As a Narrative Writer, your experience as a published and professional writer across a broad range of media will help you drive creative initiatives that include dreaming up new champions, fleshing out their stories, and imagining their worlds, working together with artists and designers who will help produce them and the passionate players who will bring them to life. And since your ability to develop narrative extends off the page and into pitches, you’ll use your craftsmanship to generate excitement from seasoned storytelling professionals. Ultimately, it’s your love of gaming, passion for writing, and highly-polished portfolio of work that’ll position you to help players create their own unique narratives through play, and you can’t wait to help them write the next chapter.
As a Senior Narrative Writer on the R&D team, you will be an integral part of the creative process in which teams create and bring to life the NPCs, story arcs, and quests in our game. You will report to the Game Director of the project.
Responsibilities
Lead, mentor and inspire teams of developers in thematic cohesion and character development
Write dialog and scenes for in-game characters using custom tools, balancing game experience needs with personality and backstory.
Work with artists and designers to develop bios, backstory, character personas, narrative arcs and worldbuilding that reflects the vision of the game and informs cross-discipline development
Define narrative frameworks and quality standards.
Define, organize, and estimate narrative team needs
Partner with the team to prototype and build narrative tools
Understand the relevant audiences for the game, including international audiences, and make decisions for these audiences
Collaborate, receive feedback, and iterate towards the highest quality product
Required Qualifications
6+ years of overall experience in professional narrative writing
4+ years of game industry experience
Have led significant portions of the writing for at least one game title or shipped narrative product
Deep understanding of how interactive narrative functions and how it intersects with the other parts of a game
Experience writing, iterating, and revising within a production schedule
Desired Qualifications
Experience working in a lead narrative role
Experience working within a cross disciplinary team through all phases of game development
For this role, you'll find success through craft expertise, a collaborative spirit, and decision-making that prioritizes the delight of players. We will be looking at your past studies, experience, and your personal relationship with games. If you embody player empathy and care about players' experiences, this could be your role!
Work Samples
To be considered for the role, you will be asked to provide samples of your work. Please provide around 10 pages of content, written by you, that includes genre work and something that best represents your craft. (if it is a comic book script, we will be looking for a link to the script and not the comic).
Our Perks:
Riot has a focus on work/life balance, shown by our open paid time off policy, in addition to other perks such as flexible work schedules. We offer medical, dental, and life insurance, parental leave for you, your spouse/domestic partner and children, and a 401k with company match. Check out our benefits pages for more information.
Riot Games fosters a player and workplace experience that values teamwork embodied by the Summoner's Code and Community Code. Our culture embraces differences as a strength, and our values are the guiding principles for how we approach work. We are committed to putting diversity and inclusion (D&I) at the center of everything we do, and promoting a fair and collaborative culture where Rioters treat one another with dignity and respect. We encourage you to read more about our value of thriving together and our ongoing work to build the most inclusive company in Gaming.
(Los Angeles Only) Base salary range between $124,900.00 - $175,600.00 USD + incentive compensation + equity + 401K with company match + medical, dental, vision, and life insurance + short and long-term disability + open PTO.
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).
