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Studio Game Design Lead

Who is Space Ape and what is the Supercell connection exactly?

Space Ape is an independent mobile games studio in Central London. Our games have been played by over 70m people, but more likely you’ve heard of our parent company, Supercell, whom we teamed up with in 2017.

Much like the teams (ie cells) within Supercell, we operate with complete autonomy. Game teams of typically 5-10 people decide what they work on and we are fully independent. However, when we need help then we have access to the resources of the most successful developers in the world who have made some of our favourite games ever.

But it goes both ways. As a younger, scrappier start-up prior to joining Supercell we lived or died on our ability to master Live Ops, analytics, Unity (amongst other things) so Apes regularly travel to Supercell live game teams in Helsinki or their California office to share and exchange ideas.

It’s basically like working for a small indie studio, with massive ambitions and access to all the resources you could possibly need to be successful. All you need to do is make the game that can take advantage of that …

The Role

At Space Ape, we are focused on building world-class, franchisable brands and IP. As proud as we are of our live games, which are fun, fresh and brimming with personality, our future will be defined by the new games we’re working on.

Our studio is currently 110 strong and built around the belief that small empowered teams make the best games. This philosophy enables us to innovate, move faster and have the creative ownership required to chase the next genre defining hit. At present over 80% of the studio’s resources are committed to a diverse range of new game development.

We are now looking for a hands-on Studio Game Design Director to take us to the next level, both operating at a Studio-wide Director level as well as, when time permits, working with a small team to create a category-defining mobile game.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design of delightful, deep, and replayable games and features from ideation to release
• Own the creative goals of the Studio
• Support other designers and projects across the studio by providing feedback and mentorship.
• Maintain and contribute to a company culture of creativity, professionalism, openness, mutual respect, equality, and occasional rampant frivolity.
• Create and lead the execution of game concepts that meet or exceed the technical, creative and commercial aims of the project
• Consistently validate the coherence and quality of our rosterWork with producers to determine production scope priorities and eventual adjustments
• Coordinate with marketing to ensure the products vision is followed through in the marketing assets and other promotional materials
• Continuously play and analyze the gaming market to catch trends and opportunities early

• At least 10 years professional experience in a game design role
• At least 1 globally launched free-to-play mobile game as the primary designer or project leader
• Demonstrable experience in a leadership role
• Experience as a game or systems design contributor on at least 3 other projects (bonus points for daring projects that you ultimately killed)
• Experience with design at all stages of a game's lifetime, from concept to live ops
• No fear of generating or digging into the numbers - game balance, economy, analytics, etc.
• An understanding of all disciplines of game development
• A passion for working 'in the trenches' combined with the ability to take a high-level view
• Perceptive with feedback, ready to iterate, and able to let go of deeply loved ideas
• Deep knowledge of the challenges and opportunities of free-to-play games
• Passion for mobile gaming
• A "raise the bar" attitude

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