IEG - Senior Gameplay Engineer

About NetEase Games:

As a leading internet technology company based in China, NetEase, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTES and HKEX:9999, “NetEase”) provides premium online services centered around content creation. With extensive offerings across its expanding gaming ecosystem, the Company develops and operates some of China’s most popular and longest-running mobile and PC games. Powered by industry-leading in-house R&D capabilities in China and globally, NetEase creates superior gaming experiences, inspires players, and passionately delivers value for its thriving community worldwide. By infusing play with culture and education with technology, NetEase transforms gaming into a meaningful vehicle to build a more entertaining and enlightened world.

NetEase’s ESG initiatives are among the best in the global media and entertainment industry, earning it a distinction as one of the S&P Global Industry Movers and an “A” rating from MSCI. For more information, please visit: http://ir.netease.com/

Responsibilities:

1. Develop core gameplay mechanics for football/soccer games, including but not limited to:
   • Football rule systems (offside / foul / referee logic).
   • AI player design (tactical positioning / team coordination / dynamic decision-making).
   • Physics-driven animation systems (collision response / motion fusion / inertial control).
   • Player animation state machine design (dribbling / shooting / tackling animation blending).
2. Lead end-to-end implementation of technical solutions, from prototyping to performance optimization.
3. Solve cross-module technical challenges (animation-physics synchronization, network consistency, etc.).
4. Write high-quality C++ code and establish technical standards for gameplay modules.

Required Qualifications:

• Experience:
• 5+ years in game development, with at least 1 shipped sports game title (football games prioritized).
• End-to-end ownership of at least 2 projects, covering the full lifecycle from technical design → development → launch → post-launch iteration.

• Technical Expertise:
  • Football rule systems (FIFA / PES-style rule engines).
  • Athlete AI systems (state machines / behavior trees / utility AI).
  • Physics-driven animation (Motion Matching / Procedural Animation).
  • Animation blend tree optimization (Locomotion / Contact Animation).
• Mastery in at least one domain least above.

• Expert C++ proficiency (C++17 features, template metaprogramming, multithreading).

• Engineering Competence:
• Experience with game architectures (ECS / Data-Oriented Design).
• Proven work in high-performance systems (CPU / memory optimization, SIMD acceleration).
• Proficiency in industry tools (Unreal Engine / Unity, Perforce / Git).
• Ability to analyze and deconstruct gameplay implementation solutions.

Preferred Qualifications：

• Football Enthusiast:
• Knowledge of football tactics (e.g., Tiki-Taka / Gegenpressing).
• Understanding of player techniques (e.g., Messi-style dribbling / Ronaldo-style shooting).
• Amateur football experience or football data analysis background.

• Technical Breadth:
• Familiarity with network synchronization (state synchronization in sports games)
• Experience applying ML in game AI (e.g., reinforcement learning for player AI)

• Soft Skills:
• Proactive knowledge sharing (technical blogs / Github projects preferred).
• Ability to read and write technical documentation in English.

Team Expectations：

• We seek teammates who:
  • Strive for excellence in football games (willing to invest 200% effort for a 1% improvement in realism).
  • Think as both engineers and players, prioritizing user experience in technical design.
  • Maintain high code quality and system scalability in fast-paced development cycles.

Originally posted on Himalayas