A flurry of job listings on Bungie’s official career website have been discovered this week. Within each one, the developer lets slip a tiny bit of detail about its next project. The new IP, which is seemingly called Matter - according to a trademark filing from two years ago, is being funded and published by Chinese company NetEase, who signed on with Bungie in 2018. That’s about all of the official information that we have on Matter. According to the ad for an incubation investment designer job (via The Gamepost), the candidate will be building and distributing all kinds of loot items like armour and weapons. The listing goes on to say that the designer will be “building a system to cleverly distribute those items in a necromancer’s dungeon,” but that could just be colourful language and may not necessarily mean there’s going to be a necromancer in the game. Whatever it is, there’s definitely strong emphasis on experience with “RPG game systems at any scale.”
The page for incubation senior/lead combat designer confirms that combat will be a big part of the game, but stops just short of revealing just what kind of game it is. Bungie, however, recommends experience with “complex game combat systems such as aim assist cones, control response curves, and AI behaviors,” which confirms a shooter component. The job ad for an incubation art director also makes it clear that the game is going to have a competitive component. Bungie is looking for an art director who possesses “strong familiarity with the competitive gaming landscape.” Interestingly, the same job also reveals that the tone of the game will be lighthearted. “Would you like to work on something comedic with lighthearted and whimsical characters?” it asks the potential candidate. Destiny does, of course, have its lighthearted characters, but it’s hard to describe its tone as whimsical.
