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Level Designer

Iron Galaxy employees are all working from home through the end of 2020 due to COVID-19. This WFH policy extends to anyone that Iron Galaxy hires between now and then. All new-hire onboarding is being done remotely, and any equipment that you might need for projects at Iron Galaxy will be shipped directly to you.

Iron Galaxy Studios is looking for a passionate Level Designer to take on the challenge of designing, implementing, and managing level content for a variety of products from AAA FPS to RPGs and everything in between.

We are a well-established independent game developer who has partnered with the titans of our industry to ship more high-caliber games than any other independent developer. We’re known for our excellent work on Killer Instinct, as well as helping to bring Skyrim and Diablo III to the Nintendo Switch. We also pride ourselves on being a studio that does amazing work while maintaining a positive culture and supporting work-life balance for our employees.

As a level designer, you will have a wide range of skills in world creation that is keyed into level flow and can make spaces that are truly fun and engaging to move through and elevate the player sandbox, no matter the project. Candidates should be able to carry a level from inception to ship, including setup of content like AI pathing, combat encounters, quests, and navigation objects, as well as inherit existing projects and iterating on or supporting them. While you may have one or more areas of expertise, you aren’t afraid to venture between anything needed to support and develop an environment. In addition to your design experience, you should have strong communication skills, and be capable of working with diverse cross-functional teams.

This opportunity is for a full-time position, either in Chicago, IL or Orlando, FL


Core Responsibilities

• Design level spaces from paper design, through greybox, iteration, polish and ship
• Help design, implement, and manage the development of game levels for a variety of genres across single and multi-player
• Collaborate with team members, take in critique and feedback from playtests and players, and make meaningful iterations to improve dev / player engagement
• Assist in reviewing level content in projects and game builds, help drive playtests, and provide feedback and recommendations
• Help champion level design at the studio and offer feedback for flow and level quality for our products
• Work with partners and be able to follow their preferred process and creative vision, which will change project to project
• Hands-on implementation in the level game elements like collision, encounters, combat, quests, and more
• Collaborate with Design and Art teams including Narrative, Combat, Gameplay, and Environment to make sure our levels cohesively represent game content and tell a story, when applicable
• Assist and bring knowledge for making levels performant and shippable on a variety of platforms

What else are we looking for? Here’s our wishlist for the ideal candidate. If you possess most of these qualities, you may very well be the one we’re looking for:

• Previous experience in a level design / world building role, ideally shipping at least one AAA game in a Level Designer or Sr role on PC or Console
• A thorough knowledge of level design and flow, and the ability to speak and teach
• Experience implementing level specific gameplay like AI pathing, encounters, quests, or level-specific scripting
• Able to document and communicate ideas and feedback concisely and constructively
• Passionate about gaming, a real love for level design, and the ability to work well with your teammates
• We love multi-hat designers, so if you have experience with other aspects of design, that is a huge plus