Join to apply for the Gameplay Animation Programmer (UE5) role at Great Ape Games

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Join to apply for the Gameplay Animation Programmer (UE5) role at Great Ape Games

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Hybrid – work from home or join us in our central Brighton office.

About Us

We make cinematic, highly polished single-player games alongside one of the best indie publishers in the business, Annapurna Interactive. It's a wildly exciting time for our studio and we'd love for you to join us on the journey of developing our flagship title, The Lost Wild.

We're a diverse mix of talented people working from all over the UK and Europe, with an office HQ in Brighton. Work-life balance is important to us at Great Ape Games, and we operate a four-day workweek as standard. We care deeply about our team and aim to provide a creatively challenging yet rewarding and enjoyable place to work and grow.

Job Overview

We’re looking for a skilled and collaborative Gameplay Animation Programmer to help define the behaviour and feel of The Lost Wild from the player’s perspective. This role is focused mostly on first-person character embodiment, whether the player is crawling through ferns, reacting to a threat, or reaching out to interact with the world.

You'll work closely with our Senior Animation Programmer, gameplay programmers, animators, and designers to create responsive, expressive, and immersive character features. One day you'll work on bringing to life a new gameplay feature like shimmying across an abyss, the next you'll dig deep into animation programming challenges like hand IK and cinematic transition blending. Your work will bring a tactile dimension to the player’s experience.

You’ll occasionally support the Senior Animation Programmer on shared systems and creature-related work, particularly where features overlap.

This role is for someone who obsesses over creating tactile, dynamic, responsive gameplay brought to life with immersive, embodied first-person character animation.

Responsibilities

• Implement and maintain animation systems for first-person character embodiment, resulting in a tactile player experience and dynamic traversal and interaction states.
• Spearhead the development of first-person gameplay features, especially where they depend on character animation.
• Ensure smooth, cinematic transitions between movement, interaction, and narrative performance, balancing fidelity and responsiveness.
• Develop systems for procedural foot/hand placement, body leaning, and reactive movement that reinforce presence and weight.
• Work alongside gameplay and systems programmers to implement engaging player features that shape the core gameplay experience and deepen player immersion.
• Collaborate with animators to integrate motion capture, keyframe, and procedural animation into gameplay and cinematics.
• Design and build tools and debugging utilities to empower the animation team with fast iteration and intuitive controls.
• Occasionally support our creature animation systems as needed, particularly where there's overlap with first-person character features.
• Contribute to animation-driven storytelling, enabling the protagonist to express emotion, fatigue, panic, or pain through animation.

Requirements

• Deep experience with Unreal Engine 5 animation systems: Animation Blueprints, Blend Spaces, Montages, Notifies, layered animation, Root Motion, and Control Rig.
• Proven experience with first-person character animation in a real-time gameplay setting.
• Demonstrated expertise and a keen enthusiasm for developing gameplay programming features related to player abilities (e.g. jump, crawl, dodge, interact), especially where these abilities overlap with animation.
• Strong understanding of animation principles, 3D mathematics, and inverse kinematics.
• C++ proficiency in the realm of Unreal Engine gameplay programming, animation tooling, and character systems.
• Familiarity with Unreal Engine tools like Rewind Debugger and Animation Insights to debug, profile, and audit animation behaviour and performance.
• A thoughtful, collaborative approach to working across disciplines (animation, gameplay, design, and narrative).
• A passion for crafting immersive, grounded experiences with dynamic and expressive character motion.
• Proactive and self-sufficient, with excellent problem-solving skills and attention to detail.
• Familiarity with advanced modern UE5 animation techniques such as Motion Matching, Pose Warping, Choosers, IK Rigs and retargeting, and Linked Anim Layers.
• Knowledge of procedural animation techniques, including Control Rig for procedural foot placement or walk cycles, Chaos Physics for partial ragdolling and hit reactions, cloth and hair simulations, etc.
• Experience with mocap pipelines, rig authoring, and retargeting workflows in Maya or MotionBuilder.
• Familiarity with Unreal's Gameplay Ability System, gameplay tags, and other modern gameplay programming techniques and approaches.
• Experience working with first-person stealth, horror, action adventure games or shooters.
• Previous shipped title in a narrative-driven immersive game.
• An appreciation for the survival horror genre and games with strong physicality and emotional nuance.
• Work from home or the office – it’s up to you
• A genuine, company-wide aversion to crunch
• Private health, dental, and life insurance via Bupa
• Life Insurance and Income Protection
• Annual salary reviews
• 31 days’ paid holiday, including all bank holidays plus your birthday off
• Annual allowance for personal and career development courses
• A flexible perks package – spend points on whatever you want
• Fast-growing studio with strong potential for career advancement
• Optional team meetups a few times a year

Seniority level

• Seniority level

  Mid-Senior level

Employment type

• Employment type

  Full-time

Job function

• Job function

  Engineering and Information Technology

• Industries

  Computer Games

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