Staff Gameplay Designer - Social (Contract)

teamLFG; Washington; On-site; USD 105,000 - 158,000; Full time

Job summary

Sony Interactive Entertainment is seeking a contract Staff Gameplay Designer for a new multiplayer action game with teamLFG. You will prototype, implement avatar systems, and shape social gameplay in a cross-disciplinary team for a PlayStation project.

Responsibilities include building sandbox systems, avatar customization, and a progression economy, while collaborating with designers, artists, and engineers to deliver expressive player moments.

Qualifications

• Experience in modern multiplayer social games with expressive sandbox elements.
• Ability to prototype quickly across disciplines to test concepts.
• Strong scripting and tool-design skills for fast iteration.

Responsibilities

• Build avatar movement, sandbox systems, and player expression features.
• Develop avatar customization and a progression economy.
• Design reusable sandbox mechanics (Character, Camera, Controls).
• Create NPCs and collaborate with audio, effects, and animation teams.
• Communicate gameplay affordances clearly to players.

Skills

Multiplayer sandbox design

Collaborative teamwork

Rapid prototyping

Technical scripting

Character motion & animation

Autonomy under ambiguity

Communication skills

Planning & evaluation

Job description

Are you on a mission to create games that bond players together into deeply invested communities? Do you spend your time thinking about how different game mechanics can come together to create emergent, dynamic, and frankly hilarious social moments? Are you excited to make gameplay that strongly cares about player intention, action game feel, and expressive communication?

We are seeking a highly technical, creative, and team-oriented contract Staff Gameplay Designer to contribute a new multiplayer action game on teamLFG. You will work closely with the entire Design Team prototyping, exploring, and implementing player avatars and their suite of verbs for the social area of a competitive PvP game. You will collaborate with team members from other disciplines to drive cohesive gameplay vision. You will help build the systems that enable our game to become a third place. Most importantly, you will work with a fun, dedicated, and cross-disciplinary team devoted to turning a creative dream into a new franchise at PlayStation.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Build and maintain the avatar movement and core sandbox systems that enable cooperative social gameplay and player expression, while building trust between players
• Build the systems to allow for avatar customization, creating extensible opportunities for player investment and a progression economy, as well as player self expression and customization
• Build compelling gameplay experiences through reusable sandbox mechanics, especially 3C (Character, Camera and Controls) design and implementation
• Create endearing NPCs that improve IP quality, consistency, along with sandbox design principles
• Work with audio, effects, and animation to clearly communicate gameplay affordances to players

REQUIRED SKILLS

• Understanding of how modern multiplayer social games can leverage an intuitive and expressive action sandbox to create memories between players
• Fluency for collaboration with designers, artists, programmers, audio professionals, quality assurance and producers to achieve a common goal, with adaptability for how to work in a flexible work environment
• Broad T-shaped rapid prototyping skills, with enough multi-disciplinary knowledge to quickly stub out gameplay ideas to evaluate their potential
• Strong technical scripting skills and understanding of how to structure game design tools to unlock player expression, content variety, and execution speed
• Strong understanding of character motion and animation; momentum, timing, and their impact on player communication and tone
• Proven ability to build alignment and productively own feature direction without sacrificing empathy and collaboration with team contributors
• Ability to operate autonomously and handle ambiguity, including giving and receiving feedback despite that ambiguity
• Ability to create plans and evaluate them for meeting the experiential needs of the players and markets
• Outstanding oral and written communication skills
• Demonstrated understanding of how systemically consistent, combinatoric game design can create player surprise and laughter

PREFERRED EXPERIENCE

• Experience as a Staff Sandbox/Gameplay Designer on AAA or large-scale online action games, designing, documenting, and building character customization systems
• Experience delegating work or ownership of an area to multi-disciplinary peers
• Experience with social/cooperative game design and balancing for an active player base

At SIE, working with our partners, we consider several factors when setting each role’s base pay range, including the competitive benchmarking data for the market and geographic location. Please note that the individual base pay range may vary based on job-related factors which may include knowledge, skills, experience, and location. In addition, this role is eligible for benefit offerings that include medical, dental, and vision.

The estimated base pay range for this role is listed below, this is an hourly rate.

$76 — $115 USD

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