Lead Game Systems Designer

Summary

Become the primary vision holder and hands-on contributor for all systems in an open world action-adventure game. Lead a team of multi-disciplinary specialists to deliver intuitive, deep, and novel systems that support long-term player investment and emergent fun.

Responsibilities

• Drive the design and implementation of all game-wide systems.
• Establish a vision for progression, rewards, customization, economy, UX, and systems-driven content that serves the player fantasies and creative direction, then evangelize that vision to the broader team.
• Coordinate with gameplay, activity, mission, and open world design leads to integrate deep and diverse features into a coherent and accessible experience.
• Rally designers, engineers, artists, and external co-dev partners to deliver playable progress at regular intervals as part of a rapid iterative process.
• Incorporate feedback from peers, playtests, and senior leadership to refine, rebalance, and pivot as the game demands.
• Partner with community, user research, and marketing teams to develop and refine systems that drive long-term player excitement and engagement.
• Coordinate with quality assurance to develop longform playtests in continuous reevaluation of metagame systems.
• Go beyond documentation and management to lead from the trenches, with hands-on contributions to playable game systems at every level.
  
  

Qualifications

• 5 or more years of experience designing systems for action games.
• Awareness of casual gamers' needs and ability to reduce barriers to entry with accessible systems and intuitive UX.
• Deep understanding of virtual world economies and how to design sustainably for long-term player chase and investment.
• Narrative sensibilities and vision to design systems that immerse players in an authored fictional world, while empowering them to forge their own emergent experiences.
• Recent experience with direct implementation in the form of visual scripting, balance tuning, or other individual contributions.
• Excellent communication, interpersonal, and leadership skills.
• Innovative thinker with creative problem-solving skills who thrives in a collaborative team environment.
• Multiplayer progression, economy, or social systems design experience is a plus.
• Experience designing non-combatant social NPC behavior is a plus.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary teams is a plus.
• Experience designing longform metagame testing is a plus.
• Experience working with co-development partners is a plus.
• Experience in UE4 or UE5 is a plus.
  
  

Description

• Full time job with benefits
• Role is on-site in Santa Monica, CA
• Office is located near downtown Santa Monica – near metro and freeways
  
  

The base pay range for this position is $125,000 to $165,000 per year. Actual compensation is based on market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. We also offer a competitive package of benefits including paid time off, sick time, company holidays, parental leave, medical/dental/vision insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, and 401(k) to regular full-time employees. Certain roles may also be eligible for bonus and equity.

About Absurd Ventures

Absurd Ventures is a media company creating new IP across all platforms and for all formats. Absurd Ventures is building narrative worlds, creating characters, and writing stories for a variety of genres, without regard to medium, to be produced for live-action and animation; video games and other interactive content; books, graphic novels, and scripted podcasts.