Lead Game Designer

About Star Stable Entertainment

Once upon a time in 2011, the founders of Star Stable Entertainment had a vision. They wanted to create a game that could make a difference. Although half of gamers are girls and women, they were under-represented in the gaming industry, both as characters and creators. We dreamed of an epic online world where tween and teen girls could share an amazing experience. And we wanted to challenge how things were done in a male-dominated industry. Fast forward to today, and our dream has come true tenfold - Star Stable Online stands as one of the most popular MMORPGs globally! At our HQ on Södermalm, our 130 employees are thrilled to continue to welcome players to the island of Jorvik, with its breathtaking scenery, beautiful horses, and magical quests. It’s wonderful to see that our dream resonates with so many players around the world, and we can’t wait to share more stories and experiences with them!

Lead Game Designer

Star Stable Online is a 12-year-old MMORPG with players ranging across a variety of ages. While the game already has a captivating main storyline, we are committed to ensuring that Jorvik is a world that players can’t wait to return to and spend time in. And this is where you come in. We need to modernize our gameplay for a new generation of gamers, and our new exciting world as a cross-platform game. To help us on this journey, we are looking for a dedicated Game Design Lead who can help us adapt and thrive for another 12 years and beyond!

The Lead Game Designer we are looking for is someone who wants to take our gaming experience to an all-new high. You will be investigating how we can make more replayable content by looking into how we can build out new gameplay systems but also build upon existing ones. If this sounds like your next mission, read on!

The Lead Game Designer at Star Stable drives the design work within the studio, helping the project teams turn the creative vision into tangible design that gets into the hands of our players. Since you’ll be working on a live game, you will have a great opportunity to employ player feedback to enhance the gaming experience continuously. Moreover, you will lead the design area, coaching the team to bring the director’s vision to life. As the team manager, you’ll also be responsible for 1:1s, recruitments and welcoming new members to the team.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with the directors on the vision and the goals for design. Coaching the project teams to turn those visions into tangible designs.
• Provide design direction to the team, this includes delegating work, coaching, mentoring and planning together with the producer and other stakeholders.
• Spend around 50% of your position doing hands-on design work. Conceptualise, prototype, test and implement gameplay systems.
• Drive discovery phases and other design processes with support from the associate producers.
• Drive collaboration with other disciplines such as art, production and engineering, ensuring alignment and cohesion for the overall game experience.
• Contribute to improvements in our design pipelines and strategy.
• Drive documentation of guidelines, workflows and best practices.
• Stay up to date with relevant game information such as KPIs, player surveys, new releases and updates.
• Conduct 1:1 meetings with the team, recruit, onboard and offboard team members.

We believe that you have:

• Several years of experience as a game designer with a solid understanding of game loops, systems and their impact on the player experience.
• Experience working with MMOs. Experience working with live service games is a bonus.
• Experience in a leadership role with the ability to coach a team on their personal development and goal setting.
• Experience with prototyping and conceptualizing new gameplay systems and working with system design.
• A will to advocate for players and company goals and contribute to building a culture of constructive feedback within the design craft.
• A passion for solving problems and overcoming challenges.
• Strong knowledge of commercial and proprietary game engines and tools.
• The ability to use data to qualitatively inform design decisions.
• An ability to effectively document and convey ideas, complex concepts and design visions.
• Excellent verbal and written English communication skills.
• Experience in mobile and cross-platform development is considered a big plus.

Perks for joining us?

• A pretty sweet mission. We are developing the world's best horse-riding game for girls and we take that vision very seriously. We strive to hit that mark every single day.
• 30 vacation days (+ 3 additional squeeze days).
• A pension and insurance plan that mimics ITP1 and a parental pay top-up @90%.
• Health allowance at 5000 SEK per year.
• Hybrid working model - combine WFH and being together with the team at our new office located right amidst Södermalm GameDev cluster (Magnus Ladulåsgatan 65)
• Fitness discount of 18% at SATS gym + company workout classes.
• A dog room at the office! Bring your furry friend to work!

Are you ready to be a chapter on this magical journey? Apply now! We can’t wait to hear your story!