Senior Designer

Influencer Update; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Ghost Story Games is seeking a remote Senior Designer to join Judas, bringing a deep command of level design, pacing, and systemic balance to a narrative-driven title.

You will lead design efforts across core gameplay systems, collaborate with interdisciplinary teams, and iterate based on feedback to ship a cohesive, player-focused experience.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of design experience on PC or console games in a systems design capacity.
• Experience across the full production cycle from concept through ship.
• Strong design/scripting skills; Unreal 4 experience preferred.
• Ability to work independently, manage time, and meet deadlines.
• Excellent communication, collaboration and organizational skills.
• Experience with highly systemic games with procedural elements.
• Experience with shooters, immersive sims and/or action RPGs.
• Experience with Perforce or similar source control.

Responsibilities

• Own the design, prototyping and fostering of core gameplay systems such as player mechanics, world simulation and AI.
• Lead and coordinate interdisciplinary sub-teams to implement and balance features from design to polish.
• Author, revise and provide feedback on internal design docs and implementation guides.
• Collaborate with design to integrate systems into level gameplay and balance multiple systems.
• Iterate, balance and tune features based on feedback from leads, QA and playtesting.

Skills

Level design

Systems design

Gameplay scripting

Design/scripting

Communication

Tools

Unreal Engine 4

Perforce

Job description

Designer - Game Design - Massachusetts, United States of America

Job Title

Job Title Senior Designer

Job Description

Ghost Story Games is a self-publishing game development studio founded by Ken Levine (Creative Director of System Shock 2, Bioshock, and Bioshock Infinite) and former Irrational Games developers. The studio’s mission is to create narrative-driven experiences rooted in immersive world building and gameplay.

The Challenge:

Ghost Story Games is seeking a talented remote Senior Designer to join us on Judas, the highly anticipated game led by Ken Levine (System Shock 2, BioShock series). Unique in its creative vision, Judas is also built upon novel technology by which the visual world, gameplay, and story unfolds in meaningful, dynamic ways. The result is a significant and personal journey adapted to each player’s experience and offers a new approach to the art and storytelling of video games.

We’re looking for an experienced lead designer to help build the best possible gameplay experience for our next project. You have a strong understanding of level design, gameplay pacing and global balance and keep a holistic view of how it all fits together in moment to moment gameplay. You have a strong ability to deconstruct high level gameplay systems, breaking them down into specific technical details, features and tasks as well as possess the technical acumen to dive in and hook it all up in a highly systemic game.

What You’ll Take On:

• Primary ownership for the design, prototyping and fostering of one or more core gameplay systems, including player mechanics, world simulation and / or AI;
• Lead, coordinate and participate in collaborative, interdisciplinary sub-teams to implement and balance gameplay features from initial design to final polish;
• Author, revise and provide feedback on internal design documentation, including feature specifications and implementation guides;
• Collaborate with the design team to incorporate systems into level gameplay and maintain overall balance between multiple gameplay systems;
• Continually iterate, balance and tune features and gameplay based on feedback from design leads, QA and playtesting.

What You Bring:

• 10+ years of design experience on PC or console games in a systems design capacity;
• Have worked on projects throughout the entire production cycle, from concepting through ship;
• Strong skills in design/scripting (Unreal 4 experience preferred);
• Ability to work independently to diagnose and solve problems; to work within a schedule; and to deliver effectively to deadlines;
• Excellent communication, collaboration, interpersonal and organizational skills;
• Familiarity with highly systemic games with procedural elements;
• Experience with design for shooters, immersive sims and/or action RPGs;
• Experience with Perforce or similar source control solutions.