WORK WITH US
Senior Game Designer
The Role
We are looking for an experienced game designer with some level design skills to join our team in making story-driven adventure, role-playing, and tactical games. You will play a key part of our design process, doing core game design and gameplay-centric level design. Your tasks will be varied, across the full-cycle of game productions, and include design of mechanics, greyboxing and level flow, gameplay logic, onboarding, balancing, bug-fixing and documentation. You will help us set up effective balancing tools (combining game data with external spreadsheets) and implement mechanics and flow, analyze playtests to improve gameplay and do rebalancing, and more.
You will be part of a Game Design and Writing team of 5 people.
Current Productions
You will be joining the demo stage of our unannounced upcoming title, a narrative RPG with deeply replayable mechanics in a unique sci-fi setting. You will also oversee our multiple partner-projects under the PortaPlay brand.
Life at Bird Island
Our studio is located at the very heart of Copenhagen, in a lovely neighborhood and extremely accessible by public transport and by bike from anywhere in the city. We work 9 to 5, five days a week, with flexible hours; we value a relaxed workstyle and healthy work-life balance, and strive to minimize stress and overtime. We do not work nights or weekends - your private time is precious. Vacation days are according to the Danish standard, and the entire company goes on a summer hiatus in July.
We are studio-first workplace, but we allow ourselves to work from home every now and then, if someone needs a quiet day to focus on a big task, or if the plumber is coming. We provide lunch every workday and we eat together at noon. We’re not a “fampany” that will take over your free time, but we do have casual Friday-beers (and non-alcoholic alternatives!), and celebrate a few traditions together, like a summer BBQ, or a Christmas lunch.
You can read more about our company culture at the careers page.
Requirements
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2 years or more of industry experience
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Decent Unity and spreadsheet skills
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Strong analytic sense
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Collaborative spirit
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Practical experience with balancing
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Practical experience with analyzing tests / player feedback
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Several completed projects on your portfolio (can also be hobby/student projects, demos, jam games etc.)
Bonus experience
We would love it if you have an interest or experience with the tasks below, but it is not required. If you don’t tick off all the boxes below, we still highly encourage you to apply!
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Design Documentation and Presentation
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Light scripting
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Graph-based scripting (Blueprints/Bolt/Playmaker or similar)
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Narrative, Level, or Quest Design
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Economy and Progression Design
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Tactical Combat Design
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Experience from other creative fields
Pipeline, organization and office
We are working in Unity with a suite of custom gameplay scripting tools. We work in self-organized teams in a flat hierarchy structure. Work is mainly on-site from our office in the center of Copenhagen. Crunch is something we actively strive to avoid, and rely instead on proper planning, individual responsibility, and empowering team-members who come up with opinions and solutions.
Practical Information
The position is:
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Full-time and permanent employment
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Salary and terms depend on qualifications
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Can begin from March 2023
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On-site in central Copenhagen, occasional work-from-home days are possible
How To Apply
Please apply with a C.V. and a portfolio (preferably including links to projects that can be played / showcased in video) via the link below:
If you have any extra questions: shalev@portaplay.net (game design) or hansvonknut@portaplay.dk (work terms)
Deadline for applications is 1 March 2023