Game Designer

Duration: 12-month contract, with possibility of conversion to full-time

Location: Remote, must be able to work in Canada

We're looking to add a talented mission designer to the development team creating THE LONG DARK. If you have worked as a mission or level designer on highly-regarded open-world games, we'd love to hear from you.

The ideal candidate has at least 3 years of experience designing and scripting missions for open-world games. Experience with Unity and visual scripting systems is required. This role involves taking missions from paper-design to finished implementation, including all scripting for mission logic, integration of cinematics and gameplay animations, playtesting, etc. We particularly value candidates who have familiarity with THE LONG DARK and its WINTERMUTE story campaign, as well an appreciation for what makes them unique and effective. 

Your Impact

You will work under the guidance of the Design Lead, in collaboration with designers and artists, to create compelling narrative-driven experiences in one of the world’s leading survival games. Your contribution will help elevate the quality of the final episode of THE LONG DARK’s story mode. You will help ship Episode Five, and support post-launch efforts around the game.

Your Day to Day

Working within the mission team. Collaborating with designers and artists. Taking direction from the Design Lead. Scripting mission logic within Unity using a visual scripting language. Playtesting and reviewing feedback notes to implement changes that improve the player experience. Contributing to discussions about mission logic, and the integration of narrative with gameplay. Writing documentation. Logging and fixing bugs. Heavily working within the Unity engine. Collaborating with others in a remote work setting, using a variety of communication and documentation tools.

Your Responsibilities

• Using effective design principles, implement approved missions in Unity using Node Canvas visual scripting tools, with an emphasis of building and maintaining mission logic, while iterating and tuning as needed based on playtesting.
• Write and create any supporting materials or documentation as needed for effective implementation and playtesting.
• Setup in-game Regions with appropriate gear, loot, and other resources consistent with The Long Dark’s existing WINTERMUTE survival gameplay.
• Create and tune any new gear items as needed to execute on approved mission designs.
• Hook up cinematics, animations, audio cues, and other storytelling assets to deliver a compelling and effective experience based on the episode scriptment, as needed and in conjunction and collaboration with any other cinematic stakeholders in Design or Animation.
• Write functional, first-pass text strings and maintain the Localization table in Unity, as needed.
• Work with animators, programmers, audio designers, and other team members to deliver the experience as described in episodic scripts and other documentation.
• Using Perforce, maintain proper source control of the project and any files used for your Design work.
• Work autonomously, with the support of the Design Lead, to ensure all edited assets and changes are appropriately playtested for validity prior to submission. 
• Fix and test assigned game bugs as documented in JIRA and assigned by the Design Lead.

Your Skills & Experience

• 3-years of experience as a mission designer, with a demonstrable portfolio of shipped mission work.
• Skill with mission scripting.
• Excellent documentation and communication skills.
• Strong attention to detail and ability to collaborate effectively across disciplines.
• Ability to take ownership for work and proactively follow up to ask questions and get feedback.
• Familiarity with open-world games, and knowledge (if not passion for) survival games.
• Desire to actively participate in discussions and collaborate in a high-autonomy, high-accountability workplace environment.
• Willingness and ability to communicate effectively using written and verbal tools in a remote-centric team.

Salary Range:

$85,000 - 90,000 CAD

Hinterland is an equal employer and as a remote-first organization, we hire the best talent globally. To ensure we are equitable and fair, the salary range listed above is provided as a gauge and is indexed specifically to candidates based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, where our studio is headquartered. This range represents multiple skill levels, as we encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply with us, acknowledging that cultural disparities historically disadvantage non-white and non-male applicants. The range is generated based on research using a combination of publicly and privately available data. We take a holistic approach to compensation and consider factors such as skills, experience, and cost of living, to ensure we pay fairly and equitably within our team. This means we may modify the range based on the candidate’s location. In addition to an annual salary, we have no probationary period, and all employees receive our health & wellness benefits package on their first day.