Senior Level Designer

Awe Interactive Limited; United States; Remote; GBP 55,000 - 85,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote-friendly team

Flexible working hours

Parental leave

Employer pension contributions

Job summary

Awe Interactive Limited is seeking a Senior Level Designer to craft immersive levels for an ambitious UE5 title. You will own levels from concept to shipping, collaborating with designers, environment artists, and the Game Director to weave narrative, exploration and combat into engaging spaces.

You will block out worlds, script encounters, tune traversal, and iterate in-engine with autonomy. The role emphasizes ownership, collaboration, and delivering high-quality player experiences in a

Qualifications

• Experience as a Senior Level Designer in videogame development with shipped title or substantial non-shipped project.
• Strong portfolio showing blockouts through to final levels.
• Hands-on experience with Unreal Engine 5 editor and Blueprints; familiarity with the asset pipeline.

Responsibilities

• Design and build levels end to end, including maps, blockouts, encounters, and balancing.
• Own player experience in levels: flow, pacing, readability, guidance and reward placement.
• Work in-engine in Unreal Engine 5 using Blueprints and level scripting to prototype ideas quickly.
• Collaborate with environment art to maintain consistency across level design kits.
• Mentor less experienced designers and provide constructive feedback to improve player experience.

Skills

UE5 editor

Blueprints

Level design

Gameplay scripting

Spatial reasoning

Communication

Tools

Unreal Engine 5

Job description

Awe Interactive is a fully independent and innovative game development studio focused on creating a unique, immersive, and engaging narrative-driven FPS RPG in UE5.

Our mid-size, tight-knit and experienced team has a passion for storytelling, game mechanics, and creating unforgettable gaming experiences. Our mission is to create feelings of Awe for our players.

We are currently seeking a talented and experienced Senior Level Designer to join our collaborative team and work on our upcoming title, which combines the worlds of humans, robots, and human-machine hybrids.

The Role

You are a Senior Level Designer who has owned 3D levels from the first paper sketch to shipping on a PC or console title.

You will work closely with our other designers and environment artists and the Game Director to build the unique places where the game actually happens - levels that carry narrative, combat, exploration and all the moments in-between.

In this role your focus will be on day-to-day level and world building, blocking out places that feel real and scripting encounters in them. Tuning traversal and pacing, and iterating in-engine with autonomy as part of the team. You'll also help make design decisions beyond your own levels, using your work to build out the overarching game experience.

Responsibilities

We are a relatively small team, and so the role has variety. You can expect to do the following:

• Design and build levels end to end, including 2D maps and paper designs, metrics, blockouts, scripted encounters, set-dressing support, combat creation and balancing, iteration, bug fixing and optimisation support.
• Own the player experience in your levels and game areas - flow, pacing, combat readability, guidance, difficulty and reward placement.
• Work in-engine in Unreal Engine 5, using Blueprints and level scripting to prove ideas fast and take them to final quality.
• Build and maintain level design kits, modular kits and metrics with environment art, so the whole team builds consistently.
• Work with ‘3Cs’ designers to implement gameplay features into playable levels.
• Work with quest designers to ensure story and missions work when integrated into the spaces you build, and feel naturalistic.
• Partner with systems designers on encounter, AI, progression and reward placement.
• Run and observe playtests, and iterate from player feedback, telemetry and user research.
• Set and champion level design best practice - documentation, naming conventions, blockout standards and review.
• Flag technical, performance and scope risks early with engineering, art and production.
• Help build and abide by scope restrictions and considerations, especially within environment art.
• Provide constructive feedback and creative input to improve the overall player experience, and mentor less experienced designers.

Requirements

• Experience as a Senior Level Designer in videogame development, with at least one shipped PC or console game (or substantial experience on an in-development title that did not ship), and ownership of multiple levels from concept to delivery.
• A strong portfolio showing blockouts through to final levels.
• Hands-on experience and fluency with the Unreal Engine 5 editor and Blueprints plus comfort with the surrounding pipeline (source control, asset naming, prefabs and kit-bashing).
• Excellent spatial and layout skills: scale and metrics, flow, sightlines, readable combat and traversal spaces.
• An excellent understanding of how level design, quest design and systems design intersect and complement each other in video games.
• A strong architectural eye and experience using real-world reference to inform game level creation.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a collaborative team.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to receive and give constructive feedback.
• Passion for gaming and a deep understanding of what makes games fun and engaging.
• Excellent written and verbal communication in English, with the ability to present complex ideas clearly and concisely.
• Technical proficiency with the usual processes of remote working and videogame development.

Nice to Have

• Experience building FPS combat encounters specifically.
• A deep understanding of first-person shooter and role-playing games.
• AAA or AA experience, including console performance and memory constraints.
• Scripting beyond visual scripting (C++, Python, Lua) or a technical design background.
• Familiarity with source control such as SVN or Perforce.
• Previous mentoring or leading of other designers.
• Some experience with remote work or working with remote teams.

What We Can Offer

• An opportunity to work in a fully-independent team on a unique title set in an extremely narratively interesting world.
• A workplace where you will have a distinct voice and be trusted to work autonomously and to enjoy ownership of a substantial piece of the game.
• A long-term role with real impact on the game’s development and quality.
• Flexible working hours, and strong support for other forms of flexible working.
• Excellent provisions for parental leave.
• Employer pension contributions.

Our entire team is remote but this role requires availability and concurrent co-working with the rest of the team between 10:00 and 16:00 UTC/BST.

Salary is dependent on experience.