Senior Systems Designer

Who We Are

OtherSide Entertainment is an independent game studio with remote staff throughout North America. Our mission is to create deeply immersive games that draw players into richly imagined worlds; games that empower players to choose their own play-style, making their experience unique and personal; games that encourage players to team up with their friends and weave their own shared narrative; the kind of games that are powered by our players’ vision as much as our own. Together, we aim to evolve the “player-authored” tradition of Ultima Underworld, System Shock, Thief, and Deus Ex – all games developed by the company’s founders, Paul Neurath and Warren Spector.

The Opportunity

We’re hiring a Senior Systems Designer to spearhead the ideation and development of key gameplay systems for a new, open-world sandbox game from the mind of Warren Spector, working closely with our design, art, and engineering teams to identify needs and define best practices. The successful candidate will approach each problem with strong design skills, a keen instinct for gameplay, and consideration for the player’s experience.

Demonstrable skill in developing creature designs is a major plus.

Job Responsibilities

• Write documentation that clearly outlines and defines the system, its intended use, and success criteria.
• Work within Unreal Engine to develop and create working prototypes and define key production deliverables once the system has been reviewed and approved.
• Gather feedback for your features and develop solutions to problems identified by the team.
• Champion best practices regarding player experiences, system documentation, file organization, and asset standards.
• Guide and present details on prototype architecture and provide the engineering team feedback as they optimize your blueprints into efficient code.
• Develop, tune, and manage data to support the intended system.

Requirements

• Minimum of 5 years: Designing, documenting, and prototyping key gameplay systems for a professional team; Implementing in Unreal using Blueprint; Advocating for design best practices using current industry standards; Testing and validating features and outcomes against real users using various methodologies.
• Drive and passion for working on complex problems with a team of dedicated professionals.
• The ability to take the reins and drive the design, implementation, debugging, and polishing of the game’s core gameplay systems.
• Shipped title(s) in Unreal Engine.
• Passion for PC and console games.

Key Bonus Experience

• Creature design/prototyping.
• Animations
• Deep understanding of immersive sims
• Familiarity with UI/UX concepts as they pertain to gameplay systems.

Additional Notes

Our people-first approach to game development celebrates diversity and strives to create a safe and inclusive working environment where everyone is treated equally, with dignity, and with respect. We highly encourage candidates from diverse and under-represented backgrounds to apply, even those that may not directly meet every qualification listed for this role.

Pay Transparency

This is a full-time, remote working role, with competitive compensation and a full suite of benefits available anywhere in the United States. All team members may be asked to occasionally travel for key meetings, as part of their job responsibilities. We're required to include a reasonable estimate of the compensation range for this role. Compensation decisions are dependent on the unique facts and circumstances of each case, but a reasonable estimate of the current base salary range for this role $90,000 - $130,000.

We review and update our salary range bands at OtherSide Entertainment on an annual basis to provide transparency to the expected base salary ranges on our job posts externally as well as internally. All OtherSiders have access to their pay range for their current positions to understand their growth opportunities. Most in-house employee roles also include discretionary variable bonus compensation as well as long-term incentive. Our recruiter will share more details about bonus and LTI for this role in your screening or throughout your interview process as it becomes available. Final compensation determinations are dependent on the unique facts and circumstances of each case and will take into account a wide variety of factors, including but not limited to skill, qualifications, accomplishments, experience, credentials, and business needs. We look forward to and welcome discussion on this topic at any time during the interview process.

OtherSide Entertainment is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities in our job application procedures. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, please contact us.