Principal Engine Developer
We are developing Ember Sword, a groundbreaking social sandbox MMORPG game set in a community-driven PvE and PvP fantasy universe.
As a Principal Engine Developer on the Bright Star Studios Engine team, you'll be part of the core group of developers that build our custom ECS-based game engine written in C++. It is compiled with Emscripten to WebAssembly and runs directly in your browser. It currently loads in just 5 seconds and we’re aiming for the game to be platform agnostic. Therefore, we care greatly about the quality and performance of our code and don't shy away from refactoring if needed. You'll be building core engine features, implementing optimizations, entirely new services for various game features, and creating general infrastructure for game developers.
Next to building the engine for Ember Sword, we're also looking into commercialising the game engine in the near future!
What you'll do
- Design and build core game engine features.
- Build core engine features, such as particle, animation, and audio systems.
- Improve and enhance the core engine systems, such as particle systems, chunk streaming, editing tools, etc.
- Refine and optimise the rendering pipeline.
- Architect and develop new services.
- Lead company-wide initiatives to improve our engineering best practices.
- Mentor and advise other programmers.
- Leverage a number of technologies such as, but not limited to, GLS / HLSL / A Shader graph and OpenGL, WebGL, WebGPU, and WebAssembly (Emscripten) in order to optimise our engine performance.
Who you are
- You have excellent C++ skills (e.g. a strong grasp of Standard Template Library (STL) and underlying data types).
- You come with many years of experience as a software engineer focused on game engine development or 3D/Graphics/CGI engines.
- You have experience with structuring large code projects from the ground up.
- You have experience working with vector maths.
- You have experience with ECS/ENTT (e.g. ECS design principles, data locality, and how to design systems with these principles in mind).
- You have experience developing custom game engines.
What's in it for you
- We are a remote-first company but also have offices in the Netherlands (Breda), Denmark (Copenhagen), and Serbia (Novi Sad) where you could work from.
- If you’re not based in any of our office locations and as long as you are based within the CET timezone +2/-2 hours, we can offer a UK/EU-based role (either as a contractor or as an employee through Deel). You will then occasionally travel to Copenhagen to meet with your colleagues.
- Flexible working is available to all colleagues so you will not be required in the office every day!
- You’ll get 25 days annual leave + 1 free day off for your birthday + bank holidays of your employment locations.
- Recharge time: we give everyone the option to take extra paid time off to recharge after intense periods of time.
Who we are
Bright Star Studios is a global independent games development studio led by a team of award-winning venture founders, former world champion pro-players, and entertainment professionals who come with decades of game industry experience. We are aiming to carve a new path forward for MMORPGs across PC, browser, and mobile platforms. The studio’s mission is to rewrite the games industry with a business model that favours the community through exciting competitive gameplay, instant playability, and a leading platform that supports the player economy.
We are an equal-opportunity employer that hires people who are genuinely passionate about changing the games industry for the better. Always on the lookout for exceptional talent and potential, we care about good team effort, open and friendly communication, and speaking up without reserves.