Principal Game Designer, Level-Design

Job Description

As a Game Designer, you will design, tweak, and optimize the player experience. Your analytical skills, player insight, and creativity aid in crafting in- and out-of-game experiences that engage and surprise players. You will collaborate with interdisciplinary teams and work with every tool at hand to innovate and iterate player-focused designs that'll delight millions around the world.

As a Principal Game Designer in Research & Development working on our upcoming MMORPG, you will help decipher one of Riot's next big bets. You will help prove an innovative game concept in the early stages of development. The ideal candidate is strong in Level Design and Open World Design. You will partner with other designers, artists, and engineers to build and iterate player-focused designs that aim at delivering a groundbreaking experience. We are still small, so this requires plenty of hands-on work creating, iterating, and tuning levels and mechanics. You are comfortable operating in an ambiguous environment where goals and constraints are mostly team driven and where change, big and small, is a critical part of the process. You will report to the Game Director on the team.

Responsibilities:
• Design or help design MMO levels and open world environments
• Responsible for rapid implementation and iterations on levels and world environments
• Work collaboratively with the Design team and project leads to create a great holistic experience
• Create high level principles and best practices for future level design work
• Help guide the project from prototype to pre-production and ultimately even launch and ongoing live support
• Design, implement, and improve mechanics and systems that satisfy players and increase confidence in the game concept.
• Lead small cross disciplinary teams (2-4 people) to build environments that facilitate core gameplay and goals
• Create and provide multiple potential designs and solutions. Articulate trade-offs and risks between different options.
• Playtest the game and help push for continued improvements for existing designs and fresh prototypes.
• Seek opportunities for new design spaces in collaboration with Product Managers and Design Leadership.

Required Qualifications:
• 8+ years of experience in professional Level Design
• Experience with using environments to shape the player experience, enhance combat systems, create intuitive navigation, and bolster social connections between players
• Has experience developing template/model content (that serves as the basis for more junior staff to build upon) in a senior or leadership role on an MMO product, or product of similar complexity and content scalability considerations
• Shipped or worked on at least one AAA+ online game
• Deep level of understanding, passion, and engagement with online multiplayer PvE games (ARPG, MMOs, etc)

Desired Qualifications:
• Experience working on a live product
• Experience with level design for open world games or MMOs
• Experience designing AI/combat NPCs, quest design, or player combat design
• Is familiar with the LoL IP
• Extensive experience playing and ideally developing MMORPGs
• Is interested in managing other designers
Our Perks:

We offer medical, dental, and vision plans that cover you, your spouse/domestic partner, and children. Life insurance, parental leave, plus short-term and long-term disability coverage are also available. Riot will support your retirement benefits with a company match, and double down on your donations of time and money to non-profit charitable organizations. Balance between work and personal life is encouraged with open paid time off, and a play fund so you can broaden and deepen your personal relationship with games.

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It's our policy to provide equal employment opportunity for all applicants and members of Riot Games, Inc. Riot Games makes reasonable accommodations for handicapped and disabled Rioters and does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, handicap, veteran status, marital status, criminal history, or any other category protected by applicable federal and state law, including the City of Los Angeles' Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance relating to an applicant's criminal history (LAMC 189.00)

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-gq87y6-18-219-112-111-42 in your application.