Senior Combat Designer - RuneScape Dragonwilds

Posted 7 Days Ago
Be an Early Applicant
Hiring Remotely in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England
In-Office or Remote
Senior level
Gaming • Software
The Role
As a Senior Combat Designer, you will shape gameplay feel, oversee player combat systems, mentor designers, and ensure polished interactions in RuneScape: Dragonwilds.
Summary Generated by Built In

Location: Cambridge, UK – (Remote available within the UK with team onsite days in the Cambridge office approx. 4 times per year)

Are you a designer who lives and breathes great-feeling gameplay and wants to define the moment-to-moment experience at the heart of RuneScape’s newest game?

As a Senior Combat Designer on RuneScape: Dragonwilds, our open-world survival crafting game developed in Unreal Engine 5, you’ll shape the core feel of the game, from the weight and flow of combat to the responsiveness of player movement, camera, and controls.

Working closely with the Creative Director and Lead Combat Designer, you’ll own the design of the 3Cs (Character, Camera, Controls) and combat systems that define the precision, fluidity, and satisfaction of our gameplay. You’ll guide prototyping and iteration across the team, mentor fellow designers, and ensure every interaction, from traversal to spellcasting, feels intuitive, polished, and rewarding.

If you’re excited by the challenge of making every button press and sword swing feel just right, we’d love to hear from you.


What you’ll be doing:

  • Own the design of core player controls, camera behaviour, and movement responsiveness, ensuring the game feels fluid, intuitive, and precise across all mechanics (combat, traversal, and spellcasting).
  • Player Combat and Abilities - Oversee the design, implementation and tuning of weapons, skills, and spells so that each delivers distinct, satisfying gameplay while supporting scalability and balance.
  • Ensure consistency, holistic gameplay feel and quality across all player mechanics, combat and non-combat alike, so that traversal, exploration, and moment-to-moment gameplay feel equally polished.
  • Build and iterate on mechanics in Unreal Engine 5 (Blueprints and data-driven tools), quickly bringing ideas into playable form and iterating based on testing.
  • Partner with animation, engineering, audio, and VFX teams to deliver mechanics that not only feel great but also look and sound impactful.
  • Drive tuning across stamina, cooldowns, movement timing, and input responsiveness to achieve a high degree of polish and fairness.
  • Run play sessions, analyse feedback, and adjust designs to raise quality and ensure alignment with the overall creative vision.
  • Mentor mid-level and junior designers in best practices for player-character design, and maintain clear documentation that keeps the broader team aligned.

What we’re looking for:

  • Proven experience shipping player-character systems on action or RPG titles, with a strong emphasis on both 3Cs and combat feel.
  • Deep understanding of player control design, including input mapping, responsiveness, camera systems, and traversal mechanics.
  • Strong expertise in combat system design, spanning melee, ranged, skills, and spells.
  • Hands-on experience in Unreal Engine 5 (Blueprints, data-driven tools).
  • A track record of balancing player systems for both challenge and accessibility across solo and co-op play.
  • Strong cross-disciplinary collaboration skills and the ability to clearly articulate design intent.
  • Experience providing mentorship and design leadership.
  • A passion for delivering gameplay that feels great the instant players pick up the controller.

What we offer:

When you join Jagex you can look forward to a generous Perks & Benefits package including:

Private Healthcare, including Dental Plan.
Minimum 6% Pension contributions.
Employee Assistance Programme & onsite Counselling.
Life Insurance.
Discretionary annual performance bonus.
Enhanced family leave policies from day 1.
Flexible working hours.
25 days annual leave + Bank holidays & the option to buy/sell holidays + so much more!

About Jagex:

Jagex is a leader in developing and publishing deep, engaging online games that connect millions of players worldwide. Best known for the RuneScape franchise, which includes two of the world’s longest running and most successful MMORPGs, in Old School RuneScape and RuneScape, and the open-world survival crafting game, RuneScape: Dragonwilds; we have proven success in delivering immersive Forever Games and fostering strong player communities.

We strive to foster an inclusive workplace built on trust, autonomy, and a shared passion for creating forever games.
Our values guide everything we do: We Embrace Fellowship by collaborating and sharing openly. We Hone our Craft by always learning and improving; We Honour our Vows by being honest and transparent; We are our Customers’ Heroes by striving to understand our team & player needs, and We Seize The Day by making the most of every opportunity.

With over two decades of experience, and over 400 people in our team, we continue to innovate in live game development, leveraging data-driven insights, and a commitment to player-first game design. We have a diverse and talented team where creativity, collaboration, and community-driven game development drives everything we do.

As part of Jagex, you’ll have the opportunity to work on a globally successful franchise, contribute to exciting new projects, and be part of a company that hugely values both our employees and our players.

Top Skills

Blueprints
Unreal Engine 5
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The Company
HQ: Cambridge
659 Employees
Year Founded: 2001

What We Do

A leader in creating deep and engaging forever games on PC, Console & Mobile that empower our communities. Jagex was founded in 2001 and is today one of the UK’s biggest and most respected video game developers and publishers.

Famed for its flagship MMOs RuneScape and Old School RuneScape, Jagex has welcomed more than 300 million player accounts to its world and created a $1bn lifetime franchise revenue. Today the RuneScape franchise exists beyond running games in live operations; our titles are forever games that connect and inspire millions of players, with content and experiences both inside and outside of inexhaustible game worlds.

Both RuneScape and Old School RuneScape, on PC and mobile, offer ever-evolving, highly-active worlds and our community-focused development ethos empowers players to have a real say in how each game is shaped.

Jagex has added to its skill set with the acquisitions of Pipeworks and Gamepires in 2022, bringing our expertise to titles such as SCUM, helping to make SCUM a forever game. It also works with external partners on products such as Melvor Idle and This Means Warp; bringing these titles to new and existing audiences.

Jagex employs more than 600 people at its Cambridge headquarters and around the world at Pipeworks in North America, and Gamepires in Europe. We’re always on the hunt for talented people to work across the business, to help the company to achieve its goals.

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