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Design Director - Original IP
3 years ago
Introduction:
Tonic Games Group brings together a family of world-class developers and publishers who believe that games are for everyone. More than 300 people strong; we bring together Mediatonic, Fortitude Games and The Irregular Corporation to create original IP and to invest in independent game developers globally.
We continue to build on our ambitions and projects, as such we are looking to hire a Design Director to join Mediatonic.
Mediatonic is one of the UK’s largest independent game developers which delights in connecting people through original, mass-multiplayer game experiences and breaking the mould with the weird and wonderful across every platform.
As a group, we take pride in crafting games that challenge and inspire us and we invest in technology that will keep us at the forefront of the industry. We hire experts to take on the biggest creative and technical challenges we can get our hands on and we invest in our people for the long term.
Responsibilities
Description:
We are looking for an exceptional candidate to join us at Mediatonic as Design Director. You’ll be responsible for managing and driving our design teams across multiple projects.
Details:
- A Design Director is never happy with things just being ’OK’, they are a champion of quality and innovation throughout the lifecycle of one-or-more of our games through to completion.
- A great Design Director steers their project(s) through the strength of the ideas they bring to the team, their unyielding commitment to quality, and by championing and empowering their project leads – giving them the support that will push our games in new directions, surprising & delighting our players.
- You’re a master of the creative process, with a strong understanding of how design decisions impact across other disciplines, how they will fundamentally shape the games you are responsible for, and the inherent value they bring to each project.
- With brilliant communication skills you lead and inspire multiple project teams internally - fostering good working practices and a positive, collaborative working environment within them, mediating and flagging where cultural issues are seen to threaten this. You help entrenched teams see problems from a different perspective, you’re willing to have the difficult conversations and turn teams around when they’re set on a problematic path. You give trust and power to your leads to solve the problems that you perceive and allow that trust to filter down through the team.
- You successfully build confidence, manage expectations and gain buy-in & trust from external partners, such as publishers, where necessary. You’re able to bring the weight of your experience and your title to these discussions, finding ways through difficult conversations that always puts the good of the game and its chances of success first.
- Your core skills include a fundamental understanding of game design, system design, balancing, and monetization. You are articulate and eager to share your experience in these areas, raising the quality of the entire team through working with them.
- Alongside this, you are a proven and competent manager of people, at both a personal level, employing a multitude of soft skills to inspire your teams, and a professional level – able to manage recruitment, reviews, staff-turnover, and resourcing.
- Ultimately, you have the final call on the quality of our games. You will always push teams to innovate where necessary, delight and surprise when possible, and go beyond expectations at every opportunity.
Requirements
Description:
You are a proven talent and vision holder with best-in-class organization and personnel management skills. You build confidence with our external partners and you have a transformative impact on our games.
Details:
- A highly creative thinker with a proven track record in establishing and maintaining strong design direction
- An experienced and respected leader with previous line management experience
- Ability to confidently talk about Game Design and ‘sell’ a creative vision both internally and externally
- Organisational skills to cope with overseeing multiple projects at once
- A strong back-catalogue of previous premium console/pc titles, proving out the direct impact of design direction and decisions on previous projects
- Ability to show examples of ideation techniques and directional documentation to deliver design vision
- Excellent communication skills
- Experience working with and successfully managing external stakeholders
- Proven responsibility in reviewing and feeding back on the work of both design and other disciplines where relevant
- An understanding of system, economic, and action/twitch game design
- Some experience with running projects in live-operations and the demands of GaaS
- Demonstrable ability to understand business and Product needs
- Understands how to art and design in particular intersect to create special and memorable experiences
- Up to date knowledge of design trends in current games – and able to reference relevant popular and obscure cultural IP
- Confident in line managing teams of Designers, including reviewing work, probations, appraisals, disciplinary action, etc.
Desirable skills:
- Industry experience at multiple game/entertainment studios
- Experience building teams
Benefits
Description:
Want to Work for us?
Are you interested in joining a business who strive to create moments that matter, for millions of players, in games that run for years? Does the idea of working together with a friendly team of Tonics towards the common goal appeal to you?
As a creative business, we recognise that creativity is best inspired by different experiences and perspectives and we strive to create a culture of belonging, where all our colleagues feel welcome and diversity is celebrated. As we push towards ever more ambitious and high-quality titles, we are looking for the finest talent in the industry to come and join us on our quest.
We not only offer you the chance to work with fantastic teams, on awesome and inspiring projects, we also offer competitive salaries, flexible working hours including up to 3 x remote days weekly and private health care.
Details:
How to apply & really impress us
As a people first company, our biggest priority is to hire the right person. A cover letter that tells us a bit about you and what you’re passionate about really helps to get our attention and distinguish your application from the crowd.
Successful applications will usually have a phone chat before being invited to a full interview. If you are applying for a creative role, remember a portfolio is essential. For all applications we suggest you read the job description carefully and let us know why you believe you’re the right person to take on this job. We look forward to hearing from you.
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