Gameplay Programmer job at Old Skull Games, France
Property Details
Company Name Old Skull Games (OSG)
Job Title Senior Unreal Gameplay Programmer
Department Engineering / Programming
Location 35 Rue Louis Guérin, 69100 Villeurbanne (Lyon Area), France
Work Model Hybrid (Mix of in-person and remote work)
Employment Type Full-Time, Permanent Contract (CDI – Contrat à Durée Indéterminée)
Professional Status Executive Status (Statut Cadre)
Experience Level Senior / Lead level (Minimum 10+ years of professional experience)
Core Engine & Tools Unreal Engine (C++ / C# scripting automation), Unity (as a minor plus)
Target Start Date As soon as possible (Immediate availability preferred)
Language Requirements Fluency in French is required; English proficiency is a strong plus
Company Description
Welcome to Old Skull Games (OSG). We are an independent, passionate video game development studio of approximately 60 exceptionally talented creators. From our modern headquarters in Villeurbanne, we operate a highly dynamic, multi-project development ecosystem, working simultaneously on 3 to 4 distinct titles across Console, PC, and Mobile platforms.
Our portfolio covers a massive spectrum of creative styles and gameplay mechanics—ranging from high-velocity action platformers to punishing roguelites and deeply immersive narrative experiences. This intentional project diversity ensures that our engineering and creative teams experience an incredibly rich, non-repetitive work environment where their skills are consistently challenged and expanded.
Our Core Philosophy & Organizational Culture
At OSG, our guiding principle is incredibly straightforward: to create exceptional games that players truly love. We accomplish this by operating under highly optimized Agile methodologies. We reject micro-management in favor of true team autonomy. Our multi-disciplinary production pods are fully self-governing; they make their own architectural and creative decisions, assume holistic responsibility for their project results, and receive comprehensive administrative, technological, and coaching support from our leadership team.
To maintain total studio alignment and celebrate transparent victories, we utilize the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) framework. At OSG, strategy is not locked behind closed doors—every single employee, including our senior engineering staff, actively participates in defining, measuring, and executing our studio-wide key objectives. We pride ourselves on cultivating a warm, highly motivating, and collaborative environment built around continuous learning, mutual respect, and genuine human connection.
We are seeking an elite, deeply experienced Senior Unreal Gameplay Programmer to integrate directly into our core engineering division. In this vital role, you will become a foundational architectural voice, collaborating closely with an enthusiastic, tight-knit group of game designers, programmers, technical artists, animators, and our Game Director to turn abstract creative visions into tight, responsive, and robust gameplay mechanics.
As a veteran developer, you understand that great programming is a balance between raw visual responsiveness (game feel) and structural code integrity. You will be responsible for defining how code is written, organized, and deployed across our Unreal-powered projects. This role demands a high degree of autonomy, technical rigor, and a natural passion for mentorship—you will actively guide junior and intermediate programmers, helping to elevate the collective technical capabilities of Old Skull Games.
Key Responsibilities as Gameplay Programmer
1. Architecture & Gameplay Engineering
- Systemic Design: Architect, build, and maintain highly robust, modular, and scalable gameplay systems within Unreal Engine that can adapt cleanly to shifting production requirements.
- Technical Structural Design: Formulate and document the core technical architecture of our games, ensuring that underlying codebase structures remain clean, high-performing, and easy to navigate for the entire team.
- Feature Translation: Deconstruct complex game design documents and director intentions into elegant, practical technical features, preserving the creative heart of the mechanics while honoring rigid hardware limits.
2. Code Quality & Pipeline Stewardship
- Rigor Management: Maintain and champion a rigorously structured code environment across the entire programming department.
- Code Reviews: Lead strict code review sessions, establishing baseline programming conventions, debugging anomalies, and ensuring that software architecture scales uniformly.
- Documentation: Author clear, accessible technical documentation detailing systems architecture, tool usage, and engine modifications for internal knowledge-sharing.
