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The Chinese Room Entry Scheme

The Chinese Room has established a reputation as one of the most creative and exciting studios in the UK. We’re proud to be internationally recognised as pioneers of storytelling with a flair for creating atmospheric, rich and imaginative games.

As a Sumo Digital studio, The Chinese Room is built on passion, on finding amazing people and letting them shine. It’s an exciting time to be part of Sumo, winners of the Develop: Star Awards 2019 Best Studio and GI Biz 2020 Best Places to Work; big things are on the horizon and we want you to be part of our continued journey. Join us!

The Chinese Room is made up of a diverse mix of fantastic people, although sometimes, some groups are still under-represented. We are working to remove obstacles that can make it difficult for those groups to progress their careers in the games industry. We welcome applications from under-represented people in the gaming industry, including, but not limited to women, BAME, older people and those from working-class backgrounds.

Please note, we are unfortunately unable to offer visa sponsorship support for this opportunity and so it is only available to people with right to work in the UK.

Reviewing applicants from our previous entry scheme, we encourage applicants in these groups to apply, as well as everyone else, of course:

• Mature candidates coming back to the industry from a previous career
• Parents
• Carers
• People that had to pause their career due to health issues
• Candidates from lower socio-economic/working-class background
• Individuals without a university education

Some Details on the Entry Scheme:

• No prior games industry experience is needed, this is important given the entrenched lack of diversity in games development.
• The positions will be paid at a rate equivalent to permanent entry roles, we need this to be a viable option for those without other means of financial support.
• We encourage applicants who may be concerned about the practicalities and cost of getting to the Brighton studio to apply and we will consider options to mitigate those concerns, for example, flexible hours to reduce transport costs.
• We also encourage applicants who may be concerned about childcare or other carer responsibilities to apply, again we will consider flexible working arrangements.
• We are committed to enabling workers with disabilities to join our team and will make the reasonable, relevant adjustments and provide the facilities required.

The 6-months programme will be adapted to build on your strengths providing the learning and development resources and support you need to progress your career. In addition to learning, you will certainly have an opportunity to contribute to our new titles and achieve that first credit on a published game.

We are open to applicants interested in the following areas and intend to offer two positions initially within these specialisms:

Candidates should have a love and talent for working with people, for supporting them in achieving their best. We can teach you our development methodology if you are well organised and a good communicator.

Candidates should have a dogged commitment to quality, with an eye for detail and ability to empathise with gamers playing a game for the first time that you’ll have seen through its development.

All candidates should have a passion for the games we make. The culture at The Chinese Room is defined by our commitment to creative quality, we encourage everyone to speak up and to listen, we share responsibility for our work, and we treat each other respectfully and professionally.

Our titles include the ground-breaking Dear Esther (2012), cult horror Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs (2013), the VR fairy-tale So Let Us Melt (2017) the open-world adventure Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture (2015), a PlayStation 4 exclusive that won major awards across the world, and the multi award-winning Little Orpheus (2020). This included an amazing 10 BAFTA nominations and 3 BAFTA wins.

We bring our passion and commitment to creating exciting original games to a network of studios renowned for quality and expertise. Being part of the Sumo team enables us to expand and grow in ambition and confidence, taking our reputation for storytelling into new genres. Our most recently announced game, Little Orpheus, is an Apple Arcade exclusive and we’re working on other unannounced ‘AAA’ titles that will further establish our award-winning style and reputation.

We offer a superb benefits package including generous holidays and flexi-time. We care about our people, with an emphasis on the work/life balance and out of office events such as our legendary Sumo ‘Big Day Out’, plus epic Christmas parties and much more! Our regular studio Game Jams are a highlight - winning concepts can go on to commercial release, so far including Snake Pass and the upcoming Spyder for Apple Arcade.

The Chinese Room is located in Brighton in the south of England, home to an amazingly vibrant game development scene and a cultural hotspot with fantastic food, arts, music, shopping and sports. The studio is in the city centre, near the beach, and close to the South Downs National Park. Gatwick Airport is only half an hour away from train, and you can be in central London in just over an hour. It’s an easy place to love!

Our environment is relaxed, friendly and built upon the basis of every team member having the opportunity to shine and have a realisable input into the games we create. We’re in the amazing position of building a brand-new team, and creating a studio culture that’s all about passion, respect, diversity, fun and togetherness. We’re looking for people that love what they do and love to share their enthusiasm with each other.