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Story Lead

Insomniac Games is searching for a talented Story Lead responsible for writing game narrative, including original treatments, stories, scripts and/or dialogue for assigned projects. This role provides a critical component of the studio’s mission to create games that have a positive and lasting impact on people’s lives by writing compelling stories and by modeling craft mastery and great collaboration.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following:

• Demonstrates craft mastery in both traditional dramatic writing and game-specific narrative considerations (interactivity, systemic thinking, integration of story and gameplay, etc.) and autonomously creates work that sets the quality bar.
• Helps drive the creative process in developing characters, plot, and key storytelling moments by working with the project directors and other production team members.
• Plans the structure of the player experience in collaboration with directors, designers, and animators.
• Develops episodic and nonlinear storylines.
• Engages with the community to author game stories that promote compelling player stories.
• Writes scripts for games with emphasis on complete description of scenes and characters (camera moves, facial expressions, sets, lighting, etc.)
• Writes scripts for real-time and cinematic sequences, and coordinates with various groups to get them implemented.
• Participates in or leads writer’s room sessions for brainstorming, story development, and narrative problem solving.
• Participates in strategy and decision-making as a member of the department’s leadership group.
• Finds opportunities for innovation and workflow improvements and effectively advocates for them.
• Works with department leadership to develop, refine, and document best practices.
• Regularly plays games in development and reviews scripts to provide feedback and help identify opportunities for craft development.
• Educates the production team through presentations and documents on storytelling practices that can be applied to other departments.
• Meets with team members to offer craft guidance, provide constructive feedback, and facilitate the team’s best work.
• Communicates proactively and anticipates production/scheduling issues. Works with PM to create achievable schedules and meets all production deadlines.
• Advocates for studio cultural values and fosters an environment of craft excellence, collaboration, and inclusion.

Supervisory Responsibilities: This job has no supervisory responsibilities, however, participates in determining approaches, developing new or enhanced technical tools, and mentoring less experienced members of the team.

Education and/or Experience:

• Seven to ten years of experience, or combination/equivalent of education and experience.
• Shipped a AAA game in a writer role preferred.
• Experience in a lead role preferred.

Other Skills:

• Expert knowledge of the principles of writing, performance, and design.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills. Must be able to present ideas clearly and work well within a large team environment.
• Experience with multiplayer narratives is preferred.
• Proficient with the Microsoft Office Suite, Final Draft and/or other screenwriting software. Photoshop and Illustrator a plus.

If this sounds like a good fit for your next career opportunity, please apply directly to the role by submitting your application below. We look forward to hearing from you.