Lead Level Designer

Description

Deck Nine Games is currently hiring a Lead Level Designer for our next narrative adventure game. The position involves leading a team of level designers as they design, prototype, and build spaces for our narrative adventure games, interface with other departments in the creation of game scenes in our own proprietary game engine.

Responsibilities:

Work closely with the game director and other leads to keep alignment on the project
Work closely with environment artists to develop and deliver against the game vision
Design, greybox, and manage the development of game levels for our narrative adventure game
Ensure the convergence of level, gameplay, and narrative eliminate friction for the player experience

Define and drive quality with regard to the flow of created game spaces
Drive the design and creative process for game levels, working with other teams to create objectives, challenges, puzzles, and events that fit within game spaces
Collaborate with writers, designers, cinematic artists, and engineers to ensure the narrative is being told through the levels
Work with stakeholders in reviewing levels, as well as full builds of the game
Help drive playtests to gather critical level feedback and develop a plan of action to address issues
Mentor and advise other designers in the level design process and best practices
Work closely with production to manage development schedules, bug tracking, team health, and morale

Requirements:

6+ years of experience as a level designer, preferably with 3+ years as a Lead or Senior Level Designer
Significant involvement in 2 published games, with at least 1 project at senior level
Experience leading and supporting a quality-driven team
A thorough grasp of good level design principles (difficulty, pacing, tension, etc.)
Well-versed in all aspects of level design, including documentation, greyboxing, and implementing interactive objects
Proven ability supporting narrative through level design
UE4 experience
Blueprints or other scripting experience
Single-player level design experience
Experience working with story-heavy content
Puzzle design experience
Ability to easily communicate with programming
Strong organizational skills
Experience working collaboratively
Listen to all the ideas and coherently answer questions
Review, troubleshoot, and provide feedback
Be a passionate leader every day

Pluses:

Experience in game design
Understanding the specific needs of narrative adventure games
Shipped at least 1 narrative adventure game
Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience

If you are a talented and passionate game developer and you are looking to challenge yourself creatively, please apply today! Position is full time, on-site or remote, and applicants must already be authorized to work in the U.S.

About Deck Nine

Deck Nine Games is an independent game developer dedicated to crafting interactive story games that inspire, transform, and entertain players. Our passion is storytelling games.

Our first narrative game, Life is Strange: Before the Storm is loved by fans and has won multiple awards, including Game of Year and was nominated for both a VGA and a BAFTA. Recently we just announced our next game, Life is Strange: True Colors, due to be released in September 2021.

The studio is 100+ people and is in sunny Westminster, Colorado at the base of the Rocky Mountains. We hope to share more information about our next title with Square Enix as soon as we can.

We’re looking for talented and self-motivated people to join us as we aim to rise to the top of the storytelling game studios. We are part of the thriving Colorado game dev scene and our location offers a lower cost of living and a proximity to countless family-friendly activities and amazing outdoor opportunities. If this sounds appealing to you, please apply!

As the crafters of stories that encompass the full breadth of life’s experiences, Deck Nine is committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and multicultural team in which people from all walks of life feel inspired to do their best work. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and believe deeply in the creativity and strength built from diversity of race, religion, disability, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, nationality, and the many other qualities that make us different.

This Job is no longer active!