New Raleigh-Durham Studio is a new game development studio in the Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina area led by industry veterans from WB Games and other AAA studios. The New Raleigh-Durham Studio is a development studio of Wizards of the Coast, a division of Hasbro. We are building a new development team with outstanding talent to create our first multi-platform, Action-Adventure video game set in the GI JOE Universe!

New Raleigh-Durham Studio seeks a hardworking, experienced, and team-oriented Game Director to help us build an outstanding AAA, 3rd Person Action/Adventure game. In this role, you will be responsible for crafting and coordinating the overall game design blueprint as well as helping to build the game’s moment-to-moment gameplay mechanics and systems, driving them from concept all the way to ship!

The ideal candidate will be a hardworking, lifetime gamer with shown experience leading teams and building awesome gameplay in other AAA titles, understand the intricacies of how to make a player’s action feel awesome, and be passionate about the opportunity to help reinvent a beloved Hasbro IP!

Responsibilities

Work with the studio creative director and the development team to define the game by crafting a vision that is innovative, strong, appropriate, fitting with the IP, and implementable by the team;
Develop your game design direction to make a truly fun and engaging experience. Evangelize this direction across the entire development team;
Support your game designers in developing their features (e.g. gameplay rules, progression systems, combat systems, etc.)
Own and drive overall game design, the core combat and gameplay systems.
Build and iterate on core combat systems such as weapons, abilities, player movement, cameras, and AI from concept all the way to ship.
Collaborate with other subject areas and departments, ensuring relevant partners are involved and advised throughout development.
Act as strong quality advocate for team, crafting compelling moment-to-moment gameplay that is AAA caliber and helping others on the team achieve the same high quality.
Lead a small team of gameplay/combat designers, empowering and inspiring them to do great work.
Create and maintain documentation for all owned features.
Help evangelize the game’s vision to the rest of the team at large.
Regularly play the game, providing constructive feedback and suggestions to other members of the team.
Remain up to date on industry trends and competitor games.

Requirements

7+ years as a Game Designer with at least 2 shipped AAA titles (1 as a Lead).
Deep knowledge and passion for overall game design, player experience, and emerging industry trends.
Extensive knowledge of the following:
Controls, player movement, weapons, abilities, cameras, AI, melee, progression, game balance, exploration mechanics.
Experience working in Unreal or other modern game engines as well as productivity and project management software.
Experience tuning sophisticated systems (ex – AI behavior trees, overall game balance).
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
Self-sufficient and self-motivated, able to push features forward but also know when to ask for guidance or help.
Unrelenting passion for making high quality games in a highly collaborative, team-based environment.

Extra Credit:

Experience designing and implementing 3rd Person melee combat and traversal systems.
Experience with level design, encounter design, or layouts.
Experience with progression and difficulty systems.
Experience working on Existing IP games.

We are an Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action Employer

The above is intended to describe the general content of and the requirements for satisfactory performance in this position. It is not to be construed as an exhaustive statement of the duties, responsibilities, or requirements of the position.

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. If you are selected to move forward in our application process and need to request an accommodation, please let your recruiter or coordinator know.