Senior Gameplay Designer (Combat & AI)

Are you on a mission to create games that bond players together into deeply invested communities? Do you spend your time thinking about how to build combat puzzles for players that have potential to create memorable teamplay moments? Are you excited to make gameplay that strongly cares about player intention, action game feel, and readability?

We are seeking a highly technical, creative, and team-oriented Senior Sandbox Designer to contribute to a new multiplayer action game on teamLFG. You will work closely with the entire Design Team designing, crafting, and implementing a robust suite of AI characters for use in an objective-based team game. You will collaborate with team members from other disciplines to drive cohesive gameplay vision. You will establish good design processes and evangelize them throughout the design team. Most importantly, you will work with a fun, dedicated, and cross discipline team devoted to turning a creative dream into a new franchise at PlayStation.

RESPONSIBILITIES

An active member of a cross-discipline small team building new AI enemies, player objectives, and the core systems that enable the creation of future AI, such as navigation, perception, behavior, and combat prioritization

Create and balance a suite of active and passive player items that can extend and amplify player base kits and act as meaningful inter-match upgrades

Review content created by multiple disciplines, giving feedback to ensure competitive readability, best in class game feel, and compelling fantasies

Create and maintain endearing characters that uphold IP quality, consistency, along with sandbox design principles

Work with audio, effects, 3D and animation to make in-game gameplay affordances clear to players

REQUIRED SKILLS

Intuitive understanding of how second-to-second action games work and why people play them

Fluency for collaboration with designers, artists, programmers, audio professionals, quality assurance and producers to achieve a common goal, with adaptability for how to work in a flexible work environment

Broad T-shaped rapid prototyping skills, with strong technical scripting ability and enough multi-disciplinary knowledge to quickly stub out gameplay ideas to evaluate their potential

Strong understanding of combat animation; is experienced in discussing anticipation, follow through, character and timing, and their impact on game readability and balance

Proven ability to build alignment and productively own feature direction without sacrificing empathy and collaboration with team contributors

Ability to operate autonomously and handle ambiguity, including giving and receiving feedback despite that ambiguity

Understanding of PvP game design and balance, getting the challenge level right for a wide variety of situations

Understanding of how systemically consistent, combinatoric game design can create player surprise and laughter

Outstanding oral and written communication skills

PREFERRED EXPERIENCE

Experience as a Sandbox/Gameplay Designer on a multiplayer action game, designing, documenting, and building combat/character systems

Experience delegating work or ownership of an area to multi-disciplinary peers

Knowledge and perspective from playing competitive team games

At SIE, we consider several factors when setting each role’s base pay range, including the competitive benchmarking data for the market and geographic location.

Please note that the base pay range may vary in line with our hybrid working policy and individual base pay will be determined based on job-related factors which may include knowledge, skills, experience, and location.

In addition, this role is eligible for SIE’s top-tier benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, matching 401(k), paid time off, wellness program and coveted employee discounts for Sony products. This role also may be eligible for a bonus package. Click here to learn more.

This is a flexible role that can be remote, with varying pay ranges based on geographic location. For example, if you are based out of Seattle, the estimated base pay range for this role is listed below.

$118,000 — $177,000 USD

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