Game Designer, Gameplay Systems

1 Month ago • All levels • Gameplay • $90,000 PA - $105,000 PA

Job Summary

Job Description

As a Game Designer, Gameplay Systems, you will be part of a cross-disciplinary gameplay team to design, implement, and tune game systems. Your primary responsibility will be to own the design and implementation of multiple systems, ensuring player satisfaction and long-term engagement. You will work within a remote-first, high-autonomy framework, collaborating with the Design Director and other disciplines to translate game direction into tangible, well-documented systems. This role requires extensive experience in game systems design, strong communication and documentation skills, and hands-on experience with prototyping, scripting, and tuning within the Unreal Engine.
Must have:
  • Several years of gameplay system design experience in high-quality open-world games
  • Great communication and written documentation skills
  • Comfortable with asynchronous collaboration
  • Experience with prototyping new gameplay systems
  • Proven ability to work within the Unreal Engine
  • Extensive collaboration with programmers, animators, and artists
  • Hands-on scripting and tuning experience
  • Wide expertise in gameplay systems design
  • Analysis skills for playtest and analytics data
  • Production experience shipping games using Unreal
Good to have:
  • Deep expertise in 3Cs, AI, progression, levels, encounters, gear, skills, or UI
Perks:
  • Remote-first work environment
  • High-autonomy, high-accountability framework
  • Focus on work-life balance
  • No Crunch studio
  • Generous benefits and vacation time (5+ weeks paid time off)
  • Family-first studio with support tools
  • Optional physical studio in Vancouver

Job Details

Art

Game Designer, Gameplay Systems (BLACKFROST)

Remote

Duration: Full-Time

Location: Remote; must be able to work in Canada


Your Impact Will Be:

You will work within a cross-disciplinary gameplay team to help originate and prove systems in support of the project mandate. You will own the design and implementation of multiple systems, including tuning and bug fixing. Over the lifetime of the project, you will help ensure the team and project find success through the implementation of highly dynamic game systems. Your systems will make players happy and keep them engaged for years on end.

What You’ll Be Responsible For:

Commitment to a remote-first work environment, with an emphasis on working within a high-autonomy, high-accountability framework. You must be dedicated to nurturing excellent communication and collaboration with your team-mates using tools like Basecamp, GoogleDocs, and Zoom.

Collaborating with the Design Director to design, implement, and test novel gameplay systems in service to the intended player experience.

Work under the direct guidance of the Design Director who will supervise and support your daily work.

Translate the game direction into tangible systems which can be documented, tested, evaluated, tuned, and refined.

Documenting a wide range of game systems in sufficient detail to support cross-disciplinary collaboration, and maintaining this documentation over the lifetime of the project.

Provided deep analysis around game systems, taking a research-orientated approach to systems design.

Collaborating with team members across all disciplines to ensure the systems successfully answer the Creative Director’s intentions for gameplay, and charts a clear path for further development.

Engaging in thoughtful dialogue with team members to ensure a strongly collaborative, respectful development mindset and process.

Proactively seeking feedback from the Design Director, being responsive to queries, and generally being an active participant in the development process without “going dark”.

Your Skills and Qualifications Should Include:

Several years of gameplay system design experience in high-quality open-world games.

Great communication skills. You must be able to write and speak very well, as communication is at the heart of collaboration.

Great written documentation skills. You must be organized and diligent about keeping your documentation up to date.

You must be comfortable with written communication, and not rely solely on real-time chat or video calls, as the team is spread across multiple time zones so asynchronous collaboration is critical to our success.

Experience with prototyping new gameplay systems.

Proven ability to work within the Unreal Engine, in collaboration with other disciplines, to test and execute compelling game systems.

Extensive experience collaborating with programmers, animators, and artists.

Experience with hands-on scripting and tuning. This is not a “paper designer” role. All Hinterland designers are expected to put their hands on the game and contribute with implementation, tuning, and bug fixing.

Wide expertise with the full gamut of gameplay systems design, and deep expertise in one or more of the following: 3Cs, AI, progression, levels, encounters, gear, skills, UI, etc.

Analysis skills. You must be able to parse incoming playtest and analytics data and make wise and informed decisions about how to improve the experience.

Production experience shipping games using Unreal.

Salary: $90,000-105,000 CAD

Apply Now

ABOUT HINTERLAND

Interest in working at Hinterland, but don’t see a job posting that matches your skills and experience?

Don’t worry about it. We’re a world-class team and we want to work with the best people out there. If you’re one of the best, shoot us a message – we’d love to hear from you. We might not have a place for you at the moment, but you never know what the future might bring. Please send your portfolio, LinkedIn profile, and a short note explaining why we should hire you.

Apply Now

ABOUT HINTERLAND

Interest in working at Hinterland, but don’t see a job posting that matches your skills and experience?

Don’t worry about it. We’re a world-class team and we want to work with the best people out there. If you’re one of the best, shoot us a message – we’d love to hear from you. We might not have a place for you at the moment, but you never know what the future might bring. Please send your portfolio, LinkedIn profile, and a short note explaining why we should hire you.

Apply Now

ABOUT HINTERLAND

In an industry not known for taking care of its people, Hinterland strives to be different. We believe that the diversity, points of view, experience, and individual backgrounds of our team members contribute to a rich mosaic that helps us create better experiences, and helps those experiences reach a wider audience.

Hinterland is an equal-opportunity employer. We encourage applicants from all backgrounds to apply for our positions, regardless of ethnicity, social class, sexual orientation or identity, or religious affiliation. We value seniority and experience for our senior and leadership roles, but are always looking for ways to bring diverse viewpoints and experiences from across the spectrum of entertainment and technology.

We embrace a flexible working environment that focuses on high-autonomy balanced against high personal accountability. All our positions are remote-first, focused on finding the best fit for culture and talent. This remote-first flexibility is balanced with a physical studio in Vancouver, which is optionally available (COVID-permitting) to anyone on the team who wants to use it. We strengthen our team bond through offsite retreats, where we focus on creating memories together. We feel this balance of remote and in-person opportunities creates the strongest alloy for our culture.

We encourage everyone on the team to find balance between work and life, and never ask anyone to compromise one for the other. We are a No Crunch studio. We have high expectations of the level of commitment and the quality of the work done by our team, and trust everyone to manage their own schedule and workload. We offer a generous bundle of benefits and vacation time, and strongly encourage our team members to enjoy the 5+ weeks of paid time off we offer annually. We are a family-first studio and offer a range of tools to support our team and their growing families.

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About The Company

We are a diverse group of game creators who care as much about how we make things, as what we make. We care about our worlds, our players, and our people. We believe passion for work and balance in life are not only compatible ideas, but are symbiotic. If you want to help craft the future of interactive entertainment, join us on our journey.

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