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Senior/Principal Game Designer

The Chinese Room has established a reputation as one of the most creative and exciting studios in the UK. We’re proud to be internationally recognised as pioneers of storytelling with a flair for creating atmospheric, rich and imaginative games.

As a Sumo Digital studio, The Chinese Room is built on passion, on finding amazing people and letting them shine. It’s an exciting time to be part of Sumo, winners of the Develop: Star Awards 2019 Best Studio and GI Biz 2020 Best Places to Work; big things are on the horizon and we want you to be part of our continued journey. Join us!

The Chinese Room is made up of a diverse mix of fantastic people, although sometimes, some groups are still under-represented. We are working to remove obstacles that can make it difficult for those groups to progress their careers in the games industry. We welcome applications from under-represented people in the gaming industry, including, but not limited to women, BAME, older people and those from working-class backgrounds.

We have a unique opportunity for a Senior or Principal Designer to join our experienced team at The Chinese Room in Brighton.

You will be a core part of our friendly design team, working with the Lead Designer to create best-in-class gameplay systems.

The role can be hybrid based, with the requirement to attend occasional meetings at our offices in Brighton.

· Take ownership of core gameplay systems

· Create new gameplay mechanics all the way from discussion and specification through to prototyping and implementation

· Document your designs and communicate them effectively to the team

· Work with other disciplines to iterate and improve your gameplay systems

· Use player feedback and design direction to perfect the gameplay experience

· Implement gameplay systems to a very high, shippable standard in Unreal

· Drive improvements to design team technical processes and take responsibility for key parts of the game experience

· Set standards of excellence for the rest of the design team to follow

· Experience as a Senior Designer on a project in the first person or action adventure genre

· Experience working with UE4/UE5

· The ability to craft fresh player experiences with existing mechanics as well as being able to suggest new mechanics and bring them to life

· The ability to propose creative solutions to complex design problems in system and puzzle design

· Great interpersonal and communications skills and the ability to work within a team of diverse people

· A passion for creating satisfying and robust gameplay

· Extensive experience with Unreal Blueprints

· Experience creating and tweaking AI systems using Behaviour Trees or similar tools

· Experience with gameplay related UE systems such as Animation Blueprints and Sequencer

· Understanding of UX and Accessibility

· A love for narrative-driven game and level design

. Defined Annual Bonus Scheme

. ULEV car scheme

. Monthly allowance to spend on enhancing benefits

. Salary Sacrifice Pension

. Flexible Working

. 21 days free-use holiday

+ your birthday off

+ 5 learning days including 1 volunteer day

+ a duvet day

+ Christmas shutdown from Christmas Eve to New Year

+ Bank Holidays

+ extra allowance accrued for longer service

. Free dental insurance

. Life Assurance 4x Salary

. Income Protection of 75% for 5 years

. Enhanced Mat/Paternity & Adoption pay

. Employee Assistance Programme:

. Help at Hand - Remote GP, Mental Health & Physio appointments

. Free financial & home buying support consultations

. Cycle to Work Scheme

. Payroll Giving Scheme

. Access to 4,000 Udemy Courses

. Career Development Pathway

. Wrap Parties.

. Project Completion Awards

. Game/Creative Jams

. Big Family Events

. Studio social activities, e.g. running, board games, film, yoga, life drawing…

. Prism – Sumo’s employee diversity focus group

. Free fruit and drinks in our studios

. Employee Referral Bonus

. Relocation Support to the UK

. Visa Sponsorship

Our titles include the ground-breaking Dear Esther (2012), cult horror Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs (2013), the VR fairy-tale So Let Us Melt (2017) the open-world adventure Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture (2015), a PlayStation 4 exclusive that won major awards across the world, and the multi award-winning Little Orpheus (2020). This included an amazing 10 BAFTA nominations and 3 BAFTA wins.

We bring our passion and commitment to creating exciting original games to a network of studios renowned for quality and expertise. Being part of the Sumo team enables us to expand and grow in ambition and confidence, taking our reputation for storytelling into new genres. Our most recently announced game, Little Orpheus, is an Apple Arcade exclusive and we’re working on other unannounced ‘AAA’ titles that will further establish our award-winning style and reputation.

We offer a superb benefits package including generous holidays and flexi-time. We care about our people, with an emphasis on the work/life balance and out of office events such as our legendary Sumo ‘Big Day Out’, plus epic Christmas parties and much more! Our regular studio Game Jams are a highlight - winning concepts can go on to commercial release, so far including Snake Pass and the upcoming Spyder for Apple Arcade.

The Chinese Room is located in Brighton in the south of England, home to an amazingly vibrant game development scene and a cultural hotspot with fantastic food, arts, music, shopping and sports. The studio is in the city centre, near the beach, and close to the South Downs National Park. Gatwick Airport is only half an hour away from train, and you can be in central London in just over an hour. It’s an easy place to love!

Our environment is relaxed, friendly and built upon the basis of every team member having the opportunity to shine and have a realisable input into the games we create. We’re in the amazing position of building a brand-new team, and creating a studio culture that’s all about passion, respect, diversity, fun and togetherness. We’re looking for people that love what they do and love to share their enthusiasm with each other.