least one shipped commercial title
• Deep understanding of behavior trees, state machines, and perception systems
• Ability to think about AI from the player's perspective — what feels fair, what feels challenging, what feels alive
• Experience optimizing AI systems for real-time performance

Bonus Experience

• Experience with sports or competitive game AI
• Experience building difficulty scaling systems
• Familiarity with machine learning approaches to game AI
• Experience designing AI that adapts to player behavior over time

Why Join Us

A great AI opponent is one of the most underappreciated things in games — players only notice it when it's wrong. Here you'll have the opportunity to build something that feels genuinely alive, in a genre where AI personality has always mattered and rarely been done well. In a small studio with direct access to designers and engineers, you will have the influence to shape AI systems from the ground up rather than inheriting someone else's architecture.

If you care about AI that serves the player experience rather than just passing a QA checklist, we want to talk.