Senior Metagame Designer
About the job
Summary
As a Senior Metagame Designer at Sumo Digital Nottingham, you'll be a key member of the design team for a new horror title. Your primary responsibility will be owning and driving the meta and social experience, designing and implementing features that ensure long-term player engagement. This involves creating detailed documentation for meta features (progression, economy), collaborating with other designers and departments, and providing feedback to ensure alignment with overall game goals. You will lead a sub-team, overseeing the implementation of approved designs, mentoring junior designers, and acting as an advocate for meta and social design within the broader team. Experience with live ops/GAAS titles and social systems is essential, along with a strong understanding of metagame design principles and current industry trends. A passion for the horror genre is highly desirable.
Must have:
- Experience with live ops/GAAS metagame features from concept to delivery
- Experience designing multiple social systems for commercial titles
- Strong grasp of metagame and social feature design principles
- Knowledge of best practices and developing trends in the field
Good to have:
- Experience with multiplayer games and PC/Console titles
Perks:
- Annual bonus
- Flexible benefits allowance
- Salary sacrifice pension
- Employee referral scheme
- Flexible working
- 21+ free choice days holiday
- Birthday off
- Duvet days
- Christmas shutdown
- Dental insurance
- Income protection
- Life assurance
- BUPA private healthcare (optional)
- EAP programs
- Structured Personal Development tool
- Regular appraisals
- Annual salary reviews
- Access to Udemy
- Learning days
- Regular care packages
- Studio days out
- Studio social activities
- Sabbaticals (after 10 years)
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About Sumo Digital, Nottingham
Since 2016, Sumo Nottingham has been known for crafting inclusive, innovative action and racing titles for console and PC. Bringing together industry veterans with the best new talent in the industry, the studio delivered Team Sonic Racing in 2019 and is now working on a diverse and exciting mix of new projects.
The studio’s vision is to create AAA games with innovation, character and accessibility at their very core – strengths that have seen them named as one of the ‘Best Places to Work’ in the Best Companies regional table for the East Midlands.
Day in the life of a Senior Metagame Designer:
As part of the design team on a brand-new horror title, you will own the meta and social experience, creating designs and leading their implementation to deliver features that support overall project vision and provide a compelling and engaging long-term experience for players that keeps them coming back to the game for days, weeks, months and beyond.
In this role, you will collaborate with other Designers and other departments, and take direction from the Project Design Director and Lead Product Manager on creative and Live Ops goals for the game. You will act as an evangelist for the meta and social experience and game design more broadly to the rest of the team.
Day to day, you will provide clear, concise documentation outlining vision and specification for meta features (such as game progression and economy), and social features. You will seek out feedback to refine your work, and ensure it aligns with other systems and features in the game. You will also provide Designers with feedback on other game systems to ensure they support the long term player experience and social goals.
Once designs are approved, you will act as owner for their implementation, overseeing a sub-team working on the feature and providing guidance and feedback to ensure their delivery to meet time and quality goals. You may also be required to mentor more junior Designers.
Please note, you will need to be UK based for this role. Onsite, hybrid or remote basis offered within the UK.
What you need to do this job:
• Experience of working on the metagame for at least one live ops/GAAS title, ideally having owned the metagame features from concept through to delivery.
• Experience working on multiple social systems for at least one commercial title.
• A strong grasp of metagame and social feature design principles.
• Extensive knowledge of best practice and developing trends in the area. You will regularly play current live ops titles and ideally have a passion for the horror genre.
• It would be a bonus to have experience working on multiplayer games and PC/Console titles.
The Interview Process:
At Sumo Nottingham, we want a holistic and engaging interview process that allows us to get to know you, your skills and your potential. For the Senior Metagame Designer role, we have a 3 stage interview process:
1st Stage: Here we will talk with you about your experience and skills, our expectations in the role and ask some competency based questions. There will, of course, be opportunities for you to ask questions!
2nd Stage: This is a great chance for you to meet some more of the team here at Sumo Nottingham and will be more of a culture based interview.
3rd Stage: This will be your final interview and will be a great chance to ask any questions regarding the role, project and team. This interview will be a mixture of competency and culture!
What’s in it for you?
Sumo understands the importance of having control over your benefits. That's why we offer a flexible, personalised benefits package designed to meet your unique needs, no matter where you are in your career.
My Money: Annual bonus, flexible benefits allowance (to purchase add-on benefits marked*), salary sacrifice pension, employee referral scheme (up to £1,000), financial/home buying consultations, workplace ISA and other schemes for tech loans, cars, bicycles and much more!
My Lifestyle: Flexible working, 21 free choice days holiday, bank holidays, birthday off, a duvet day raising to 4 with service, Christmas shutdown (Christmas Eve to New Year), options to buy or sell +5/-5 days annual leave*.
My Health and Wellbeing: Dental insurance, income protection, life assurance, BUPA private healthcare*, leading EAP programs (Remote GP, Mental Health and Physio appointments), critical illness cover*, health cash plan* and funded flu vaccines/eye tests.
