Lead Game Designer

At Rovio you will get to work with multiple groundbreaking IP’s including one of the most famous game IP’s in the world: Angry Birds! We craft joy with player-focused gaming experiences that last for decades. In order to do that, we know that people need to bring their own joy to what we do. That’s why we value work-life balance, say no to crunch culture, and welcome people from all walks of life to join the flock. Today, we are a proud team of 500+ caring and talented professionals representing over 50 different nations.

We trust our teams to work autonomously by providing them the right tools and level of responsibility. We believe in our teams to remain creative and to keep learning – as well as ensuring everyone has opportunities for personal growth.

Rovio’s Puzzle Studio has their sights set on becoming the most successful casual puzzle game studio in the world. Exploring new and emerging trends in puzzle games, the studio has built a deep understanding of the puzzle genre and its players since its founding in 2014. The studio has introduced innovations in puzzle game core with the free-flowing Angry Birds Dream Blast, several match 3 games such as Angry Birds Match and Small Town Murders as well as slingshot games like Angry Birds Friends and a great newcomer Angry Birds Journey. With their games, Puzzle Studio strives to build a true emotional connection that stays with players even when they’re not playing.

Do you live, breathe, and dream of casual F2P games? Is your mind filled with wild ideas on ways to evolve the player's experience? Do you know how to encourage and lead a team to build their best work? We are looking for an expert and hardworking Lead Game Designer to join our successful Puzzle Studio.

You will lead Angry Birds Friends game design and will be part of a team that innovates and invents new experiences in the game. You will bring new insights and depth to our game with strong engaging elements, across the game, from the core, meta, event, and social systems. You will build deep emotional experiences by providing deeper gameplay experiences. For that, you need to understand small and big data as well as human psychology to really tick players' motivations, needs and behaviour, which also drive the game’s business.

You will have impact and fun at work by doing:

• Work with the Game Lead and the other leads to ensure the vision is being implemented as intended.
• Lead the game design for the game. Lead all aspects of the big picture for the whole game, ensure all design crafts are pushing in the right direction. Ensure the game is pushing to lead in the market.
• Participate actively in the game design and transform conceptual ideas into fleshed-out designs with the design team.
• Actively participate in the decision-making process with game leadership, and coordinate the vital adjustments to ensure the Game Design team can deliver on expectations in a manner that will failsafe team health and player experience
• Understand the player’s needs, motivations and behaviour based on small and big data. Ensure the items crafted and developed by the team contribute to an engaging player experience
• Analyze Game Design workload vs production capacity, and work with the senior production team to establish a work schedule and priorities for the Game Design team that is in keeping with the project goals and timeline
• Review Design distribution and work performance of the Game Design team
• Communicate to the Game Design team the objectives, strategies, and high-level information related to the project. Offer full visibility on the progress and development of the game and other job families to the Design Team, and communicate Game Design progress and decision-making widely across the production to ensure full visibility & strong alignment between job families
• Support Product Manager and work on A/B tests related to game features, events, etc. to enable further growth
• Mentor/coach less senior designers working on specific game areas like level design or economy design.

Experience and skills we are looking for:

• Proven experience as a Game Designer
• Lead Game Designer experience on several mobile free to play titles
• In-depth working knowledge of casual F2P games
• Authority in understanding the motivations of players, engagement, retention, social and monetisation
• Working experience on all aspects of design: levels, systems, social, narrative, economy and UX
• Working experience leading the vision from conceptualisation to Live Ops

Interview process:

• Initial call: a quick chat for you to hear a bit more about the role, and for us to get an initial picture of who you are
• First meeting: you will meet the hiring manager. The aim is for us to know who you are, dive deeper into your tech skills and understand what motivates you. This is also an opportunity for you to learn about Rovio, the wider team and the specifics of the role
• Take home test: you will do a take home exercise to complete in your own time.
• Test review interview: you will be later invited to discuss the solution and go through a deep dive in different areas with the team here.
• Final round: you will be meeting other members of the game team and our aim is to get a clear overview of how you would fit with our working culture, your ambitions and where we can help each other develop and see how you will work in a larger team.

Rovio’s Puzzle Studio has their sights set on becoming the most successful casual puzzle game studio in the world. Exploring new and emerging trends in puzzle games, the studio has built a deep understanding of the puzzle genre and its players since its founding in 2014. The studio has introduced innovations in puzzle game core with the free-flowing Angry Birds Dream Blast, several match 3 games such as Angry Birds Match and Small Town Murders as well as slingshot games like Angry Birds Friends and a great newcomer Angry Birds Journey. With their games, Puzzle Studio aims to create a true emotional connection that stays with players even when they’re not playing.

We welcome applicants to use the name they want to be addressed by in the application form, regardless of whether it is their legal name.