Are you on a mission to create games that bond players together into deeply invested communities? Do you spend your time thinking about how different game mechanics can come together to create emergent, dynamic, and frankly hilarious social moments? Are you excited to make gameplay that strongly cares about player intention, action game feel, and expressive communication?
We are seeking a highly technical, creative, and team-oriented contract Staff Gameplay Designer to contribute a new multiplayer action game on teamLFG. You will work closely with the entire Design Team prototyping, exploring, and implementing player avatars and their suite of verbs for the social area of a competitive PvP game. You will collaborate with team members from other disciplines to drive cohesive gameplay vision. You will help build the systems that enable our game to become a third place. Most importantly, you will work with a fun, dedicated, and cross-disciplinary team devoted to turning a creative dream into a new franchise at PlayStation.
RESPONSIBILITIES
• Build and maintain the avatar movement and core sandbox systems that enable cooperative social gameplay and player expression, while building trust between players
• Build the systems to allow for avatar customization, creating extensible opportunities for player investment and a progression economy, as well as player self expression and customization
• Build compelling gameplay experiences through reusable sandbox mechanics, especially 3C (Character, Camera and Controls) design and implementation
• Create endearing NPCs that improve IP quality, consistency, along with sandbox design principles
• Work with audio, effects, and animation to clearly communicate gameplay affordances to players
REQUIRED SKILLS
• Understanding of how modern multiplayer social games can leverage an intuitive and expressive action sandbox to create memories between players
• Fluency for collaboration with designers, artists, programmers, audio professionals, quality assurance and producers to achieve a common goal, with adaptability for how to work in a flexible work environment
• Broad T-shaped rapid prototyping skills, with enough multi-disciplinary knowledge to quickly stub out gameplay ideas to evaluate their potential
• Strong technical scripting skills and understanding of how to structure game design tools to unlock player expression, content variety, and execution speed
• Strong understanding of character motion and animation; momentum, timing, and their impact on player communication and tone
• Proven ability to build alignment and productively own feature direction without sacrificing empathy and collaboration with team contributors
• Ability to operate autonomously and handle ambiguity, including giving and receiving feedback despite that ambiguity
• Ability to create plans and evaluate them for meeting the experiential needs of the players and markets
• Outstanding oral and written communication skills
• Demonstrated understanding of how systemically consistent, combinatoric game design can create player surprise and laughter
PREFERRED EXPERIENCE
• Experience as a Staff Sandbox/Gameplay Designer on AAA or large-scale online action games, designing, documenting, and building character customization systems
• Experience delegating work or ownership of an area to multi-disciplinary peers
• Experience with social/cooperative game design and balancing for an active player base
At SIE, working with our partners, we consider several factors when setting each role’s base pay range, including the competitive benchmarking data for the market and geographic location.
Please note that the individual base pay range may vary based on job-related factors which may include knowledge, skills, experience, and location.
In addition, this role is eligible for benefit offerings that include medical, dental, and vision. Click here to learn more.
Please note, Sony Interactive Entertainment conducts background checks at the offer stage for all new employees (which may include criminal background checks for some roles) and will need to process personal information to support these checks.
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Skills Required
- Understanding of modern multiplayer social game design and expressive action sandboxes
- Fluency collaborating with designers, artists, programmers, audio, QA, and producers
- Rapid prototyping skills across disciplines to stub and evaluate gameplay ideas
- Strong technical scripting skills and ability to structure game design tools
- Strong understanding of character motion and animation, including momentum and timing
- Ability to build alignment, own feature direction, and operate autonomously
- Experience creating plans and evaluating them against player and market needs
- Outstanding oral and written communication skills
- Demonstrated understanding of systemically consistent, combinatoric game design for emergent player moments
- Experience as a Staff Sandbox/Gameplay Designer on AAA or large-scale online action games (preferred)
- Experience delegating work or ownership to multi-disciplinary peers (preferred)
- Experience with social/cooperative game design and balancing for an active player base (preferred)
What We Do
teamLFG is a Bellevue, WA-based game development studio and a member of PlayStation Studios. Driven by a mission to create games where players can find friendship, community, and belonging, the studio is currently developing an ambitious, team-based action game set in a lighthearted, science-fantasy universe. The team consists of industry veterans and newcomers working together to deliver highly polished, social multiplayer experiences.