My Development: Structured Personal Development tool, regular appraisals, annual salary reviews, access to Udemy learning platform, 5 learning days per annum (1 can be used as a volunteer day), award-winning L&D team and yearly attendance to the Sumo Developers Conference (link to video).
Extra Perks: A variety of in-studio perks, regular care packages, regular studio days out (family welcome), studio-led social activities (game jams, yoga, life drawing and more), sabbaticals (at 10 years service) and an annual gaming subscription.
*These benefits are part of our flexible benefits options and are opt-in selections.
Inclusion and Belonging at Sumo Digital:
We are dedicated to growing a sustainable business that provides security to our people while delivering a first-class experience to our partners and players.
As a people business, the success of our people is the success of our company. We prioritise taking care of them with a focus on supporting them, nurturing their talent and providing a healthy, friendly, enriching, creative and safe environment in which to work.
Sumo's employee diversity group, PRISM, exists to promote diversity, inclusion, equity, equality & wellbeing across the company and plays a key role in Sumo's ongoing goal of fostering environments where all employees feel safe, welcome & represented.
Our charitable and community initiatives provide support for meaningful causes that matter to our employees, clients and partners.
We continue to work to improve diversity in our recruitment and promotion processes, and to actively encourage people from marginalised groups to consider a career in the games industry.
The Interview Process:
At Sumo Nottingham, we want a holistic and engaging interview process that allows us to get to know you, your skills and your potential. For the Senior Metagame Designer role, we have a 3 stage interview process:
1st Stage: Here we will talk with you about your experience and skills, our expectations in the role and ask some competency based questions. There will, of course, be opportunities for you to ask questions!
2nd Stage: This is a great chance for you to meet some more of the team here at Sumo Nottingham and will be more of a culture based interview.
3rd Stage: This will be your final interview and will be a great chance to ask any questions regarding the role, project and team. This interview will be a mixture of competency and culture!
What’s in it for you?
Sumo understands the importance of having control over your benefits. That's why we offer a flexible, personalised benefits package designed to meet your unique needs, no matter where you are in your career.
My Money: Annual bonus, flexible benefits allowance (to purchase add-on benefits marked*), salary sacrifice pension, employee referral scheme (up to £1,000), financial/home buying consultations, workplace ISA and other schemes for tech loans, cars, bicycles and much more!
My Lifestyle: Flexible working, 21 free choice days holiday, bank holidays, birthday off, a duvet day raising to 4 with service, Christmas shutdown (Christmas Eve to New Year), options to buy or sell +5/-5 days annual leave*.
My Health and Wellbeing: Dental insurance, income protection, life assurance, BUPA private healthcare*, leading EAP programs (Remote GP, Mental Health and Physio appointments), critical illness cover*, health cash plan* and funded flu vaccines/eye tests.
My Development: Structured Personal Development tool, regular appraisals, annual salary reviews, access to Udemy learning platform, 5 learning days per annum (1 can be used as a volunteer day), award-winning L&D team and yearly attendance to the Sumo Developers Conference (link to video).
Extra Perks: A variety of in-studio perks, regular care packages, regular studio days out (family welcome), studio-led social activities (game jams, yoga, life drawing and more), sabbaticals (at 10 years service) and an annual gaming subscription.
*These benefits are part of our flexible benefits options and are opt-in selections.
Inclusion and Belonging at Sumo Digital:
We are dedicated to growing a sustainable business that provides security to our people while delivering a first-class experience to our partners and players.
As a people business, the success of our people is the success of our company. We prioritise taking care of them with a focus on supporting them, nurturing their talent and providing a healthy, friendly, enriching, creative and safe environment in which to work.
Sumo's employee diversity group, PRISM, exists to promote diversity, inclusion, equity, equality & wellbeing across the company and plays a key role in Sumo's ongoing goal of fostering environments where all employees feel safe, welcome & represented.
Our charitable and community initiatives provide support for meaningful causes that matter to our employees, clients and partners.
We continue to work to improve diversity in our recruitment and promotion processes, and to actively encourage people from marginalised groups to consider a career in the games industry.
View Full Job Description
About The Company
Founded in 2003, and celebrating its 20th Anniversary this year, award-winning Sumo Digital employs over 1,200 people globally in the UK, Europe, India and Canada.
Our 17 studios are in Sheffield, Nottingham, Newcastle (Atomhawk and Sumo Newcastle), Brighton (The Chinese Room), Leeds (Red Kite Games), Leamington Spa (Sumo Leamington, Lab42 & Midoki), Warrington in the UK, Pune and Bangalore in India, Wroclaw, Poland and Czech Republic (PixelAnt) and Vancouver, Canada (Atomhawk and Timbre Games).
Developing successful games across all platforms and genres, Sumo is recognised for its versatility, proprietary technology and creativity across a portfolio of games featuring titles for major publishers including Microsoft, Sony, Sega and 2K.
Sumo Digital is part of Sumo Group Ltd.
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