Harmonix recruiting repeats hints of upcoming combat-focused IP

Harmonix, the developer behind Rock Band and Dance Central, is once more looking to hire developers with combat design skills and experience.

In a new job ad posted on Gamasutra, Harmonix flat out calls for a combat designer.

"Harmonix seeks a Combat Designer to create real-time, single-player combat experiences for a brand new IP on next-generation hardware. This is an exciting opportunity to contribute creatively to the studio and work on a project that is unlike anything Harmonix has ever done before," the ad reads.

The lucky designer will be responsible for helping to "develop the core loop of our single-player combat gameplay" as well as to designing and tuning combat skills and abilities; overseeing creation of robust combat AI systems for minor and major combat encounters; implementing key combat abilities, mechanics, AI and encounters at the script level; and advocateing for "a fun, deep and accessible combat experience". The ad requires two years experience on real-time combat design.

This is at least the second time the combat title has appeared in Harmonix recruiting, making it seem more likely to be an in-development project than a prototype or experiment.

In May, Harmonix advertised for level, content and narrative designers. The wording of those ads also made mention of combat encounters, but described the project as a new kind of music game, too, suggesting the independent team may not be straying too far from its (awesome) roots.

Harmonix's latest effort is the downloadable Rock Band Blitz. The developer purchased itself from MTV Games in December 2010.

Thanks, Kotaku.