Lead Game Designer

About Star Stable Entertainment

Once upon a time in 2011, the founders of Star Stable Entertainment had a vision. They wanted to create a game that could make a difference. Although half of gamers are girls and women, they were under-represented in the gaming industry, both as characters and creators. We dreamed of an epic online world where tween and teen girls could share an amazing experience. And we wanted to challenge how things were done in a male-dominated industry. Fast forward to today, and our dream has come true tenfold - Star Stable Online stands as one of the most popular MMORPGs globally! At our HQ on Södermalm, our 130 employees are thrilled to continue to welcome players to the island of Jorvik, with its breathtaking scenery, beautiful horses, and magical quests. It’s wonderful to see that our dream resonates with so many players around the world, and we can’t wait to share more stories and experiences with them!

The Position

Star Stable Online is a 14-year-old MMORPG with players ranging across a variety of ages. While the game already has a captivating main storyline, we are committed to ensuring that Jorvik is a world that players can’t wait to return to and spend time in. And this is where you come in. We need to modernize our gameplay for a new generation of gamers, and our new exciting world as a cross-platform game. To help us on this journey, we are looking for a dedicated Game Design Lead who can help us adapt and thrive for another 14 years and beyond!

The Lead Game Designer we are looking for is someone who wants to take our gaming experience to an all-new high. You will be investigating how we can make more meaningful replayable multiplayer content by looking into how we can build out new gameplay systems but also improve upon existing ones.

The Lead Game Designer at Star Stable drives the design work within the project they are in charge of, helping teams turn the creative vision into tangible design that gets into the hands of our players.

Since you’ll be working on a live game, you will have a great opportunity to employ player feedback to enhance the gaming experience continuously.

As the manager, you’ll also be responsible for 1:1s, your reports growth and welcoming new members to the team.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with the director on the vision and the goals for game design craft. Coach the project teams to turn those visions into engaging player experiences.
• Provide design leadership to the team, define tasks and plan workload together with the producer and other stakeholders.
• Drive discovery, production and maintenance phases and other design processes with support from your colleagues.
• Drive collaboration with other disciplines such as art, production and engineering, ensure alignment and cohesion for the overall game experience.
• Spend around 50% of your position doing hands-on design work. Conceptualize, prototype, test and implement gameplay features and systems.
• Contribute to improvements in our design pipelines and strategy.
• Drive documentation of guidelines, workflows and best practices.
• Manage your direct reports through 1:1s, work on their personal development plans and support them on a day-to-day basis.
• Stay up to date with relevant game information such as KPIs, player surveys, new releases and updates to take data-driven decisions.

We think you have

• 7+ years of experience in game design roles, with at least 2 in a leadership position.
• Strong knowledge of commercial and proprietary game engines and tools.
• Experience with system design, both in conceptualizing and prototyping.
• An ability to effectively document and convey ideas, complex concepts and design visions.
• Experience working with multiplayer, especially on collaborative mechanics.
• Experience working with live service games is a bonus.
• The ability to use data to qualitatively inform design decisions.
• Experience in a leadership role with the ability to coach individuals and teams on formalizing and delivering tasks.
• A will to advocate for players and company goals and contribute to building a culture of constructive feedback within the design craft.
• A passion for solving problems and overcoming challenges.
• Excellent verbal and written English communication skills.
• Experience in mobile and cross-platform development is considered a big plus.
• A permit to work in Sweden.
• Awesome (but not required!) if you have previous experience with horse riding.

Perks for joining us?

• A pretty sweet mission. We are developing the world's best horse-riding game for girls and we take that vision very seriously. We strive to hit that mark every single day.
• 30 vacation days (+ 3 additional squeeze days).
• A pension and insurance plan that mimics ITP1 and a parental pay top-up @90%.
• Private Health Care
• Health allowance at 5000 SEK per year.
• Hybrid working model - combine WFH and being together with the team at our new office located right amidst Södermalm GameDev cluster (Magnus Ladulåsgatan 65)
• Fitness discount of 18% at SATS gym + company workout classes.
• A dog room at the office!