3. R&D, Innovation, & Performance Tracking
- Technological Scouting: Monitor emerging global technological developments, engine upgrades, and software engineering techniques to actively foster technical innovation within our studio walls.
- Proactive Problem Solving: Anticipate complex technical bottlenecks, multi-platform translation flaws, or memory leaks early in the production cycle, engineering innovative solutions before they disrupt deadlines.
- Process Improvement: Review development pipelines continuously, implementing automations or tool modifications to enhance the everyday efficiency of the programming team.
Qualifications & Technical Skillsets
Mandatory Criteria
- Industry Longevity: A minimum of 10 years of professional game programming experience shipping commercially verified titles.
- Unreal Engine Mastery: An exceptional, authoritative command of Unreal Engine architecture, pipeline customization, and its associated scripting/programming paradigms (including C++ engine level architecture and custom automated tool integration via C# tooling scripting frameworks).
- Flawless Game Feel: A highly developed, instinctual understanding of player input, timing, game balance, and visual feedback—ensuring that character movement, combat, and menus feel incredibly fluid and satisfying.
- Agile Mindset: Deep comfort operating inside Agile production environments. You actively enjoy prototyping, experimenting with mechanics, proposing technical revisions, and driving concepts from ideation to final polish.
- Language Requirement: Native or completely fluent professional proficiency in the French language is a strict requirement for everyday internal synchronization.
Desirable Attributes & Bonus Points
- Direct, practical experience developing and shipping high-performance titles on modern home consoles (Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox, or Nintendo Switch ecosystems).
- A strong secondary working knowledge or past professional experience utilizing the Unity Engine.
- A profound passion for internal knowledge transfer, collaborative coaching, and helping peer developers naturally progress their careers.
- A positive, solutions-oriented disposition that handles unexpected production hurdles with poise and logical clarity.
- A broad, authentic passion for global entertainment and pop culture—including modern cinema, independent music, prestige television, and video game history.
Perks, Benefits, & The Little Extras from OSG
At Old Skull Games, we know that elite performance requires elite care. We have built an expansive ecosystem of employee perks designed to respect your life outside the studio while maximizing your daily comfort:
- Work-Life Harmony: Truly flexible daily working hours paired with an optimized, non-rigid hybrid structure combining remote flexibility with focused in-studio collaboration.
- Family-First Care: Dedicated, fully paid studio leave allocation specifically set aside to tend to sick children or sudden family emergencies.
- Ultra-Flexible Paid Leave: A highly supportive, modern approach to time-off allocation—giving you the complete trust and flexibility to schedule your time off exactly when your body and mind need it.
- Health, Wellness, & Sports: On-site showers, curated weekly group sports sessions, and an unlimited, studio-sponsored Wellpass subscription giving you unrestricted access to external gyms, fitness studios, and health clubs.
- Studio Social Traditions: Our legendary weekly studio team breakfasts, an abundance of fresh fruit baskets, coffee, and gourmet refreshments, and our highly anticipated, unmissable annual OSG Summer Camp retreat.
- Premium Workspace: Exceptional, sun-drenched architectural premises featuring a private rooftop terrace, dedicated quiet zones for deep work, an internal concierge service, and immediate proximity to Lyon’s beautiful Parc de la Tête d’Or.
- Accessible Inclusion: Enhanced, additional medical leave allocations specifically tailored for team members with registered disabilities to ensure they have ample time to manage their health and wellness comfortably.
Inclusion & Equal Opportunity Statement
Old Skull Games is deeply committed to diversity, cultural inclusion, and absolute equal opportunity. We believe that exceptional games are built by teams that reflect the rich diversity of our global player base. We proudly welcome and encourage applications from all individuals, completely regardless of gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, age, or disability status.
Accessibility Support: If you require any specific physical, technological, or scheduling accommodations to comfortably and successfully participate in our interview and technical recruitment process, please inform our HR team at any point—we will eagerly customize the experience to support you.