Blackbird Interactive
Summary
Blackbird Interactive is looking for a Lead Technical Designer to join their growing studio. The role involves improving gameplay content authoring tools, prototyping, implementing, and iterating on game content, collaborating with artists and designers, and mentoring and directing other technical designers. The ideal candidate should have 7+ years of experience in game development (with at least 3 years of Technical Design experience), 1+ years of experience leading a team of designers, and confidence and familiarity with modern gameplay scripting. This role offers a four-day work week, mentorship program, skunkworks internal game jam program, 4 weeks paid vacation per year, 11 paid stat holidays, 3 paid days per year for professional development, comprehensive health/dental benefits, life insurance, $300 Healthcare Spending Account per annum, RRSP matching, and a profit-sharing bonus program.
Job description
Blackbird Interactive is a creative-fueled, future-driven, independent game studio where the best talent in the industry can find long-term careers to help grow their abilities while working on a wide range of projects, which encompass world-class IPs as well as our own creations across multiple genres.
In 2022, we announced that our studio is implementing a four-day work week as well as supporting in-studio, remote within Canada, and hybrid work arrangements as permanent options to our employees.
Blackbird Interactive is looking for a Lead Technical Designer to join our growing studio. We have an exciting new project, and are looking for a key hire to drive the technical design in the development of a new, cooperative multiplayer focused exploration & crafting game.
Do you want to build compelling game experiences including gameplay prototypes, high profile gameplay systems, campaign content, and the tools needed to craft these experiences? Do you love working with a team of talented designers, artists, and programmers to improve their workflow and tools to help create ambitious in-game content? If so, this role could be for you!.
Responsibilities
- Work to improve gameplay content authoring tools, identify and maintain best practices, and help lay the groundwork for gameplay systems and scripting before handing off to the Designers for the final tuning and polish.
- Prototype, implement, and iterate on game content such as the core gameplay experience, event hooks for narrative and audio content, scripted sequences, tutorial/help systems, and bug fixing.
- Collaborate with both artists and designers on ways to improve the gameplay implementation to take advantage of existing technology and drive to the best end result possible.
- Work with producers and team leadership to assess requirements and provide effort estimates and updates to help ensure the team reaches its goals successfully.
- Help mentor and direct other technical designers to achieve their career goals, as well as coordinating their efforts across multiple developers to achieve our product goals.
Requirements
- 7+ years of experience in game development (with at least 3 years of Technical Design experience).
- 1+ years of experience leading team of designers with a passion for managing, mentoring, and growing their skills and abilities
- Confidence and familiarity with modern gameplay scripting including both text based languages and visual scripting tools.
- Shipped at least one action game.
- Self direction and a proven ability to thrive in a highly dynamic and technical environment.
- Strong interdisciplinary collaboration skills, including verbal and written skills.
Pluses
- Experience developing or playing games featuring procedurally generated content.
- An innovator's heart, keen to create brand new things that haven't been done before.
- A love of contributing to high quality, rich gameplay experiences.
- Demonstrated passion for entertainment products / media (i.e. comics, movies, novels, etc).
Vacation & Extras
+ 4-day, 32-hour work week for all full-time staff
+ Mentorship program
+ Skunkworks internal game jam program
+ 4 weeks paid vacation per year
+ 11 paid stat holidays
+ 3 paid days per year for professional development
+ December holiday studio closure (extra paid time off!)
+ Comprehensive health/dental benefits from day 1
+ Life insurance
+ $300 Healthcare Spending Account per annum
+ RRSP matching
+ Profit-sharing bonus program
If applying for an artistic role, please provide a link to your portfolio and/or demo reel.
Any questions about the role and/or accessibility requests can be sent to: recruitment@blackbirdinteractive.com
Unfortunately, we cannot reply to everyone. Only successful applicants will be contacted about the next steps. Thank you for your understanding.
If you are interested in the role, please apply even if your experience and skills don’t perfectly match our ideal credentials. We are committed to inclusion and especially encourage members of historically marginalized communities to apply. As an equal opportunity employer we encourage applications from all qualified individuals. BBI does not discriminate against applicants based on gender, race, national and ethnic origin, religion, age, sexual orientation, marital and family status, and/or mental or physical disabilities.
Blackbird Interactive is privileged to be developing our projects on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ /Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
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Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Country: Canada
Date found: 2023-02-18