Software Engineer, Gameplay, NPC - StarCraft | Irvine, CA
Blizzard Entertainment3 days ago
Responsibilities
- Design, develop, and maintain gameplay systems for NPC behaviors and interactions.
- Implement scalable NPC gameplay features for varied gameplay scenarios.
- Collaborate with designers, animators, artists, AI, and gameplay teams to create engaging character experiences.
- Develop tools, workflows, and debugging solutions for efficient content creation and iteration.
- Optimize NPC gameplay systems for performance, stability, and maintainability.
- Prototype gameplay features and evaluate them through iteration and playtesting.
- Investigate, diagnose, and resolve gameplay and NPC-related issues.
- Contribute to technical design discussions, engineering best practices, and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
Requirements
- At least 5 years of professional gameplay programming experience in the game industry.
- Strong proficiency in C++ software development.
- Experience developing gameplay features in Unreal Engine.
- Experience shipping or contributing to a commercial game title.
- Understanding of NPC architecture, state machines, behavior systems, navigation, and character interactions.
- Experience debugging and optimizing gameplay systems in large-scale codebases.
- Knowledge of maintainable, scalable, and performant software engineering principles.
- Experience collaborating with cross-functional development, design, and content creation teams.
- Strong problem-solving, analytical, communication, ownership, and accountability skills.
- Preferred experience includes NPC, creature, or combat systems; RPG, action RPG, or social gameplay; networked simulation or multiplayer; developer-facing tools; live game development; animation systems; and character pipelines.
- Resume plus a portfolio, code samples, or shipped game contributions demonstrating gameplay engineering expertise are required.
Benefits
- Hybrid work week combining work-from-home and on-site days in Irvine, California.
- Medical, dental, vision, health savings or reimbursement accounts, healthcare and dependent care spending accounts, insurance, and disability coverage.
- 401(k) with company match, tuition reimbursement, and charitable donation matching.
- Paid holidays, vacation, sick time, floating holidays, compassion and bereavement leave, and parental leave.
- Mental health, wellbeing, fitness, free and discounted games, legal services, identity protection, rental insurance, and other voluntary programs.
- Relocation assistance may be available when the company requires geographic relocation.
- Base pay range is $38.08-$70.44 hourly, with possible incentive compensation.
Tech Stack
C++Unreal Engine
Categories
Gaming
About Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard Entertainment develops and publishes video games for PC and consoles, including World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, StarCraft, and Hearthstone, supported by Battle.net services and esports. Founded in 1991 (as Silicon & Synapse) and headquartered in Irvine, California, it operates within Activision Blizzard, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2023. Its business model spans premium games, expansions, a World of Warcraft subscription, and in-game purchases for live-service titles.