Seismic Squirrel
Senior Videogame Designer
About this role
Senior Videogame Designer (Remote) Seismic Squirrel LLC Job Title: Senior Videogame Designer The Role: Designing gameplay, systems, mechanics, maps, and levels for our studio's videogames. The Games: Narrative-driven RPG videogames set in an alternate-history 1930s New York City. Experience: Senior Level – 10+ years of professional videogame design experience. Must have successfully shipped at least one videogame in a Senior Designer role. Location: USA or Canada (Remote) – Must reside within the UTC-4 to UTC-8 timezones. Company Size: ~24 Job Type: Contract-to-Hire -or- Employee (see below) Pay: $45-65 USD per hour – Depends on skills and experience. Overview We are looking for a creative and resourceful Videogame Designer to join our team. They will work with other departments to design, document, and implement a variety of game systems, mechanics, levels, and mission types. This position requires excellent collaboration and communication with various stakeholders. The job demands a clear understanding of the gameplay experience, player needs and expectations, a logical and systemic thinker, an iterative approach to development, a collaborative spirit, and an enthusiasm for our studio's genre of videogames. The ideal candidate is driven to create a fun and cohesive gameplay experience, able to empathize with both new players and with experts of the genre. They possess a sense of urgency and enjoy working with talented designers, engineers, writers, artists, testers, and management. This is a remote position which requires regular collaboration online during our core work hours (9:30 AM – 4:30 PM Pacific), attending relevant team meetings (e.g. daily scrum, retrospectives, sprint planning, and design meetings). Occasional calls during late evenings, nights, and early mornings should be expected for meetings with international collaborators. Occasional travel may be expected. Applicant must have an ergonomic and secure workspace separate from their personal activities and roommates during work hours. Applicants must be authorized to work in the USA or Canada. Whether an applicant qualifies for contract-to-hire or full-time employee, and the option to convert, depends on the applicant's location, skills, aptitude, fit, project needs and schedule, and pay expectations. H-1B transfers and sponsorships are not available at this time. For more information about Seismic Squirrel, go to Quests
- Guide the design of gameplay, systems, and mechanics, including unit balancing, and in-game economy.
- Work with other departments to design and implement game levels and missions, including establishing mission objectives, level layout, and support the integration of art and narrative assets in Unity.
- Preside over design meetings and clearly document game designs in the requirements.
- Actively collaborate with the development team on the game concept and design.
- Effectively communicate needed mechanics to Engineering.
- Maintain outstanding UX quality throughout the game's design.
- Participate in internal game testing and feedback.
- Openly communicate with team members on progress and problems, define deliverables, and help to set realistic project timelines and expectations.
- Champion intuitive UX to ease new players into the game with an engaging first-time experience.
- Help predict, identify, and resolve user experience issues that could detract from player enjoyment.
- Help to identify where to add analytics instrumentation and interpret the resulting analytics data to improve the user experience. Character Stats
- 10+ years of professional experience in the game design role through the full lifecycle of game development from start to finish: concept, design, prototype, production, content creation, testing, polish, launch, and support.
- Possess a strong understanding of combat and travel systems and mechanics and level design best practices.