Senior Game Designer – Hybrid – Netherlands – VR Games

Our client, the largest VR developer in the world and part of the the largest group of developers in the world.

As their Amsterdam studio kicks off development of its most ambitious project to date, a PSVR 2 action shooter based on a global franchise, they are looking to add a team member who has a great affinity with the player experience and can collaborate across discipline to craft gameplay that showcases the game’s mechanics, characters and setting to make memories that stay with the player.

Are you a veteran games designer, who loves to get hands on to flex your technical expertise and express your design passion? Then please apply!

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Generate novel game design ideas and solutions that support the project’s vision and respect it’s constraints, working autonomously across discipline and seniority levels.
• Create documentation that drives the development of a concept, through prototyping, to deliver high quality game mechanics, systems, or content. This includes written designs, diagrams, and images.
• Transparently and proactively plan and manage your workload and dependencies in the short and medium term.
• Implement robust and scalable mechanics and systems in the Unreal engine using Blueprints and proprietary tools to the desired quality level for the phase of development.
• Collect and analyze data to create options that can methodically drive design decision making, from playtesting, QA, metrics, and leadership feedback.
• Share your knowledge and passion with junior team members, striving to elevate their skills, confidence.

DESIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• You have worked through the full development cycle in a multidisciplinary team, where you have taken a role directing the collective effort in terms of design and acting as a champion for a major feature of the project and ensuring it meets the project vision.
• You enjoy the creative challenge of innovating, both in terms of creating unique player experiences and working within the boundaries of existing IP and its associated lore.
• You are highly skilled in multiple areas of design, with a good understanding of the theoretical frameworks and the current best practices or technologies in implementation in Unreal. Ideally this includes player mechanics, AI, and systems.
• Communication and organizational skills that leave little room for doubt in others. They know what to expect and when. Proficiency with Perforce, Jira, Confluence, Slack, Discord, MS Office, or equivalent tools, is required for the role.
• Can act as a driving force in an inclusive collective creative process, delivering the best player experience and maximizing team ownership of their work. 
• You possess a refined knowledge of design processes and methods of implementation, along with a keen understanding of the production processes in teams larger than 50 people.
• Ability to analyze and draw conclusions from play test data when balancing or refining the game to deliver the desired player experience.

BONUS SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• You are skilled in creating a variety of placeholder content, such as 3d meshes, materials, voice or other audio, animations/particles, etc. 
• You’re a keen gamer and have controversial opinions to share on the development industry and its products.
• You are excited by the opportunities and challenges of creating immersive and ground-breaking VR.
• You have an active creative life outside of your job that enriches the lives of those around you.

ABOUT YOU:

• You possess an affinity for environment art and/or good drawing skills
• Creatively minded and knowledgeable about design as a broad discipline
• You have excellent communication skills, especially in terms of presenting level designs to a cross disciplinary group
• A self-motivator, resilient and resourceful
• You are eligible to work in the EU