Senior Game Designer - Horror Live Ops & Systems

kinetic-games-careers; Southampton; Hybrid; GBP 55,000 - 85,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

5% Pension Match

Annual bonus

Weekly team lunches

Hybrid & flextime

Relocation package

EV car scheme

Wellbeing vouchers

Referral scheme

Development budget

Training & career development

Vitality Health Insurance

Aviva life insurance

30 days holiday

Birthday & wellbeing day

Christmas shutdown

Job summary

Kinetic Games in the United Kingdom is seeking a Senior Game Designer to define and expand content updates for Phasmophobia, turning creative direction into playable features. You will own live-updates and collaborate across disciplines to ensure quality, atmosphere, and technical feasibility.

This hybrid role is based in Southampton with visa sponsorship not available; you will work closely with the Game Director to deliver iterative, engaging multiplayer horror gameplay.

Qualifications

• At least 1 shipped PC or Console game as a credited Game Designer.
• Experience designing multiplayer, co-op, horror, survival, or atmospheric gameplay.
• Excellent communication in a fast-paced, iterative development environment.
• Strong understanding of gameplay systems, balancing, progression, pacing, and player psychology.
• Experience writing and maintaining detailed design documentation.
• A collaborative mindset and confidence across multiple disciplines.
• Phasmophobia knowledge and a passion for horror games.
• Ability to take ownership of features and drive them through iteration and delivery.
• Automatically have the right to work in the UK.

Responsibilities

• Work closely with the Game Director to develop and expand gameplay features, mechanics, and systems.
• Take ownership of feature design from concept through implementation, iteration, and release.
• Create and maintain clear, detailed, and actionable design documentation for cross-discipline teams.
• Flesh out gameplay systems, mechanics, progression, balancing, UX flows, edge cases, and technical considerations.
• Identify gameplay, scope, UX, and implementation risks early and work proactively with stakeholders to resolve them.
• Collaborate with production to ensure design work aligns with project scope, priorities, and milestone expectations.
• Work closely with programmers to improve designer workflows, tools, and pipelines.
• Confidently use Unity Editor tools to tune gameplay, implement content, and iterate on features hands-on.
• Collaborate with departmental stakeholders to ensure features are achievable within technical and production constraints.
• Gather and interpret internal and community feedback to improve player experience, gameplay readability, and feature quality.
• Play and test new updates regularly to ensure features meet gameplay, usability, and quality expectations.

Skills

Multiplayer game design

Gameplay balancing

Documentation

Communication

Ownership

Unity Editor

Live-service experience

Horror games passion

Tools

Jira

Confluence

Job description

Kinetic Games in the United Kingdom is seeking a Senior Game Designer to define and expand content updates for Phasmophobia, turning creative direction into playable features. You will own live-updates and collaborate across disciplines to ensure quality, atmosphere, and technical feasibility.

This hybrid role is based in Southampton with visa sponsorship not available; you will work closely with the Game Director to deliver iterative, engaging multiplayer horror gameplay.