Lead World/Level Designer

Company: 2K Games, Inc.
Location: San Mateo
Posted on: January 20, 2023

Job Description:

WE ARE GAMEMAKERSWho we are:We are a diverse team of developers driven by a passion for our art, united by our core values and inspired by a culture of inclusivity to build amazing games that thrill players everywhere. We pursue growth and innovation in an environment of safety and trust. Our culture is built on the belief that the more varied voices in our collective will strengthen our team and our games. We are looking for our next teammate who will raise our bar and make us better.What we need:31st Union is seeking a Lead World/Level Designer who can dig deep into each stage of the Level Design process, create inspiring worlds and spaces, and apply technical & creative passion to constantly improve the game through an iterative process, all while growing and mentoring a team of Level Designers to do their very best work. Come and help us build the future of Multiplayer Action games!Responsibilities:

• Design, pitch, & hone world spaces/levels from inception to completion to post-launch. Examine desired player experience goals and introduce designs that help support and enhance that experience
• Be an equal voice within the design team for making both large- and small-scale decisions throughout the project
• Collaborate with studio and creative leadership to develop world vision;evangelize that vision with other teams leads: art, audio, UI, etc.
• Own map ideas from inception to completion. This includes pitching ideas in their infancy to fine-tuning post-launch. We emphasize a culture of trust, and with that trust comes both responsibility & accountability
• Daily hands-on engine work to bring ideas to life
• Review content and mentor Level Designers to produce their best work
• Establish high-level pipelines, metrics, and practices within the design team
• Work with production to cost and plan world development schedulesWho you are:You're a highly experienced World/Level Designer with multiple shipped titles under your belt. You're comfortable not just building map content off an established template, but also figuring out what that template is in the first place. Our ideal candidate has proven experience building world spaces across all phases of development and is excited to build a world from the ground up.Required experience:
  • Experience in creating Multiplayer Action games a MUST
  • 5+ years' experience and preferably 1+ title in a Lead position
  • Comfortable guiding and mentoring content creators, laying out development targets, writing guides and standard processes, enabling growth and support within the team
  • Experience working with production to estimate and cost out development schedules
  • Experience with modern game engines (Unreal, Unity, etc.)
  • Proven track record of building high-quality maps, levels, or worlds
  • Rock-solid understanding of interplay between systems and world spaces; can take a set of systems or player abilities and build spaces that highlight those abilities in interesting and creative ways
  • Familiar with fundamental world-building concepts: flow, landmarking, scale, visibility, metrics, etc. Can thoughtfully critique and evaluate 3D spaces.
  • Understanding of how art, color, lighting, composition, etc. can complement gameplay design
  • Comfortable with rapid iteration based off feedback from many sources: peer review, data analytics, player surveys, etc. Capable of filtering large volumes of feedback into concrete and useful improvements. Clear understanding of the iterative level design process from inception all the way to post-ship support.Relevant experience:
    • Preferred Spaces: AAA / action / shooter / MP
    • Some experience programming, both code & visual scripting (C++, C#, etc. - Blueprint, Kismet, etc.)
    • A passion for diversity & representation in games & game development
    • A self-starter who can align with the teams goals but isnt hesitant to create solutions on their own
    • Ability to iterate & collaborate under deadlines & production constraints
    • Backgrounds in art/architecture/CS/etc. a plusJoin our mission: Bring fun, inspiration, and awe to our lives and to our community:SECURITY NOTICE - We have recently been made aware of increasing occurrences of bad actors posing as company HR personnel to gain information from "potential candidates", in the form of job interviews and offers. These scams can be quite sophisticated and appear legitimate.Please know that 31st Union and 2K never uses instant messaging apps to contact prospective employees or to conduct interviews.If you believe you have been a victim of such a scam, you may fill out a complaint form atand detailing as much as possible. We are taking these matters very seriously and apologize for any inconvenience.Join our mission: Bring fun, inspiration and awe to our lives and to our community:#LI-REMOTE

Keywords: 2K Games, Inc., San Mateo , Lead World/Level Designer, Other , San Mateo, California