Game Designer

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Want to be a part of an indie team bound for success ?
Once Upon a Puppet is an award winning 2.5D puzzle-platforming game, with beautiful 3D graphics, set for release on PC and consoles. It features a mysterious world, a stimulating combination of puzzle-solving and platforming, and a fantastical art style.
This is an opportunity for you to help us forge the story of a puppet’s epic quest through a eerie and unique world of abandoned theater stages. With the team, you'll help direct gameplay and weave an impactful, memorable experience for players to enjoy.

Award at PAX 2017
In September 2017 we were chosen and offered a front row location at PAX West 2017. A video of the playable demo showcased at the conference over the course of the 4 days can be seen by following the link below.
Note: Mechanics shown in video are from 2017. Current 2018 mechanics have gone through incremental after PAX improvements.
Once Upon a Puppet - PAX Gameplay Video

Who are we looking for ?
We are looking for a wildly creative and talented Game Designer who can analyze and tweak game mechanics and memorable experiences within budget. You will be responsible for designing and prototyping gameplay systems, balancing, documenting design, authoring content with Unity, reacting to feedback and working with other team members to create a game that players will play, love and talk about for hours.
You will join a collaborative bunch of industry professionals, bringing ideas from initial concept/prototypes all the way to a finished product.
Come join our small team so that we can together bring puppets back to life for a new audience to enjoy!

Responsibilities
GAME DESIGN DUTIES:

• Be able to comfortably tweak/polish values in Unity to achieve a flawless input-controls feel and achieve high hero behavior "believability".
• Deconstruct new and existing mechanics in order to iterate and improve gameplay with specific gameplay improvements/outcomes in mind.
• Take design ownership over mechanics and the core system.
• Through iterations, pursue prototypes that demonstrate and test gameplay mechanics.
• Evolve designs and prototypes based on playtesting and feedback.
• Work closely with the Programmer/s & Art team.
• Recognize and stay abreast of game design trends, patterns, and consumer preferences.

LEVEL DESIGN DUTIES:

• Discuss and provide input on new and existing Level Designs.
• Contribute to level design sketches, ideas & events.

OVERALL DUTIES:

• Make tradeoffs to ship a sizable amount of content, on time, at the highest possible quality.
• Drive communication and collaboration between all departments towards the approved designs. Set priorities and objectives together with key stakeholders
• Provide and receive critiques in a constructive manner with suggestions and solutions for improvement.
• Assist in advocating best practices to the content team.

Requirements

• Experience in launching a game. A minimum of one shipped AAA or known Indie title as a designer.
• 2+ years of solid game design experience.
• 1+ year of design experience within the platforming and/or puzzle genres.
• 1+ year of Unity engine experience in game designer capacity.
• (Must have) Excellent balance, tuning, and polishing skills.
• (Must have) Have excellent feel for controls/player input and hero-character behavior & motion.
• Ability to pitch game concepts clearly and effectively.
• Good knowledge of a wide spectrum of game systems and concepts.
• Strong creative ideas and imagination, working within an overall game vision.
• Affinity for the puzzle and platforming game audiences, and an appreciation of its different player types, motivation and needs.
• Ability to see multiple perspectives for any design system and mechanic.
• Ability to identify gameplay and balancing issues and to offer solutions to fix them.
• Ability to reason both creatively and logically.
• Ability to work autonomously and think proactively.
• Must be creative and flexible when faced with constraints.
• Ability to work effectively within a small team.
• Assist in advocating best practices within team.
• Excellent communication skills; both written and verbal.

Nice-To-Have

• Experience in platforming level design.
• Experience in puzzle design.
• Experience with fairy tail inspired narrative and worlds.
• Confidence to visualize game scenarios.
• Knowledge of PC and Console technology -- its boundaries and potential as it applies to games.

Additional Important Info

• Candidates must work remotely. Covering relocation expenses is not possible at this time.
• Job type: Full or Part-time.
• Salary: Dependent on knowledge, skill and experience level.
• Timezone: European candidates must be available (for 2-3h) after 3PM to communicate with team members in other timezones
• Daily scrum stand-up happens each day at 5PM WarsawTime.

Application Materials

• Resume
• Cover Letter which can include: Why you are interested in working with us ? What is you favorite part of game development ? Does our game really speak to you ? What games you do you like and are currently playing. What is your favorite platformer of all time?
• Please introduce yourself and send your resumes & portfolios to Contact(at)FlatterThanEarth.com with subject header: "SKILLSHOT - Game Designer - Full Name - Current Location"

About Flatter Than Earth
Flatter Than Earth is an independent game development studio located in San Francisco & Trójmiasto with most members working remotely. We are devoted to creating immersive fun fantasy worlds that have gameplay to match. We’re a small team, so everyone here has opportunities to provide feedback and unleash their creativity! Our current project, Once Upon a Puppet aims to capture the attention and unleash the imagination of gamers of all ages! We work in Unity, and we plan to launch on Steam and Consoles Q4 2020

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