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Lead Game Designer

Bossa is looking for a talented Lead Game Designer, passionate about fundamental game mechanics, systems and core loops design, who will help us conceive and produce new games from scratch as a founding design leader in our new Work for Hire department. We are keen to work with someone extremely curious about the emotions our players go through while playing our future games, and how to shape memorable experiences worth playing and sharing with others.

If you are a seasoned Lead Game Designer with an interesting track record looking to make your next move and take on a new challenge, this could be a really exciting role for you. You should be comfortable working in a dynamic and highly creative environment, composed of like-minded people looking to build a legacy through our games.

This is a unique role in one of the industry’s most creative studios, and the successful candidate will have the chance to work from scratch on new game concepts, being right at the centre of this new and exciting department.

Skills:

• Vision. Devise, communicate and champion the creative vision for the game, ensuring it remains true to its roots throughout development.
• Audience. Understand our target audience and what motivates them, deriving core pillars that support the overall vision.
• Mechanics. Create multiple mechanics/systems working holistically and consistent with the game’s vision and pillars.
• Collaboration. Collaborate with external stakeholders, along with programmers, artists, producers, testers, and other roles within the company to ensure a multifaceted approach to the project's design factoring the needs of all areas of development.
• Problem solving. Proactively recognise design shortcomings or imbalances in our games, proposing intuitive solutions.
• Ambassador. Evangelise to other members of the project team and studio at large, helping them to visualise the end experience and emotions the game is meant to evoke.
• Business awareness. Understand the commercial and production goals of the project and design within their parameters.
• Team. Be an active contributing member of our studio design team and, along with your peers, help us raise the game design standards at the studio.
• Communication. Maintain robust and frequent communications with the project team, your design peers, the team’s management, and external stakeholders.
• Documentation. Create high-level and technical design documentation for reference and briefing.
Awareness. Maintain up-to-date industry and market awareness, ensuring that our games remain relevant during production and as a live product after their launch.

Requirements

• Great design instincts attuned to the players you’re designing for.
• An understanding of general design mechanics and systems, as well as game direction and vision.
• An open mind with little regard for dogma, but appreciation for existent elegant design solutions to common problems.
• Awareness of past, current and future trends in game design and player experience.
• Experience with engagement and retention loops.
• Experience with multiplayer games.
• Proven design track record on released PC, mobile and/or Console titles.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills.
• A natural problem solver with a positive attitude.
• A fascination for finding new and better approaches to problems.
• An open and inclusive approach to design.
• An understanding that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and respect for those around you.
• A drive to learn, improve and share.
• The ability to adapt to fluid situations; you know when to stick to the plan and when to put it to the side and try something different.
• Experience interacting with player groups to gauge their aspirations and reception to ideas.

Benefits

• Annual Holiday Allowance – 22 days, to increase 1 day after every year up to a maximum of 25 days. We also shut between Christmas and New Year on top of that allowance, to make sure everyone has a real break.
• 4 day summer hours in 2023 - all Bossian's will be off on Fridays for 12 weeks.
• Private Medical Insurance and Dental – Provided by BUPA
• Life Assurance – Tax free lump sum payment of 4 x annual salary
• Pension Scheme – We match up to 5%
• EMI Share Scheme – Generous lump sum of shares awarded upon joining which will vest over a 4 year period
• Flexible Working – Bossians now have the ability to work from home permanently.
• Supportive family policies – 6 months fully paid maternity leave and 3 months fully paid paternity leave
• Employee Assistance Programme – 24/7 Helpline
• Cyclescheme – up to £1,000 loan deducted from monthly salary over 12 month period
• Discounted gym membership
• Social Events – We have fantastic company culture and loads of fun social events, lots of which are now happening digitally and in-person.

**All benefits mentioned above are specific to the UK and may vary based on the country you are located in.**

About Bossa

Welcome to Bossa! We’re an immensely talented, daring, multicultural team of individuals (or as we like to call ourselves - Bossians!), who create extraordinary games that millions of people love, play and share every day.

Chances are, you know us as that quirky, BAFTA-winning studio behind several critically acclaimed hits, many of which have become an integral part of gaming culture (Shhh... I doctor now!). These include Surgeon Simulator, I Am Bread, Hogwash, Monstermind, and the most recently launched I Am Fish.

At the heart of Bossa’s unique way of working - whether that’s ideation, development or even marketing - is a genuine passion for connecting through humour, amongst our teams, with our players, and with all the influencers and creators around the world who regularly play Bossa games to their audiences.

We create together. We laugh together. We innovate together. We believe that’s the only way to build legacy and games that are truly fun and relevant to people’s lives.

If that sounds ideal to you, this might be the perfect role for you!