Senior Cinematic Designer
About Aspyr:
Founded in 1996, Aspyr Media, Inc. got its start in Austin, TX by bringing the biggest PC gaming franchises such as Call of Duty, Sid Meier’s Civilization and Star Wars to Mac. Today, Aspyr is a video game publishing and development partner focused on maximizing the potential of games. We find the world's best games and connect them to new audiences, on all platforms.
Responsibilities:
Reporting to the Principal Narrative Designer, Aspyr is seeking a Senior Cinematic Designer to design & implement interactive conversations and narrative-driven cinematic content for an upcoming AAA Role-Playing Game.
In this role, you will work on the Narrative Design team in close collaboration with Designers, Writers, and Cinematic Artists to ensure the game’s conversations are presented in the most compelling, cohesive, and immersive ways possible.
The ideal candidate will have proven experience working with cinematics and interactive narrative systems, and should have a keen eye for composition, staging, animation and body language.
Essential Functions:
- Collaborate with Teammates and Narrative Design Lead to build captivating conversations and interactive cinematic moments
- Evaluate the content of scenes in order to estimate workload and determine what upstream/downstream dependencies will be required
- Proactively identify opportunities to increase the quality and efficiency of cinematic content in order to manage scope and budget while still ensuring a great player experience
- Maintain and uphold documentation, standards, and conventions to ensure integrity of files and pipelines within a large project
- Identify, report & investigate emergent issues around narrative content and workflows
- Work alongside Level Designers, Writers and Environment Artists to create elements of supplemental narrative world-building
- Participate in reviews, stand-ups, playtests, and be willing to give and receive feedback
- Serve as a subject matter expert on Cinematic Design tools and processes such as the dialogue editor, stages, and sequencer timelines
Preferred Qualifications:
- 5+ years of game development experience
- At least 1 shipped title in a Cinematics, Animation, or Narrative Design Role
- Strong knowledge of cinematics, framing, editing, tone, and narrative structure
- Strong problem-solving and time-management skills
- Strong communication skills and an ability to articulate ideas, issues, and feedback
- Strong technical writing and documentation skills
- Ability to work collaboratively, take feedback, and adapt to design/scope changes throughout development
- Familiarity with branching dialogue and RPG interaction mechanics
- Experience with Unreal Engine
- Experience with scripting or visual scripting languages (C++, Blueprints, Lua, etc.)
- Experience building Narrative Systems or Animation Systems is a plus
Aspyr is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions at Aspyr are based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion or belief, national, social or ethnic origin, sex (including pregnancy), age, physical, mental or sensory disability, HIV Status, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, marital, civil union or domestic partnership status, past or present military service, family medical history or genetic information, family or parental status, or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate. Aspyr will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. Aspyr encourages applicants of all ages.
