Senior Game Tools Programmer

We are developing Ember Sword, a groundbreaking social sandbox MMORPG game set in a community-driven PvE and PvP fantasy universe.

As a Senior Game Tools Programmer, you are responsible for proactively proposing, designing, and building efficient tooling for Engineers, Gameplay Programmers, Designers, and Artists. Your focus will be to improve the overall development cycle and iteration speed of our game. Ember Sword is built on a custom-built 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.

Your success will be measured by stable and efficient tools that are used in day-to-day production by your colleagues.

What you'll do

• Proactively connect with the Engineers, Designers, and Artists to identify challenges and pain points slowing them down in production.
• Plan and prioritise the tools building needs based on their impact on our game development speed and quality.
• Build, implement, and generate adoption of custom tools by your colleagues.
• Leverage a number of rendering technologies such as, but not limited to, OpenGL, WebGL, WebGPU, and Direct3D.
• Mentor and advise other programmers.

Who you are

• You have a few years of experience in developing tools for gaming engines (e.g. either in Unreal or a custom game engine)
• You have excellent C++ skills (e.g. a strong grasp of Standard Template Library (STL) under underlying data types, understanding of data-driven and/or ECS design principles, data locality, efficiency/performance, and how to design systems with these principles in mind)
• You are a creative coder with a strong feel for gameplay and design
• You have experience with vector maths.

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.