Senior Videogame Designer

Senior Videogame Designer (Remote) Seismic Squirrel LLC Job Title: Senior Videogame Designer The Role: - Designing gameplay, systems, mechanics, maps, and levels for our studio's videogames. The Games: - Narrative-driven RPG videogames set in an alternate-history 1930s New York City. Experience: - Senior Level – 10+ years of professional videogame design experience. - Must have successfully shipped at least one videogame in a Senior Designer role. Location: - USA or Canada (Remote) – Must reside within the UTC-4 to UTC-8 timezones. Company Size: - ~24 Job Type: - Contract-to-Hire -or- Employee (see below) Pay: - $45-65 USD per hour – Depends on skills and experience. Overview: - We are looking for a creative and resourceful Videogame Designer to join our team. - They will work with other departments to design, document, and implement a variety of game systems, mechanics, levels, and mission types. - This position requires excellent collaboration and communication with various stakeholders. - The job demands a clear understanding of the gameplay experience, player needs and expectations, a logical and systemic thinker, an iterative approach to development, a collaborative spirit, and an enthusiasm for our studio's genre of videogames. - The ideal candidate is driven to create a fun and cohesive gameplay experience, able to empathize with both new players and with experts of the genre. - They possess a sense of urgency and enjoy working with talented designers, engineers, writers, artists, testers, and management. - This is a remote position which requires regular collaboration online during our core work hours (9:30 AM – 4:30 PM Pacific), attending relevant team meetings (e.g. daily scrum, retrospectives, sprint planning, and design meetings). - Occasional calls during late evenings, nights, and early mornings should be expected for meetings with international collaborators. - Occasional travel may be expected. - Applicant must have an ergonomic and secure workspace separate from their personal activities and roommates during work hours. - Applicants must be authorized to work in the USA or Canada. - Whether an applicant qualifies for contract-to-hire or full-time employee, and the option to convert, depends on the applicant's location, skills, aptitude, fit, project needs and schedule, and pay expectations. - H-1B transfers and sponsorships are not available at this time. - For more information about Seismic Squirrel, go to http://www.SeismicSquirrel.com/ Quests: - Guide the design of gameplay, systems, and mechanics, including unit balancing, and in-game economy. - Work with other departments to design and implement game levels and missions, including establishing mission objectives, level layout, and support the integration of art and narrative assets in Unity. - Preside over design meetings and clearly document game designs in the requirements. - Actively collaborate with the development team on the game concept and design. - Effectively communicate needed mechanics to Engineering. - Maintain outstanding UX quality throughout the game's design. - Participate in internal game testing and feedback. - Openly communicate with team members on progress and problems, define deliverables, and help to set realistic project timelines and expectations. - Champion intuitive UX to ease new players into the game with an engaging first-time experience. - Help predict, identify, and resolve user experience issues that could detract from player enjoyment. - Help to identify where to add analytics instrumentation and interpret the resulting analytics data to improve the user experience. Character Stats: - 10+ years of professional experience in the game design role through the full lifecycle of game development from start to finish: concept, design, prototype, production, content creation, testing, polish, launch, and support. - Possess a strong understanding of combat and travel systems and mechanics and level design best practices. - Expert as a Designer in Unity. - Experienced integrating and implementing narrative within gameplay. - Experienced working with professional narrative authoring tools (e.g. Articy, Arcweave, Pixel Crushers). - Understand the unique needs and opportunities developing games for PC and console. - Enthusiastic for quality gameplay and a familiarity with many games and genres, past and present. - Passionate for the videogame industry and a desire to grow within it. - Strong self-discipline, motivated, a self-starter with a drive for excellence. - Organized, detail-oriented, able to work fast and loose or carefully with quality as needs require. - Courteous and patient, able to give and receive constructive and inspirational feedback gracefully. - Able to work effectively with people having a variety of personalities and backgrounds. - Adaptable: The job can change according to the needs at hand and requires wearing various hats. - Outstanding documentation, information organization, and cross-referencing skills. - Strong written, visual, and verbal English language communication and presentation skills. - Excellent problem-solving skills, resourceful, able to find solutions when needed. - Able to balance and prioritize tasks to meet deadlines, working within agreed timeframes and budgets. - Adept at working remotely using various collaboration tools. - Has an ergonomic and secure workspace separate from their personal activities and roommates during work hours. - Experienced applying UML in design. - Proficient in Atlassian Jira and Confluence. - Proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel, and Visio. - Passionate to learn new tools and technologies. Bonus Points: - Proficient using tools for art (e.g. Adobe), modeling (e.g. Blender, 3ds Max), and design (e.g. Adobe XD, Figma). - Located in one of our hub metros: Seattle, Los Angeles, Edmonton, or Austin. The Company: - Seismic Squirrel is a close-knit fully remote videogame studio with a passion for developing thoughtful story-based games. - Our nimble size allows for everyone to have a voice in the projects we create, demanding the ability to be both detail-oriented and flexible. - If this sounds like an exciting opportunity for you and you're located in the USA or Canada, please submit both your Résumé and your Cover Letter to Seismic Squirrel. - And if you have a MobyGames page, please provide that as your Portfolio link.