Senior Gameplay Designer

Seismic Squirrel LLC

Title: Senior Gameplay Designer

Role: Designing and implementing the gameplay for a rogue-lite RPG game.

Experience: Mid-Level, 5+ years of professional videogame design experience.
Must have successfully shipped at least one title in the design role.

Location: Issaquah, WA

Company Size: 4 employees, ~6 contractors

Job Type: Employee (local onsite & telecommute) or Contractor (local or remote).

Pay: $40 - 60 per hour – Depends on skills and experience.

Hours (if employee): Full Time
Benefits (if employee): Paid sick time, holidays, and vacation; medical, dental, and vision insurance.

Overview

Seismic Squirrel is a small, close-knit videogame studio with a passion for developing well-crafted strategy games that are easy to learn, hard to master . 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.

We are looking for a creative and resourceful Senior Gameplay Designer to join our team and lead the overall design and implementation for our game. This position involves systems mechanics, UI, and level design, creating storyboards, and effective collaboration and communication with various stakeholders. It demands a clear understanding of the gameplay experience and player needs and expectations, a logical and systemic thinker, an iterative approach to development, a collaborative spirit, and an enthusiasm for 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 enjoy working with talented engineers, designers, authors, artists, and management. They are committed to self-improvement and to improving the team; they see the company's success as a reflection of their own growth.

Seismic Squirrel's office is located in Issaquah, WA. For employee candidates, this position includes both work in-person at the office some of the time for collaboration and design, and telecommuting some of the time for focus and productivity. For contractor candidates, this position requires regular collaboration online. In both cases, attending team meetings (e.g. daily scrum, retrospective, sprint planning, design meetings) and availability during core business hours (10:00 AM - 5:00 PM Pacific) is required. Occasional calls during late evenings, nights, and early mornings should be expected for international meetings with outside contributors. Occasional travel to game-related tradeshows local to Seattle and elsewhere may be required.

COVID-19 Quarantine Note: Due to the coronavirus pandemic and quarantine, all in-person meetings at the office have been replaced with full-time telecommute / remote work until further notice. During this time of physical isolation, we continue to remain engaged as a team using video conferencing and other collaboration tools. Meeting again in-person is not expected to resume until summer or autumn 2021 with pervasive vaccination of the general public.

For more information about Seismic Squirrel, go to http://www.SeismicSquirrel.com/

Quests

Lead design of the gameplay experience for our next videogame, a rogue-lite RPG, including system mechanics, balancing, level design, UI, and narrative integration.
Clearly document the design in the Concept Doc, the GDD, storyboards, and wireframes.
Actively collaborate with the product team on game design and game concept creation.
Work with the development team to maintain UX quality as they implement the design.
Participate in internal game testing and feedback.
Openly communicate with team members on progress and problems, define deliverables, and help set project timelines and expectations.
Devise tutorials, callouts, hover cues, and tooltip to ease new players into the game.
Predict, identify, and resolve user experience issues that could detract from player enjoyment.
Devise game instrumentation and interpret analytics data to improve the user experience.

Character Stats

5+ years of experience in the design role through full lifecycle of game development from start to finish:
concept, design, prototyping, programming, content creation, testing, optimization, launch, support.
Possess a strong understanding of design principles.
Hands-on experience implementing UI in Unity.
Experienced implementing narrative within gameplay.
Understand the unique needs and opportunities developing games for PC and console.
An enthusiasm for quality gameplay and a familiarity with many games and genres, past and present.
A passion 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 needed.
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.
Excellent problem-solving skills, resourceful, able to find solutions when needed.
Balance and prioritize tasks to meet deadlines, working within agreed timeframes and budgets.
Able to work remotely using various collaboration tools.
Strong written, visual, and verbal English language communication and presentation skills.
Proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel, and Visio.
Proficient in graphic tools (Adobe or Corel) and design tools (e.g. Adobe XD, Figma, Sketch, UXPin).
Passion to learn new tools and technologies.
Authorized to work in USA. H1B transfer and sponsorship are not available at this time.

Bonus Points

3D modeling experience is a plus.
Practical knowledge of UML is a plus.

If this sounds like an exciting opportunity for you, please submit both your cover letter and résumé to Seismic Squirrel.

Senior Gameplay Designer

About Seismic Squirrel

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