Level Designer JD - 31st Union (San Mateo)
WE ARE GAMEMAKERS
Who we are:
We are a diverse team of developers driven by a passion for our art, united by our core values and inspired by a culture of inclusivity to build amazing games that thrill players everywhere. We pursue growth and innovation in an environment of safety and trust. Our culture is built on the belief that the more varied voices in our collective will strengthen our team and our games. We are looking for our next teammate who will raise our bar and make us better.
What we need:
We're just beginning a development journey that will take us through design concepting, functional prototyping, milestone deliverables, systems building and tuning, map building, and deep polishing & optimization. We’re looking for a Senior World/Level Designer who can dig deep into each stage of this process, creating inspiring worlds and spaces, applying technical & creative passion to constantly improve the game through an iterative process. We want people who think differently at every step and help us to create a broadly appealing product that resonates with the widest set of fans possible. Come and help us build the future of Multiplayer Action games!
Responsibilities:
- Design, pitch, & hone world spaces/levels from inception to completion to post-launch. Examine desired player experience goals and introduce designs that help support and enhance that experience.
- Be an equal voice within the design team for making both large- and small-scale decisions throughout the project.
- Collaborate deeply with other disciplines. This role will touch on everything from animation to UI to environment art to sound, as well as work closely with core engineering teams.
- Own map ideas from inception to completion. This includes pitching ideas in their infancy to fine-tuning post-launch. We emphasize a culture of trust, and with that trust comes both responsibility & accountability.
- Understand how world design impacts other areas of the game and collaborate deeply with other disciplines.
- Understand how world design fits into the overall creation direction of the game, both on a macro and micro level.
- Daily hands-on engine work to bring ideas to life. Continuous implementation and iteration of game spaces based on direction and playtest feedback.
Required Qualifications:
- You’re an experienced World/Level Designer with multiple shipped titles under your belt. You’re comfortable not just building map content off an established template, but also figuring out what that template is in the first place. Our ideal candidate has proven experience building world spaces across all phases of development and is excited to build a world from the ground up.
- Experience in creating, or at minimum a strong passion as a player of Multiplayer Action games a MUST.
- 3-5 years or 2+ shipped titles in a World/Level Design role, preferably in the Multiplayer/Action genre.
- Experience with modern game engines (Unreal, Unity, etc.).
- Experience building maps, levels, or worlds – particularly in the AAA, action, or shooter spaces – multiplayer experience preferred.
- Rock-solid understanding of interplay between systems and world spaces; can take a set of systems or player abilities and build spaces that highlight those abilities in interesting and creative ways.
- Familiar with fundamental world-building concepts: flow, landmarking, scale, visibility, metrics, etc.
- Ability to thoughtfully critique and evaluate 3D spaces.
- Understanding of how art, color, lighting, composition, etc. can complement gameplay design.
- Comfortable with rapid iteration based off feedback from many sources: peer review, data analytics, player surveys, etc. Capable of filtering large volumes of feedback into concrete and actionable improvements.
- Clear understanding of the iterative level design process from inception all the way to post-ship support.
Relevant Experience:
- Strong passion for online multiplayer action games a MUST.
- Experience working in multiplayer games or systems.
- Some experience programming, both code & visual scripting (C++, C#, etc. | Blueprint, Kismet, etc.).
- A passion for diversity & representation in games & game development.
- A self-starter who can align with the team's goals but isn't hesitant to create solutions on their own.
- Ability to iterate & collaborate under deadlines & production constraints.
- Backgrounds in art/architecture/CS/etc. a plus.