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Open World Designer

As an Open World Designer in our Edinburgh studio, you will be working in the Open World team. You will work with the Open World Designers, Game Designers, Animators and Environment Artists to ensure the overall vision of the project is represented in the Ambient game world. In collaboration with the Environment Art team, you will build interesting and immersive locations and areas in the game world with a focus on detail and mood, aligned with the gameplay space and core mechanics of the game.

You will be involved in all the steps of production from the initial layout and prototyping into final implementation and optimization phase.

This position is also expected to be able to deal with other disciplines to resolve problems and elicit requirements. An Open World Designer should have good understanding of best-practice and standard techniques in level editors and systems and will seek to learn more about innovations within the industry.

Responsibilities

• Plan, build and revise interesting and visually compelling ambient setups for gameplay from concept to final.
• Work with the Lead Game Designer to ensure all game environments are filled with ambient life and executed to the highest standard.
• Collaborate with the Design, Art and Engineering teams to create and refine environments for gameplay purposes.
• Support other teams in the use of Open World systems.
• Identify and report technical problems with some help for complex problems.
• Prioritise, plan and manage the time of assigned tasks with oversight.
• Communicate clearly with other team members with minimal external help.
• Be vigilant for and report new problems, delays and risks to the appropriate Lead/Director.
• Seek support from higher level management when required.

Requirements

• A strong understanding of ambient systems and their relation to world building.
• Experience working with a game engine (Unity, UDK or other proprietary), using tools to implement gameplay related systems
• Experience and a portfolio demonstrating ambient open world related gameplay in a modern game engine pipeline – preferably in-game examples
• Self-motivated and driven to creatively solve problems.
• Able to plan their work with some assistance.
• Desire to work in a fast-paced, high growth, start-up company environment.
• Strong English skills (written as well as verbal)
• Experience with CryEngine or Lumberyard is a plus.
• Shipped AAA game(s) a plus.