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Senior Open World Designer

As a Senior Open World Designer in our Edinburgh studio, you will be working in the Design team. This role is responsible for implementing ambient systems for gameplay from concept to final form using in-house tools and editors with minimal guidance and providing technical support and mentoring to more junior members of staff. The Senior Open World Designer position will report to the Lead Game Designer.

The position is also expected to be proactive in dealing with other disciplines to resolve problems quickly, elicit clear requirements and translate them into flexible reusable solutions. A Senior Open World Designer should have excellent understanding of best-practice and standard techniques in level editors and systems and should keep up-to-date on 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, and Lead Artist 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 gameplay mechanics and systems.
• Mentor junior members of the Open World Design team and communicate with other team members with minimal external help.
• Help educate and support other teams to correctly and efficiently use the level design systems.
• Identify and report technical problems with some help for complex problems.
• Prioritise, plan and manage the time of assigned tasks with minimal 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 layouts and implementing 3D work into the pipeline.
• Experience and a portfolio demonstrating assets / scenes developed in a modern game engine pipeline – preferably in-game examples of world building.
• Strong communication skills (including written as well as verbal), comfortable working across teams and studios and mentoring staff.
• Self-motivated and driven to creatively solve problems.
• Able to plan entire systems including external dependencies with minimal input.
• Desire to work in a fast-paced, high growth, start-up company environment.
• Experience with Animation pipelines is a plus.
• Experience with CryEngine or Lumberyard is a plus.
• Shipped AAA game(s) a plus.