About the Hiring Team

Welcome to Lightspeed LA, the first U.S.-based, AAA game development studio for Tencent Games. Lightspeed LA is focused on building open-world games that emphasize an ambitious living world, sophisticated player-driven gameplay, and mature, thoughtful storytelling. We are developing the first in a series of genre-defining titles.

Why join Lightspeed LA?

For us, it's not only about the exciting, new AAA open world game we're developing but also about team values and studio culture. We foster an open and transparent environment where everyone feels comfortable providing constructive feedback about all aspects of our games.

● We encourage the showing of work that's still in progress.
● We don't attack or question unfinished work, we celebrate its promise.
● We have a No Blame Culture where we blame the problem, not the person.

This is a safe place to fail, and we don't view failure as a negative, but as the natural result of pushing boundaries and trying new things. We create together. We face Challenges Together. We succeed together.

What the Role Entails

At Lightspeed LA, we are developing LAST SENTINEL, an ambitious sci-fi open-world game. We are looking for a Senior Mission Designer who is enthusiastic about contributing towards Mission, Quest, Content, and Ambient Design.

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop mission design concepts and proposals based on the game's overall vision, story, and gameplay mechanics.
• Create detailed mission outlines and documentation, including mission objectives, scripted events, and environmental elements, to provide a roadmap for the game development team.
• Collaborate with game designers, narrative designers, and artists to create engaging and immersive gameplay experiences for players.
• Work with programmers to ensure that implemented content functions as intended.
• Playtest missions to identify and fix design flaws, bugs, and balance issues.
• Iterate on mission designs based on player feedback and analytics to continuously improve the gameplay experience.

Who We Look For

• 7+ years of experience in game design, including senior or lead experience
• Strong critical thinking and analytical skills.
• Design and implement fully realized ambient character behaviors and interactions that bring depth, texture, and believability to a living, breathing world
• Craft ambient content systems that create memorable storytelling moments in a wide emotional range, from tragic to heartfelt, from frightening to cathartic, from thrilling to somber.
• Help drive the vision for zones and theming of game systems
• Evaluate and implement story concepts, step by step gameplay, ecosystems, character concepts, cinematics, and dialog
• Partner closely with other disciplines to ensure that content complements narrative, art, technical and design decisions
• Demonstrate versatile game design skills including documentation, planning, tuning, pacing, systems, rewards, and scripting

Preferred Qualifications

• Expert in establishing high-level ecologies, ecosystems, factions, and AI archetypes
• Experience with modern game engines and visual scripting (Unreal, Unity, etc.)
• A strong technical implementation background
• A passion for mentoring designers
• Shipped at least two AAA games
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience

Why Join Us?

Perks and Benefits:

Just some of the benefits of working with us here at our newly built studio in Irvine, CA.

● Free daily lunch
● Beverages, fresh fruit, and snacks
● 401k with employer match
● Monthly Cell phone bill reimbursement
● Financial wellness sessions
● Flexible spending account
● Team building and company outings
● Parental leave for new parents
● Company paid health insurance
● Life and disability insurance
● Employee assistance program
● Wellness training
● Travel insurance
● Preventive care

If the above sounds like you, or if you'd like to know more about the role, we'd love to hear from you to see if we might be a good fit for each other! Contact us for more information about this exciting opportunity.

Location State(s)

California

The base pay range for this position in the state(s) above is $89,640.0 to $258,120.0 per year. Actual pay is based on market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. A sign on payment, relocation package, and restricted stock units may be provided as part of the compensation package, as well as other medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the specific position offered.

Equal Employment Opportunity at Tencent

As an equal opportunity employer, we firmly believe that diverse voices fuel our innovation and allow us to better serve our users and the community. We foster an environment where every employee of Tencent feels supported and inspired to achieve individual and common goals.