Games Engineer

Job Description

Job Description

We are searching for a super talented Games Engineer, holding responsibility for turning a narrative play into a system that runs: rules, state, progression, character behavior, triggers, and the moment-to-moment play loop. Reporting to our CTO, this is a pivotal role that sits between creative and technology. There is no established playbook for what we are building - you’ll be inventing a lot of it. Consequently this is an amazing opportunity for someone who is truly creative, detail-oriented, and skilled at this early test & learn stage. 

Introducing Peace

Peace is building a real-world play platform. It turns homes, gardens and neighborhoods into AI-powered story worlds that children physically step into and play in. Off screens, into adventures.

Our mission is to ensure that we raise the next generation to be peaceful and creative. We believe the way to do that is to re-embrace play, which has become a lost art for two generations; robbed by big tech and screens.

Our wedge product launching next year will be screenless devices (magic buds) that live in the home and transform it into an immersive experience where a child can play and unleash their creativity. 

We are a very tight team led by a successful, exited entrepreneur and joined by an exceptional, experienced team including early engineering talent from Founders Capital-backed Grabango + creative talent with credentials some of the world’s most incredibly produced performances: Star Wars, Marvel, and War Horse. 

Our pre-seed was led by Local Globe and Angels include Founders from Entrepreneur First, Calm, and Twitch.

Responsibilities

• Build the play systems. Game state, session logic, progression, unlocks, rewards, pacing and difficulty across a play world for children
• Build character behavior. State machines, behavior trees and rules that decide what a character does and when (including how a scripted system and an LLM-driven character share control of a scene).
• Build physical game mechanics. Use inputs from a variety of real-world sensors so that play responds to player motions and where they are in a space
• Prototype fast. Get playable versions in front of children in days, not months, and be willing to throw them away.
• Build tools and content structures that let writers and designers create, configure and tune play without needing an engineer.
• Tune from real data. Instrument sessions, sit in playtests, and balance the systems based on what children actually do.

Requirements

• Gameplay or systems engineering experience. On shipped games or interactive products.
• Strong programming. Unity/C#, Unreal/C++, Godot, or Python/TypeScript. We're not tied to an engine (yet) - how you think about systems matters more than which tools you've used.
• Real understanding of game systems: loops, state, progression, pacing, balance, and what feels like a true reward to a player
• The ability to work closely with writers and designers. Translate creative intent into a working system.
• Prototyping speed. You'd rather have something playable on Friday than a design document.
• Interest in play for children aged 5–11, and an understanding of how that differs from designing for adults.
• Scrappy and good at 0-1. You are energised by building from scratch, comfortable with ambiguity. 

Benefits

We are a highly mission-driven, ambitious company, so working hard is a pre-requisite. But we are also building this for our families and future generations, so we make space for flexibility and family comes first, always.

Peace is a place that you can be yourself. We are a highly diverse team and we truly believe that excellent work comes when you create a great environment for amazing people to flourish.