Senior Game Designer – AAA Console/PC Games – London – Permanent

Project: AAA Console/PC Games

OPMs client is an independently owned studio on the outskirts of London, and they are all about crafting engaging multiplayer experiences. They are working on several high-profile projects for PC and Console and they need you!

They are seeking a talented Senior Game Designer who will work closely with the Creative Director and will be responsible for the overall game design of an entire product or, for bigger projects, a large area of that product, pushing end to end implementation across the team.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Passionate about creating and playing games.
• Deep knowledge of all aspects of design such as: feedback, controls, balance, narrative, game-feel, retention, usability, on-boarding, social mechanics, and player motivation.
• Strong experience in games, as a Senior Designer having at least one shipped AAA current gen console or PC titles that included a multiplayer component, from concept to final product.
• Ability to work independently without supervision and strong problem-solving skills.
• Experience of people-management, mentoring, line-management.
• Experience in creating first or third person shooters.
• Understanding of industry trends regarding genres, gameplay, development models, and financial models.
• Experience of prototyping gameplay mechanics with UE4, Unity, or similar.
• Experience writing top-quality and thorough design documentation including diagram and flow-chart creation, wiki-based design documentation and spreadsheets.
• Experience with source-control applications such as SVN, Perforce, AlienBrain, etc.
• Able to collaborate with other disciplines and experience of being a part of a Senior group.
• Very experienced with Microsoft Office Products and other business software including: Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel, Visio, Adobe Photoshop or similar.
• Good knowledge of systems, systemic design, emergent gameplay, and the place of procedural content generation in development
• Deep-rooted empathy for players

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Creating a unified game experience and realise and communicate the game vision across the team.
• Creating and maintain documentation including the GDD and wiki pages, spending time with each design team member and feature team member, ensuring they understand the vision.
• Deputising for your Lead, you will regularly and effectively communicate with any external partners or publishers, managing those relationships, presenting the creative achievements of the team, negotiating feature requests as required.
• Oversee and mentor Game Designers, including working with Production and your direct reports to schedule tasks.
• Act as a hiring manager for junior designers.
• Consistently be part of peer-reviews.
• Regularly communicate out progress against quality, scope, and game vision alignment expectations. Discuss and explain the rationale behind your decision making and listen, iterating on feedback from other disciplines or Designers.
• Regularly present the areas of the game you are responsible for to the studio. Where necessary you will speak to the media and prepare key product messaging for the media.
• Implementing feature optimisations and tuning plans; you will own the tuning for accountable features or levels.
• Using feedback from focus group sessions, integrating relevant feedback into the product design.
• Verify task estimates provided by junior staff and in turn work with your Lead to give your own accurate estimates for work as well as logging work in management software.
• Provide input to Production and Management on project schedules throughout development to prioritise tasks for the developers responsible for their assigned feature-set, in alignment with the product vision.
• Communicate the impact of changes to the game-design to the developers on your team.

DESIRABLE SKILLS:

• Professional experience with Unreal Blueprints.
• Traditional art skills.
• Experience with scripting or programming languages.
• Undergraduate degree in Video Game Design, Computer Science, Marketing, Entertainment, or a relevant technical training.
• Experience of being a developer during the live phase of a game as a service, including using telemetry and/or metrics to inform design and content decisions.
• Experience of acting on market research e.g. Focus groups, qualitative and quantitative surveys etc.

Interested in finding out more about the studio and project? Apply now or call me directly today on +44 (0) 1206 214415!