Systems / Combat Designer

Lightfold Games · Atlanta, GA

Lightfold is a creator-first entertainment studio bringing fans and creators together to build original worlds across animation, comics, games, and more. We believe great stories come from giving talented people the freedom, ownership, and support to do their best work, then inviting audiences to come along for the ride.

Now, we’re building Lightfold Games.

Come in on the ground floor, we're hiring to bring our 3D game development and asset production in-house and create a team that can help define not only this game, but what Lightfold Games becomes.

These are hybrid positions based in Atlanta, GA (Old Fourth Ward), with health benefits. We’re looking for collaborative, ambitious people who want the rare opportunity to get in early, help establish how a new studio works, and build something from the beginning.

Our first game: building a co-op horde shooter with a stylized look tied to a 2D cartoon. We're hiring the full founding team at once, 11 roles in parallel, so we can move all 3D asset production in-house.

Role Description

We're looking for a Systems / Combat Designer to design the core loops of our co-op horde shooter: weapon balance, decontamination pacing, and the co-op systems that hold horde encounters together.

This full-time Systems / Combat Designer role at Lightfold is a hybrid position based in Atlanta, GA, with flexibility for partial work-from-home. The designer will create, balance, and iterate on game systems and combat mechanics, ensuring engaging, fair, and scalable gameplay experiences. Day-to-day responsibilities include prototyping and documenting systems, collaborating with design, art, engineering, and narrative teams, and translating creative goals into clear, implementable mechanics. The role involves conducting research to inform design decisions, setting up and running playtests, gathering feedback, and refining systems based on data and player experience. The designer will also work closely with technical tools and pipelines, ensuring combat and systemic features are implemented efficiently and align with the overall vision of the game.

Details

• Balance weapon systems and combat encounters
• Design and tune decontamination-grid pacing
• Build and iterate on co-op gameplay loops
• Partner with engineering on implementation and with the founder/design lead on level-design integration

Must Have Qualifications

• Experience designing systems and balancing combat in a shipped or in-development game
• A strong grasp of co-op design patterns
• Comfortable in a small team without a dedicated level design partner at first

More Qualifications

• Strong systems design skills, including experience designing, balancing, and iterating on core game mechanics and combat systems.
• Hands-on testing experience, including planning and conducting playtests, gathering qualitative and quantitative feedback, and using data to refine designs.
• Research skills to analyze player behavior, genre trends, and competitive titles, and to translate findings into actionable design improvements.
• Familiarity with Computer-Aided Design (CAD) tools or similar technical design and prototyping software, especially for visualizing and communicating complex systems.
• Basic understanding of electronics or technical systems relevant to interactive experiences, tools, or hardware-driven mechanics is beneficial.
• Proficiency with game engines or design tools (e.g., Unity, Unreal, internal scripting tools) and strong documentation skills.
• Ability to collaborate effectively across disciplines, communicate design intent clearly, and respond constructively to feedback.
• Prior experience in game design, especially combat or systems design, and a portfolio demonstrating relevant work.
• Bachelor’s degree in Game Design, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.