Gameplay Engineer — simulation & economy
Own the layer that makes the world run on its own: settlement economies, NPC routines, factions that react to what the player did, and the performance budget that holds it together.
Contract · remote · async. Part-time to start, scoped per milestone, rate agreed in writing. Paid trial before any longer engagement.
Arventus is an open-world RPG in Godot 4.7 whose depth lives in its simulation: settlement economies that run whether or not the player is present, NPCs on routines who remember what the player did, factions that fill a position when it is vacated. This role owns that layer.
The world layer — procedural terrain and structure placement — is already built and documented in the world-generation devlog. This role builds the systems that live on top of it.
What you would own
- The economy. Production chains, prices that respond to supply, businesses that keep running while the player is elsewhere, and the standing model that sits alongside coin.
- NPC behaviour. Daily routines and a bounded decision chain — a strict, deterministic priority order rather than a black box, so surprising behaviour can be traced to the branch that produced it.
- Factions and consequence. Positions that get refilled, groups that react to what the player has done, and the bookkeeping that makes a grudge arrive three weeks later.
- Performance. Profiling and keeping the simulation inside budget as the agent count grows.
What we are looking for
- Shipped Godot work, ideally simulation-heavy. GDScript fluency, with the willingness to drop into C++ where the profiler says it matters.
- Comfort designing systems that are deterministic and testable rather than tuned by feel.
- Profiling experience — you can look at a frame and say where the time went.
- Able to work from a written design document and push back on it when the design is wrong.
Nice to have
- Economy or market simulation, agent-based modelling, or utility/behaviour-tree AI.
- Experience with large agent counts and level-of-detail scheduling.
- Save/load design for a simulation that must reload deterministically.
What you would not own
Art, shaders and rigging sit with the two art roles. Marketing, investor material and business operations sit with the founder. This role is the simulation.
About the work
Remote, async by default, no required timezone. Scope, outcome, rate and duration agreed in writing before work starts, invoiced on delivery. The studio is small and pre-revenue — this is a contract with the possibility of a longer engagement as the project funds, not a salaried position today.
Please include a sample of Godot or simulation work you can talk through.
How to apply
One email to [email protected] with a portfolio, a CV or equivalent, and a short note on which part of this role you are strongest at. No forms, no portal. Reply within five business days.
Process: one email, a 30-minute call, then a small paid trial scoped to real work on the project. The trial is invoiced, not free.