Treyarch hiring for new Call of Duty

Call of Duty: Black Ops maker Treyarch is hiring for staff to work on a new game – and it sounds like another COD.

Treyarch's website advertises for a raft of positions.

Of particular interest are the advertisements that call for staff who will report to "the design director for the Call of Duty multiplayer team at Treyarch".

One of those is for a gameplay combat designer. The ideal candidate "will design, develop, and tune game mechanics and features, largely in the area of combat systems (such as weapons and attachments) and gameplay mechanics (such as Perks and spawning)," reads the website.

They'll also "manage the game's core rule systems (such as health and damage feedback) from top to bottom. Identify all the edge cases where core rules could be broken and propose solutions," and be "working with the systems designer, co-develop a solid game reward mechanic that keeps players engaged and feeling satisfied without providing an unfair advantage over others".

And they will "review all gameplay mechanics on a consistent basis and drive for the highest level of quality in a design's implementation. This includes working with production to ensure that quality control in the final product provides the player with a flawless and bug-free experience".

The news comes as no surprise. Publisher Activision employs a two-pronged strategy in order to annualise Call of Duty. 2011 is expected to see another Call of Duty game from Modern Warfare developer Infinity Ward, perhaps with help from Sledghammer Games and Raven Software.

Treyarch's next Call of Duty game, then, is expected in 2012.

Last month Treyarch game design director David Vonderhaar said "it would be pretty fantastic" to create a near-future Call of Duty.

"It would be kind of a unique opportunity but the way this works out is obviously more complicated than, 'Hey, me and Treyarch are going to make a near-future shooter.' It doesn't work out that way in practice.

"It's a tough question to answer. We have not announced any new Call of Duty games at this time but to answer his specific question I think, personally, it would be pretty fantastic to do near-future, you know? Not necessarily far-future.

"For me personally. I'm just talking for myself."