Senior Systems Designer

Who We Are: 

Ghost Story Games is a self-publishing game development studio founded by Ken Levine (Creative Director of System Shock 2, Bioshock, and Bioshock Infinite) and former Irrational Games developers.  The studio’s mission is to create narrative-driven experiences rooted in immersive world building and gameplay. 

The Challenge:

Ghost Story Games is seeking a talented Senior Systems Designer to join us on Judas, the highly anticipated game led by Ken Levine (System Shock 2, BioShock series). Unique in its bold, creative vision, Judas is also built upon novel technology by which the visual world, gameplay, and story unfolds in meaningful, dynamic ways. The result is a significant and personal journey adapted to each player’s experience and offers a new approach to the art and storytelling of video games.

As the Senior Systems Designer, your core challenge is to act as a contributor for the gameplay of Judas. You will be responsible for weaving together our dynamic narrative, deep rogue-lite mechanics, and other emergent, interconnected game systems. Success in this role means ensuring these complex elements feel like a single, seamless, and deeply rewarding player experience. This is a crucial role focused on the holistic integration and balancing of our core design pillars to deliver a truly groundbreaking game. 

What You'll Take On: 

• Design, implement, tune, and own core game systems, with a primary focus on the core gameplay loop, player progression, and innovative rogue-lite mechanics. 
• Create and maintain clear, concise design documentation that articulates system functionality. 
• Work hands-on in Unreal Engine 4 (UE4) to prototype, build, and iterate on systems using Blueprint scripting. 
• Collaborate closely with Engineering, Art, Narrative, and QA to ensure the cohesive and successful implementation of gameplay features.   
• Champion the player experience, ensuring your designs are intuitive, engaging, and support a wide variety of playstyles. 
• Actively participate in playtests, gathering feedback and iterating on designs to achieve the highest possible quality. 
• Proactively identify design challenges and propose effective, innovative solutions that push creative boundaries. 
• Act as a strong advocate for the player experience, ensuring your system designs are intuitive, engaging, and align with the overall vision of Judas. 
• Contribute significantly to design discussions and the evolution of design practices, fostering a studio culture of knowledge-sharing. 

What You Bring: 

• 5+ years of professional systems design experience on AAA titles. 
• Shipped at least one AAA game in a systems design capacity. 
• Proven expertise in designing and implementing core gameplay loops, progression systems, and player-facing mechanics. 
• Strong proficiency with Unreal Engine (UE4/UE5), particularly in-engine implementation and Blueprint scripting. 
• A proactive, self-motivated work ethic, with a strong sense of ownership and the ability to operate with autonomy. 
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to articulate complex design concepts clearly. 
• A deep passion for creating emergent, systems-driven gameplay and narrative-rich experiences. 
• Understanding of telemetry and its uses within game development to validate implementations. 
• As a senior team member, you lead by example and demonstrate a willingness to mentor others. 

Great to Have: 

• Passion for narrative-driven First-Person Shooters. 
• Experience with procedural content generation systems. 
• Scripting proficiency within Unreal Engine (e.g., advanced Blueprint usage) is a plus. Experience with C++ is a bonus. 
• Direct experience with roguelike/roguelite or immersive sim genres. 
• Experience designing systems that enhance replayability and emergent outcomes.
• Familiarity with content tracking tools (e.g., JIRA, Confluence, Hansoft) or version control systems (e.g., Perforce). 

When Applying For This Position:

Please watch the following GDC talk given by Ken Levine: http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1020434/Narrative

Please be aware that Ghost Story does not conduct job interviews or make job offers over third-party messaging apps such as Telegram, WhatsApp, or others. Ghost Story also does not engage in any financial exchanges during the recruitment or onboarding process, and the Ghost Story will never ask a candidate for their personal or financial information over an app or other unofficial chat channel. Any attempt to do so may be the result of a scam or phishing exercise. Ghost Story’s in-house recruitment team will only contact individuals through their official Ghost Story email addresses (i.e., via a ghoststorygames.com email domain). If you need to report an issue or otherwise have questions, please contact [email protected] 

As an equal opportunity employer, Ghost Story Games, LLC (“Ghost Story”) is committed to fostering and celebrating the diverse thoughts, cultures, and backgrounds of its talent, partners, and communities throughout its organization. Consistent with this commitment, Ghost Story does not discriminate or retaliate against any employee or job applicant because of their race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity), national origin, age, disability, and genetic information (including family medical history), or on the basis of any other trait protected by applicable law. If you need to report a concern or have questions regarding Ghost Story’s equal opportunity commitment, please contact [email protected].