Principal Systems Designer

About Splash Damage

We believe that games play better with friends. For more than 20 years, we’ve been creating team-based multiplayer experiences that have entertained tens of millions of players all over the world and forged countless new friendships along the way.

Our studio culture is rooted in our open, friendly, and collaborative environment. Our games are made by people from all over the world, from our entry-level Fresh Talent hires to industry veterans, and we believe that fostering that diverse culture is the best way to build both our games and our studio. We have won numerous awards, including a ‘World-Class’ accreditation by Best Companies and being named one of the UK’s 100 Best Large Companies to work for.

Our offices are based in Bromley, UK, and our teams have access to working patterns that work for them.

Benefits

We offer a comprehensive benefits package for you and your family, including:

• On-site and Hybrid working patterns help us spend the right amount of time together
• Substantial performance-related pay system on top of your basic compensation, along with enhanced pension contributions and our life assurance scheme
• Bespoke VISA and relocation packages for you and your family, with support from our team throughout the whole process
• 25 days of holiday and 8 Bank Holidays a year, plus our annual studio closure between Christmas and New Year’s
• Private Medical and Dental Cover for you and your family, along with a 24/7 digital GP service
• Extensive Mental Health support, with Line Manager Mental Health training, a group of Mental Health First-Aiders, and on-site or remote counselling
• Our bespoke Learning and Development course framework to help you grow as an employee, manager, and leader
• Industry-leading fully paid 30 weeks maternity leave & 10 weeks paternity leave

The Role

As Splash Damage’s Principal Systems Designer, you will be responsible for the game design of numerous critical systems of a game, driving end-to-end implementation across the team. You will collaborate with the project leads and other designers to develop gameplay systems that work within the overall vision of the product.
You will work brainstorming, documenting, and implementing gameplay systems and drive the creation of system connections and interactions, and championing the resulting emergent experiences for our players.
You will create systems that encourage long term player engagement and gather playtest data and competitive analysis both quantitative and qualitative, to aid in coming up with solutions that support that engagement.
You will take the role of mentor and coach, supporting other designers on the team, and work with production to assist with planning and estimation of development tasks.
You will regularly be part of peer-reviews and be relied on to give clear critical feedback of those you work with, and correspondingly take on feedback from your team to help each other grow and improve.
To deliver the best player experience, you will be accountable for the testing and refinement of game features, analysing feedback from playtests, and data from game telemetry. You will support game features all the way from prototype to live service.


Essential Skills and Experience

• A passion for making and playing games.
• Deep player empathy, and an understanding of player motivation and behaviour.
• Experience working on large and complex gameplay systems including live game economies, crafting systems, or loot driven systems with large numbers of assets.
• Industry experience in working on systems in live games, focusing on gameplay feel, balance, engagement and retention in a senior role.
• The ability to work autonomously without close supervision.
• Excellent verbal and presentation skills.
• Knowledge of industry trends in genres, gameplay, business models.
• Experience of prototyping gameplay mechanics using UE5, Unity, or similar.
• Skilled in writing clear, concise design documentation.
• Adept at collaborative working.
• Applied maths skills to support systems design, analysis & balance.
• Experience modelling and prototyping game systems in Excel
• Strong problem-solving skills including lateral thinking.

Preferred Skills and Experience

• Experience in creating action, shooter, or MMORPG games.
• Full development cycle within a current or previous generation PC or Console title.
• Unreal Blueprints, or scripting/programming skills.
• Experience of people-management and mentoring.
• Undergraduate degree in Game Design, Computer Science, Product Design, Psychology, or similar field.
• Games-as-a-Service experience, especially use of data to inform design decisions.

Splash Damage is an equal-opportunity employer. We believe our teams create better work when they have a range of perspectives to draw from, and we are committed to creating an an inclusive working environment that celebrates diversity.