Senior Level Designer

Who We Are:

Ghost Story Games is a self-publishing game development studio founded by Ken Levine (Creative Director of System Shock 2, Bioshock, and Bioshock Infinite) and former Irrational Games developers. The studio’s mission is to create narrative-driven experiences rooted in immersive world building and gameplay.

The Challenge:

Ghost Story Games is seeking a talented Senior Level Designer to join us on Judas, the highly anticipated game led by Ken Levine (System Shock 2, BioShock series). Unique in its bold, creative vision, Judas is also built upon novel technology by which the visual world, gameplay, and story unfolds in meaningful, dynamic ways. The result is a significant and personal journey adapted to each player’s experience and offers a new approach to the art and storytelling of video games.

The ideal candidate has multiple years of experience designing levels for first-person shooters and is ready to take on ownership responsibilities. In this role, you will be crafting dynamic gameplay experiences within a rich environment, leading design initiatives, and mentoring team members. Responsibilities include developing and overseeing level-design layouts, scripting events, tuning AI encounters, creating comprehensive design documentation, and championing all things gameplay-related for specific features or areas of the game.

What You’ll Take On:

• Work with lead designer and lead environment artist on level-design layouts, gameplay setup, encounter scripting, design documentation and all things gameplay-related, providing guidance and feedback to other designers.
• Work alongside other designers, artists, animators and engineers to create gameplay spaces that engage with our narrative storytelling while being fun and running within optimization goals, and take ownership of key gameplay features from concept to implementation.
• Work within established level-design metrics and game systems to create challenging encounters, interesting scenarios and unique moments, identifying and addressing design challenges proactively.
• Pitch ideas, strategic initiatives and game concepts to all levels of management and leadership, articulating the vision and securing buy-in for owned features.
• Champion your vision throughout each stage of development, across multiple departments, acting as a primary point of contact for your owned features.
• Implement level-design changes based on in-house feedback and outside playtesting data, and drive iterative improvements for your features.
• Mentor and provide guidance to level designers, contributing to their professional growth and development.
• Oversee specific level or gameplay feature areas, ensuring quality and consistency across the game.

What You Bring:

• 5+ years’ experience as a level designer, with at least 1 shipped FPS title, demonstrating a strong portfolio of impactful design contributions.
• Previous experience working on scripting and design for levels, combat encounters and missions/quests in FPS titles, with a proven track record of bringing features to completion.
• Deep understanding of good level flow and tactical spaces, and the ability to apply this knowledge to guide others.
• Experience with supporting environmental storytelling through design, and the capacity to lead narrative integration within levels.
• Strong spatial and layout design skills, with the ability to effectively communicate and review designs.
• Experienced in supporting gameplay mechanics in the game world, and the ability to drive the implementation of new mechanics.
• Experience with scripting events and debugging game logic, and a strong understanding of technical constraints and best practices.
• Intuitive understanding of how FPS games work and why people play them, enabling effective feature design and team guidance.
• Strong content-design skills, including experience with RPG systems, and the ability to integrate complex systems into level design.
• Self-motivated toward solving creative problems, with a proactive approach to identifying and addressing design challenges.
• Ability to respond elegantly to difficult creative changes, often late in the process, and lead the team through such changes.
• Ability to prioritize feature requests to developers and engineers based on design goals, and manage feature backlogs effectively.
• Unreal Engine 4 experience, with strong proficiency in its tools and pipelines.
• Must be eligible to work in the U.S.

Great to Have:

• Great working knowledge of game-design theory and game-development methodologies, including level-design theory and practice, with the ability to articulate and apply these principles.
• Can easily break down core level-design elements and use them when creating combat and traversal sections of a level, and guide other designers in this process.
• Self-motivated and able to work well independently, as well as lead small teams or feature groups.
• Ability to work well under pressure and with deadlines, managing competing priorities and ensuring timely delivery of features.
• Excellent communication, collaboration, interpersonal and organizational skills, with the ability to effectively communicate design decisions to diverse audiences and foster a collaborative environment.
• Understanding of source control via Perforce or equivalent, and best practices for collaborative development.

When Applying For This Position:

Please watch the following GDC talk given by Ken Levine: http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1020434/Narrative