Lead Game Designer

Hybrid Position – 95% Remote with Occasional Onsite Collaboration

This role offers the flexibility of remote work, with development and collaboration conducted almost entirely online. Approximately once a month, you’ll travel to Beverly Hills to present progress, receive feedback, and align with stakeholders on the game’s direction, ensuring a shared vision for success.

About Snail Games USA

Snail Games USA is an independent global developer and publisher of digital entertainment, created by gamers for gamers. Our mission is to prioritize our community's needs by crafting innovative experiences that captivate players and push the boundaries of what’s possible. We are committed to continuously evolving and exploring new frontiers in gaming, ensuring that every project reflects our dedication to excellence and creativity.

Position Overview

We are seeking an experienced and visionary Game Creative Lead to oversee the creative and production aspects of our game development process. In this role, you will drive the creative vision while managing the execution of a high-quality Chinese-themed fantasy game with a small internal team (10-20 people) supported by multiple external partners. This is a rare opportunity to shape a project from concept to completion, ensuring both the creative and production goals are met to captivate a global audience.

Responsibilities

• Creative Vision: Define and champion the game’s core principles, player journey, and key deliverables, ensuring alignment with the project’s overarching vision. Collaborate with design, art, and engineering teams to create a compelling, cohesive experience, integrating unique themes like Chinese mythology where applicable.

• Team Leadership: Inspire, mentor, and lead a small, talented team (10–20 people) to achieve creative excellence. Work closely with department leads to develop and maintain a comprehensive project roadmap, identifying tasks, milestones, and deliverables. Manage and align external partners with internal goals to ensure seamless collaboration.

• Production Oversight: Balance creative ambitions with technical feasibility, optimizing workflows to meet project objectives. Proactively address challenges, prioritize tasks, and ensure deliverables are completed on time and within budget.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Act as the central communication hub, aligning efforts across design, art, engineering, and production teams. Provide regular updates to leadership and stakeholders, ensuring clear visibility into progress, risks, and solutions.

• Vision Execution: Oversee the creation of concise design documentation, ensuring the creative vision is reflected in all aspects of gameplay and narrative. Collaborate on creative problem-solving to deliver an engaging, high-quality experience.

• Hands-On Development: Actively contribute within Unreal Engine 5 (UE5) by creating rapid prototypes, iterating on ideas, and addressing development challenges directly to support the team and ensure the project stays on track.

Qualifications

• Experience: At least 5 years of game industry experience with a portfolio of shipped multi-platform games, showcasing expertise in both game design and production leadership.

• Visionary Leadership: Proven ability to lead teams and external partners, guiding a project from concept to completion with a balance of creativity and executional rigor.

• Production Expertise: Strong understanding of game development pipelines, with experience using tools like Jira, Miro, and Confluence. Ability to manage workflows and align cross-disciplinary teams.

• Creative & Cultural Insight: Deep knowledge of Chinese mythology and the ability to integrate its themes into gameplay and narrative design.

• Communication Skills: Exceptional written and verbal communication abilities, with a track record of collaborating effectively across diverse teams and presenting to stakeholders.

• Technical Expertise: Advanced proficiency in Unreal Engine 5 (UE5), with a strong understanding of its tools, systems, and workflows, including rapid prototyping and problem-solving within the engine.

• Organizational Skills: Highly organized and capable of managing multiple tasks, deadlines, and priorities while maintaining attention to detail.

Salary Range

$110,000 - $150,000 per year salary is based on experience

Benefits

• Health Insurance: Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage.

• Retirement Plans: 401(k) with company match.

• Paid Time Off: Generous PTO policy including vacation days with separate sick leave and holidays.