Systems Designer

We’re searching for a game designer to take ownership of our moment-to-moment game feel across all player-facing systems in our game, focusing on 3Cs design (character, camera, controls). This person is someone who enjoys the tiny adjustments that make a camera’s motion feel just right, finds just the perfect level of feedback for an explosion to give, or knowing the right way to leverage an asset library to create a flavor-loaded ability. In this role, you’ll be primarily responsible for game feel focusing on camera and control schemes across multiple game modes as well as constructing visual feedback to reinforce the player’s actions through gameplay. This person reports to the Gameplay Director and will collaborate extensively with other disciplines to create the right degree of feedback for the player’s experience.

We're looking for someone who has an eye for good moment-to-moment feedback for players, and can use touchpoints like X-Com, The Sims, or Animal Crossing when looking at how to make a game feel satisfying to play. This role is open to designers who can self-direct through the responsibilities of the position. You will also act as a mentor to others in the fields of expertise you oversee.

Core Responsibilities & Objectives

• Take ownership over game feel, especially camera positioning and UI feedback
• Take ownership of control schemes on multiple platforms for all aspects of the game

• Coordinate with narrative, art, and audio to create an effective and robust library of assets
• Use those assets to create game interactions that tell bite-sized visual stories without breaking game flow
• Collaborate with engineering to develop tools and data to adjust game feel, develop a technical pipeline for implementation, and mentor other designers on how to create those interactions
• Process feedback from user research and UX to improve game feel
• Act as an advocate for the player experience

Core Traits (Skills, Knowledge, Experience)

• Deep understanding of how to use camera positioning and movement to facilitate smooth and engaging gameplay
• Technical grasp of the realization suite (animation, SFX, VFX, camera) and organizational skills to help manage a growing library of assets
• Able to infuse storytelling into moment-to-moment gameplay to create memorable interactions and feedback for player and NPC actions
• Can collaborate with other designers on how to use available tools and assets to create better game feel

• Ability to digest feedback from a variety of sources to formulate a superior experience for everyone
• Experience with modern game development tools such as Unity, Unreal, or similar proprietary engines, and comfortable with regularly learning new tools
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to collaborate across multiple disciplines

Bonus (Nice to have, but not required!)

• Familiarity with upstream tools (Blender, etc.)
• Player-facing game tools design or interest in how tools affect workflow and provide feedback to users
• Turn-based, RPG, or tabletop game development experience
• Interest in expanded visual storytelling such as film cinematography, graphics novels, and 2D animation
• Able to bring some untraditional experiences (escape room design? interactive theater? LARPing? toymaking? Cooking? something else?) to mainstream video game development and help expand our design team’s breadth of knowledge