Lead Game Designer - Thick As Thieves at OtherSide Entertainment Concord, CA

Comunidade Metodista; Concord (CA); Remote; USD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Experience with live services

Immersive sim design experience

Stealth game design experience

PvPvE game design experience

Closer/negotiation experience

Job summary

OtherSide Entertainment in Concord, CA, is seeking a Lead Game Designer to guide the design team for Thick as Thieves, a stealth-action multiplayer PvPvE title. The role requires hands-on Unreal Engine work, strong leadership, and a track record of shipping multiplayer games on PC/console.

You will own the GDD, mentor designers, coordinate with production, and ensure player-centric design while balancing prototyping and live operations. Travel to events will be involved.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of experience as a game designer with at least one title developed full-cycle in a lead role.
• Recent experience, within the past 3 years, in a lead designer role on a successfully released multiplayer PC or console game.
• Unreal 5 experience at an implementation level.
• Prior experience managing multiple direct reports, design processes, and information repositories.
• Experience shipping multiple titles, including on PC and console.

Responsibilities

• Own the GDD for the game, including managing team ownership of respective areas.
• Manage a team of experienced designers with mentoring and workload management.
• Represent the game and champion the player experience and innovative solutions.
• Coordinate with production to roadmap future development and live operations.
• Identify needs and risks, address design/staffing concerns proactively.
• Participate in prototype and testing to prove design concepts.
• Collaborate with Marketing, Community, QA, and Customer Service to incorporate player feedback.
• Prepare milestone deliverables, presentations, and overviews.

Skills

Team leadership

Gameplay design

Balancing gameplay

Cross-functional collaboration

Player experience

Tools

Unreal Engine

Job description

Lead Game Designer - Thick As Thieves job at OtherSide Entertainment. Concord, CA.

The Opportunity

We are developing a next-generation immersive stealth-action game, Thick as Thieves, with gameplay focused around multiplayer PvPvE. The game is well along in development and has received keen early interest:

We are seeking a talented and proven Lead Game Designer to lead the design team on Thick as Thieves, our stealth-action Multiplayer PvPvE game. This is a unique opportunity to play a key role in building and launching a major new PC and Console game and be a part of moving the stealth-action genre forward.

Recent experience with a commercially successful and well-regarded multiplayer PC or Console game is a must-have, as is hands-on experience with Unreal engine. This position reports into the Game Director.

What You'll Do

• Own the GDD for the game, including managing team ownership of respective areas, keeping things accurate and updated, filling in missing areas, and developing plans for live operations extensions and additions to existing systems and content.

• Manage a team of experienced designers, including providing 1:1 support, design mentoring and coaching, career development support, and workload management.

• Represent the game, both internally and externally, serving as a champion for the player experience and our innovative solutions by which we make that a GotY contender.

• Coordinate with production and discipline leads to roadmap future development, balancing prototyping and R&D needs with ongoing feature and content development and optimization of a live audience experience.

• Working with team leadership, help identify needs, risks, and pro-actively address any concerns related to design work and/or staffing.

• Participate in prototype and testing efforts to prove-out design concepts and balance game features.

• Collaborate with Marketing, Community Management, QA, and Customer Service to always be hearing the voices of our players and incorporating their needs and concerns into the team’s discussions.

• Prepare milestone deliverables, presentations, overviews, videos, etc. as necessary to showcase the game design and the project generally.

• Travel to PR events, offsites, and in-person team events will be a non-trivial commitment for this role.

• Inspire, motivate, and mentor other designers in best practices, processes, and procedures.

Qualifications

You must have proven and relatively recent experience leading a team of designers on a well-regarded multiplayer PC or console game. We'd like you to also demonstrate a strong sense of what makes for great gameplay, and how to deliver that to a high-quality bar. Finally, to succeed in this role, you must have robust people management skills, bring high-energy and engagement to the team, and be able to work collaboratively across a range of development disciplines.

• 6+ years of experience as a game designer with at least one title developed full-cycle in a lead role

• Recent experience, within the past 3 years, in a lead designer role on a successfully released and well-regarded multiplayer PC or console game

• Unreal 5 experience at an implementation level - if you're afraid of blueprints, you are not the right person

• Prior experience managing multiple direct reports, design processes, and information repositories

• Experience shipping multiple titles, including on PC and console

Bonus

• Experience as a "closer" is a definite plus

• Experience with live services is a plus

• Design experience with immersive sim games

• Design experience with stealth games

• Design experience with PvPvE games

Additional Notes

This is a full-time, remote working role, with competitive compensation and a full suite of benefits available anywhere in the United States. All team members may be asked to occasionally travel for key meetings, as part of their job responsibilities.

At OtherSide Entertainment, we know our success depends on our people. Just as our mission is oriented around empowering our players, we open our doors to all kinds of candidates. Our development process and players benefit from a variety of points of view, united by a shared passion for making fun and engaging experiences. If you don’t hit every one of our bullets, unless otherwise noted, feel free to still submit an application if you too resonate with our mission. If you require any accommodations to ensure an equitable interviewing experience please let us know!