Absurd Ventures
Lead Activity Designer
Absurd Ventures, Santa Monica, California, United States, 90403
Summary
Become the primary vision holder and hands-on contributor for all systemic content and game modes in an open world action-adventure game. Lead a team of multi-disciplinary specialists to deliver an innovative and diverse suite of gameplay activities characterized by emergent drama, player expression, and best-in-class minute-to-minute action.
ResponsibilitiesDrive the design and implementation of systems-driven, highly replayable content.Establish a vision for game modes, open world activities, and challenging endgame content that serves the narrative and creative direction, then evangelize that vision to the broader team.Coordinate with fellow design leads to craft experiences that capitalize on the moment-to-moment sandbox, fuel the metagame, and seamlessly integrate into a living open world and authored narrative missions.Continuously seek opportunities to innovate and push the boundaries of gameplay-driven storytelling in activity design.Rally designers, engineers, artists, and external co-dev partners to deliver playable progress at regular intervals as part of a rapid iterative process.Incorporate feedback from peers, playtests, and senior leadership to refine, rebalance, and pivot as the game demands.Go beyond documentation and management to lead from the trenches, with hands-on contributions to playable content.Qualifications
5 or more years of experience designing content and/or gameplay for action games.Deep understanding of casual and hardcore player needs, with the ability to design welcoming and challenging content for both.Narrative sensibilities and vision to design experiences that immerse players in an authored fictional world, while empowering them to write their own stories.Recent experience with direct implementation in the form of level design, visual scripting, balance tuning, or other individual contributions.Experience developing a broad range of activities and minigames that appeal to both a core and a casual audience.Excellent communication, interpersonal, and leadership skills.Innovative thinker with creative problem-solving skills who thrives in a collaborative team environment.Multiplayer content and gameplay design experience is a plus.Experience leading multidisciplinary teams is a plus.Experience working with co-development partners is a plus.Experience in UE4 or UE5 is a plus.Description
Full time job with benefitsRole is on-site in Santa Monica, CAOffice is located near downtown Santa Monica - near metro and freeways
The base pay range for this position is $125,000 to $165,000 per year. Actual compensation is based on market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. We also offer a competitive package of benefits including paid time off, sick time, company holidays, parental leave, medical/dental/vision insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, and 401(k) to regular full-time employees. Certain roles may also be eligible for bonus and equity.
About Absurd Ventures
Absurd Ventures is a media company creating new IP across all platforms and for all formats. Absurd Ventures is building narrative worlds, creating characters, and writing stories for a variety of genres, without regard to medium, to be produced for live-action and animation; video games and other interactive content; books, graphic novels, and scripted podcasts.
Become the primary vision holder and hands-on contributor for all systemic content and game modes in an open world action-adventure game. Lead a team of multi-disciplinary specialists to deliver an innovative and diverse suite of gameplay activities characterized by emergent drama, player expression, and best-in-class minute-to-minute action.
ResponsibilitiesDrive the design and implementation of systems-driven, highly replayable content.Establish a vision for game modes, open world activities, and challenging endgame content that serves the narrative and creative direction, then evangelize that vision to the broader team.Coordinate with fellow design leads to craft experiences that capitalize on the moment-to-moment sandbox, fuel the metagame, and seamlessly integrate into a living open world and authored narrative missions.Continuously seek opportunities to innovate and push the boundaries of gameplay-driven storytelling in activity design.Rally designers, engineers, artists, and external co-dev partners to deliver playable progress at regular intervals as part of a rapid iterative process.Incorporate feedback from peers, playtests, and senior leadership to refine, rebalance, and pivot as the game demands.Go beyond documentation and management to lead from the trenches, with hands-on contributions to playable content.Qualifications
5 or more years of experience designing content and/or gameplay for action games.Deep understanding of casual and hardcore player needs, with the ability to design welcoming and challenging content for both.Narrative sensibilities and vision to design experiences that immerse players in an authored fictional world, while empowering them to write their own stories.Recent experience with direct implementation in the form of level design, visual scripting, balance tuning, or other individual contributions.Experience developing a broad range of activities and minigames that appeal to both a core and a casual audience.Excellent communication, interpersonal, and leadership skills.Innovative thinker with creative problem-solving skills who thrives in a collaborative team environment.Multiplayer content and gameplay design experience is a plus.Experience leading multidisciplinary teams is a plus.Experience working with co-development partners is a plus.Experience in UE4 or UE5 is a plus.Description
Full time job with benefitsRole is on-site in Santa Monica, CAOffice is located near downtown Santa Monica - near metro and freeways
The base pay range for this position is $125,000 to $165,000 per year. Actual compensation is based on market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. We also offer a competitive package of benefits including paid time off, sick time, company holidays, parental leave, medical/dental/vision insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, and 401(k) to regular full-time employees. Certain roles may also be eligible for bonus and equity.
About Absurd Ventures
Absurd Ventures is a media company creating new IP across all platforms and for all formats. Absurd Ventures is building narrative worlds, creating characters, and writing stories for a variety of genres, without regard to medium, to be produced for live-action and animation; video games and other interactive content; books, graphic novels, and scripted podcasts.