Lead Designer, Activity

Job Description

Welcome to [REDACTED]… the stuff dreams are made of.

Who We Are…

When we say, "the stuff dreams are made of," we're not just referring to the world of wizards, dragons and superheroes, or even to the wonders of Planet Earth. Behind WBD's vast portfolio of iconic content and beloved brands, are the storytellers bringing our characters to life, the creators bringing them to your living rooms and the dreamers creating what's next…

From brilliant creatives, to technology trailblazers, across the globe, WBD offers career defining opportunities, thoughtfully curated benefits, and the tools to explore and grow into your best selves. Here you are supported, here you are celebrated, here you can thrive.

Lead Designer, Activity

Overview

The Lead Activity Designer will spearhead the design and implementation of compelling activities to entertain and challenge the players. You will collaborate closely with the Game Director and Design Director to create a player-driven open world that feels fresh and relevant for many years to come, leveraging both systemic and scripted content.

Responsibilities

• Vision and Documentation
  • Understand the game's intended position in the market and design towards those goals
  • Articulate a compelling vision for gameplay activities, socialize that vision, and get buy-in from stakeholders
  • Maintain useful and accurate documentation of designs
• Collaboration
  • Work in tandem with the Lead World Designer to integrate game activities seamlessly into the level design
  • Take feedback and direction from the Design Director
  • Collaborate with other design leads to achieve a cohesive experience
  • Balance the needs of design with those of art, engineering, and production
• Leadership and Management
  • As the project scales, build and lead a world-class team of activity designers
  • Mentor and manage the career growth of more junior activity designers
• Design and Implementation of Activities
  • Repeatable, open-world activities that scale from few to many players
  • Scripted, narrative-driven activities
  • Pinnacle activities that challenge coordinated groups of dedicated players
  • Limited-time activities for calendar-based events
• Playtesting, Maintenance, and Tuning
  • Conduct regular playtests of game activities, translate playtest feedback into appropriate actions for the current phase of development
  • Maintain game activities in the live service, fixing bugs, and tuning when necessary

Qualifications

• 10+ years' design experience
• 5+ years in a leadership role
• 3+ years' experience as a people-manager in the design discipline
• Shipped 1+ live-service multiplayer title(s) in a design leadership role
• Shipped 1+ action title(s) in a design leadership role
• Designed and implemented 1+ "endgame" activities for a live-service title
• Passion for online RPGs

Nice-to-Haves

• UE5 expertise
• C++ and/or scripting experience
• Knowledge of industry trends, emerging technologies
• Any analytical framework that you can leverage in the design space (from economics to hermeneutics, anything that helps you think about design in a useful way)

How We Get Things Done…

This last bit is probably the most important! Here at WBD, our guiding principles are the core values by which we operate and are central to how we get things done. You can find them at [REDACTED] along with some insights from the team on what they mean and how they show up in their day to day. We hope they resonate with you and look forward to discussing them during your interview.

Championing Inclusion at [REDACTED]

[REDACTED] embraces the opportunity to build a workforce that reflects a wide array of perspectives, backgrounds and experiences. Being an equal opportunity employer means that we take seriously our responsibility to consider qualified candidates on the basis of merit, without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, mental or physical disability, and genetic information, marital status, citizenship status, military status, protected veteran status or any other category protected by law.

If you're a qualified candidate with a disability and you require adjustments or accommodations during the job application and/or recruitment process, please visit our accessibility page for instructions to submit your request.

Roles & Responsibilities

• 10+ years' design experience
• 5+ years in a leadership role
• 3+ years' experience as a people-manager in the design discipline
• Shipped 1+ live-service multiplayer title(s) in a design leadership role

Requirements

• Understand the game's intended position in the market and design towards those goals
• Articulate a compelling vision for gameplay activities, socialize that vision, and get buy-in from stakeholders
• Work in tandem with the Lead World Designer to integrate game activities seamlessly into the level design
• Conduct regular playtests of game activities, translate playtest feedback into appropriate actions for the current phase of development