Game Designer, Systems

Duration: Full-Time

Location: Remote; must be able to work in Canada

A Hinterland experience is one that marries strong systems-driven gameplay with player-authored narrative, wrapped in a thoughtful world and populated by compelling characters with strong narratives of their own.

We are looking for an experienced systems designer to join the BLACKFROST team, developing the Unreal Engine 5-powered sequel to the benchmark Survival game, THE LONG DARK. The focus of this project is to create a strongly dynamic gameplay sandbox that encourages exploration and problem-solving within a heavy framework of open-world survival gameplay, with a focus on creating compelling game systems for both solo and co-op play.

The project is in the pre-launch stage working towards Early Access, and you will join a multi-disciplinary team working under the direct leadership of the studio Creative Director. Your direct manager will be the Design Director. 

The gameplay approach is iterative based on evolving the successful formula from THE LONG DARK, while also innovating in key new areas that will help establish the gameplay foundation for 10+ years of ongoing development. We are looking for a system designer who thrives within a clear exploratory framework, while working towards shared goals and a high-level vision articulated by the director. You will be hands-on in-engine, implementing systems in collaboration with a multi-disciplinary gameplay team comprised of programmers, artists, animators, UI/UX designers, and more. It is likely that you will own multiple game systems and become the design team point of contact for these systems. 

An example of gameplay systems you might work in include: skills and progression, wildlife AI, resource distribution and balancing, inventory and gear items, 3Cs (Camera, Controls, Character), first-person interactions, and a host of other survival systems you would be familiar with from playing THE LONG DARK or other survival games.

The ideal candidate has a wealth of experience designing gameplay systems for survival, sandbox, immersive sim, open-world, or role-playing games, with a particular expertise around building heavily systems-focused mechanics in sandbox contexts. We are particularly interested in candidates who have worked on ongoing Early Access and “open development” projects, but an understanding of how to achieve quality and a proven ability to innovate are more important than the scope of projects you have been involved with. Obviously, experience in the Survival genre would be a significant advantage. 

We are open to designers from either triple-A or more “indie” studio contexts, but tend to favour the autonomy and scrappiness that comes from the more autonomous-minded and generalist designers who succeed in the independent space. That said, we are looking for personal and professional qualities that transcend specific work contexts or project scales. We care more about what you can do than about where you have worked before.

Your ability to think deeply and broadly, be hands-on in-engine while respecting team workflows, ask good questions within a dynamic information environment, commit to your work and contribute both autonomously and collaboratively, work to a specific direction and take feedback well, and a dedication to constant communication and iteration are all critical for this role. 

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.
• Proven 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 Range:

$90,000 - 105,000 CAD

Hinterland is an equal employer and as a remote-first organization, we hire the best talent globally. To ensure we are equitable and fair, the salary range listed above is provided as a gauge and is indexed specifically to candidates based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, where our studio is headquartered. This range represents multiple skill levels, as we encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply with us, acknowledging that cultural disparities historically disadvantage non-white and non-male applicants. The range is generated based on research using a combination of publicly and privately available data. We take a holistic approach to compensation and consider factors such as skills, experience, and cost of living, to ensure we pay fairly and equitably within our team. This means we may modify the range based on the candidate's location. In addition to an annual salary, we have no probationary period, and all employees receive our health & wellness benefits package on their first day.