Principal Gameplay Engineer - Unity at Tolan

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