Staff Gameplay Designer

Location: United States, Remote

Department: teamLFG

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 amazing teamplay moments? Are you excited to make gameplay that strongly cares about player intention, action game feel, and readability?

We are seeking a highly technical, creative, and team-oriented Staff Gameplay Designer to contribute to a new multiplayer action game on teamLFG. You will work closely with the entire Design Team designing, crafting, and implementing a robust suite of playable characters. You will collaborate with team members from other disciplines to drive cohesive gameplay vision. You will establish good design processes and evangelize them throughout the design team. Most importantly, you will work with a fun, dedicated, and passionate team devoted to turning a creative dream into a new franchise at PlayStation.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Build compelling second-to-second gameplay experiences through character sandbox mechanics, especially 3C (Character, Camera and Controls) design and implementation.

• Lead a cross-discipline small team to build new playable characters or the core systems that enable the creation of future playable characters.

• Review the content across teams and disciplines, giving feedback and direction to ensure competitive readability, best in class game feel, and compelling fantasies.

• Create endearing playable characters that maintain IP quality, consistency, along with sandbox design principles.

• Work with audio, effects, and animation to make in-game gameplay affordances clear to players.

REQUIRED SKILLS

• Intuitive understanding of how second-to-second action games work and why people play them.

• Excitement 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.

• Strong technical scripting skills and deep understanding of how game systems are engineered to provide robust tools for designers that optimize for meaningful player expression, designer control, and execution speed.

• Strong understanding of combat animation; able to talk anticipation, follow through, character and timing, and their impact on game readability and balance.

• Ability to creatively align with the team and then take initiative locally and externally.

• Social intelligence, great interpersonal skills, and empathy for creative teams.

• Ability to handle ambiguity, including giving and handling feedback despite that ambiguity.

• Ability to operate autonomously while holding a creative vision.

• Ability to create plans and evaluations for meeting the experiential needs of the players and markets.

• Outstanding oral and written communication skills.

• Understanding of how systemically consistent, combinatoric game design can create player surprise and laughter.

PREFERRED EXPERIENCE

• Experience as a Senior or Lead Sandbox/Gameplay Designer on AAA or large-scale online action games, designing, documenting, and building combat/character systems.

• Experience hiring, training, mentoring, and managing peer and junior designers.

• Experience delegating work or ownership of an area to multi-disciplinary peers.

• Experience with PvP game design and balance for an active player base.