Principal Gameplay Engineer - Unity

Job description

Tolan is building personal AI that helps people think, reflect, and take action in their real lives. We're an experienced team that previously founded Even, acquired for $300M in 2022. Tolan is backed by the designers and founders behind Instagram, Retro, Behance, Vimeo, and Notion. ### **The Role** We're hiring a **Principal Gameplay Engineer** to define and own the core interactions of the Tolan world and the moment-to-moment "juice" that makes the app feel alive. You'll obsess over the stuff users notice instantly (even if they can't name it): snappy easing, micro-animations, secondary motion, haptics, camera shake, VFX, anticipation/overshoot, responsive UI motion — think "game feel" in the Super Meat Boy/Balatro/Hades sense: tight, expressive, and beautiful. You'll work shoulder-to-shoulder with Product and Creative, turning rough ideas into playable prototypes and putting them in front of people constantly. ### **What You'll Do** - Rapidly develop prototypes of new features, iterate quickly, and ship to users. - Own "feel" across everything 3D — including character interactions, navigation, and world moments. - Add impact and delight with tiny details that make everything feel reactive and alive. - Collaborate tightly with Product, Design, and Creative to translate "vibes" into concrete behaviors and tuning knobs. - Create juicy systems that can be quickly and easily deployed across multiple areas of the app. ### **Who We're Looking For** - **Indie feel.** You've shipped experiences where the magic comes from timing, simplicity, and cohesion. - **Unity or Unreal fluency.** You're comfortable working in either engine at a high level. - **Hands-on systems thinker.** You prefer being a hands-on developer who can think systemically while nailing the details. - **Polish obsessed.** You love spending time on timing curves, easing, responsiveness, visual feedback, and tactile feel. - **Prototype pusher.** You can take a rough prototype and push it to "wow" through iteration and tasteful restraint. - **Tight feedback loops.** You're energized by showing prototypes early and often. ### **Bonus points if you:** - Have experience with procedural animation and physics-based motion. - Have a strong eye for VFX/UI motion and can make things feel premium without being noisy. - Enjoy working in stylized worlds where personality beats realism. - Have built or tuned character controllers, interaction systems, or expressive character behaviors. **Compensation:** $200,000-300,000 base salary + equity + benefits