Mission / Quest Designer

Who We Are

OtherSide Entertainment is an independent game studio with offices in Concord, MA, and remote staff throughout North America. Our mission is to create deeply immersive games that draw players into richly imagined worlds; games that empower players to choose their own play-style, making their experience unique and personal; games that encourage players to team up with their friends and weave their own shared narrative; the kind of games that are powered by our players’ vision as much as our own. Together, we aim to evolve the “player-authored” tradition of Ultima Underworld, System Shock, Thief, and Deus Ex – all games developed by the company’s founders, Paul Neurath and Warren Spector.

The Opportunity

We are looking for a Game Designer who can help produce engaging player experiences. If you’re someone who is in the middle of their career with a focus on mission design with open world dynamics, we’d love to chat!

In this role, you’ll be working on our new open world game Argos helmed by Warren Spector, and while we can’t tell you much at this time, you’ll be working with a space whale!

You’ll be responsible for creating and implementing compelling game missions that integrate seamlessly with other systems, including level layout, narrative, and combat. Being a small team, you’ll work with our design, engineering, art, and animation teams to create varied and compelling mission experiences, from initial block out to final playable content.

Job Responsibilities

• Design and implement linear mission arcs and open-world gameplay scenarios, including creating objectives, encounters, and events.
• Ensure missions are seamlessly integrated with other game systems like level layout, narrative, combat, and progression.
• Create clear and concise design documents that explain mechanics, systems, and features.
• Skills to rapidly prototype and actively participate in playtesting, address bugs and gameplay issues. The ability to quickly adapt or change designs based on feedback.
• Work closely with other teams, including art, programming, and narrative, to ensure the mission's successful implementation.
• Pitch and present designs to the team and department heads and effectively communicate design ideas and implementation progress.

Note that this is not a level designer role, we are looking for someone technical who has created a large variety of missions / quests and implemented them into UE5 in the past.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience working on missions, ideally in an open world environment. Years of experience can be flexible if the game you worked on (and shipped) had some really awesome open world mission design
• At least one shipped AAA or AA game with you having a significant amount of work showcased
• A strong understanding of core gameplay concepts, mission design principles, and best practices
• Experience with Unreal level editing tools and scripting
• Experience implementing your own missions into UE5
• Understanding of Data Tables and Data Assets and experience working with them in the past
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills to effectively work with a diverse team remotely
• Ability to brainstorm original ideas, explore multiple solutions, and create innovative and engaging gameplay experiences
• Ability to adapt to changing priorities and project deadlines and iterate on designs based on feedback

Bonus

_Bulleted list of what we would love to see in someone assuming that they have the qualifications above. This could also be skills that we could, on a case by case basis, train or ramp someone up on.

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• A portfolio showcasing walkthroughs of some of your mission designs. Video or text is fine
• A love for immersive sim games, worked on an immersive sim before? Even better!
• Experience using Level Sequences
• Familiarity with Widget Blueprint

Additional Notes

This will be a full-time employee or contract-to-hire role, both with remote working, with competitive compensation and a full suite of benefits available anywhere in the United States. All team members may be asked to occasionally travel for key meetings, as part of their job responsibilities.

This role is only for those currently residing in the US or Canada and unfortunately we are not able to sponsor a visa for those currently without one from the US or Canada at this time.

At OtherSide Entertainment, we know our success depends on our people. Just as our mission is oriented around empowering our players, we open our doors to all kinds of candidates. Our development process and players benefit from a variety of points of view, united by a shared passion for making fun and engaging experiences. If you don’t hit every one of our bullets, unless otherwise noted, feel free to still submit an application if you too resonate with our mission. If you require any accommodations to ensure an equitable interviewing experience please let us know!

A Warning About Job Scams - We hate that we have to say it, but there are always bad actors trying to take advantage of people. We've become aware that there are scammers impersonating us with job interview messages. Please keep diligent and know that we will never have you download anything for an interview (We use Teamtailor, which is a SaaS product) and not Telegram or other message services. We also will not ever ask you for money, for you to buy your own equipment, or that you travel somewhere for an interview and we will reimburse you. When in doubt, please feel free to message the recruiter listed for each role on LinkedIn, or our CPO Juliette (https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliettedupre/) about the legitimacy of any messages.