Sr Game Designer

Requisition Number: 158076

Position Title: Sr Game Designer

External Description:

At Maxis, we thrive on outrageous thinking.  It’s the fuel that inspires the best games in the world.  We’re innovators and great storytellers.  But it’s not just about amazing your peers – it’s about amazing yourself and our fans.  Take risks.  Collaborate with brilliant minds and dare to dream big.  Together, we can change the way millions play every day. 

As a Designer on a new IP, you’ll be working with a large (but tight-knit) team of enthusiastic industry craftspeople from all walks of life.  Your job will be to use your passion and knowledge to design and create player-first experiences from end to end, to surprise and delight millions of gamers around the world. 

 

Duties and Responsibilities

• Serve as an advocate, representing the Design team to the rest of the dev team.
• Help define best practices for the team.
• Be a proactive member of the Design team, brainstorming and writing designs, and providing feedback to other designers.
• Become a proactive mentor to more junior members of the team.
• Have a depth of knowledge across a majority of systems, being able to own entire pillars for the game and train/support the team on its features.
• Define gameplay experience goals for designs, and tune features to meet those goals.
• Iterate on designs based on internal/external playtests, game metrics, team input and community feedback.
• Be resourceful and solve problems using the tools and time/scope available to efficiently craft unique and fun experiences for players.
• Communicate and collaborate with all team disciplines, including artists, animators, modelers, engineers and producers to get buy-in from the team and drive a project from initial design to final production.
• Become an expert on the game and our community, drawing from our large, varied player base and our past games to make and defend intelligent design choices going forward.
• Have an eye for improving process and efficiency to make life easier for the Design team.

Recommended Skills and Experience

• 2 - 3 years of game design experience on a video game development team.
• Excellent creative, analytical and organization skills with proven ability to write and maintain detailed design documentation throughout a project life cycle.
• Open-minded, progressive thinking while remaining flexible, energetic and driven to overcome challenges with practical solutions.
• Strong communication and inter-personal skills, with ability to champion a design and get the team excited to work on it.
• Exceptional time-management practices.
• Ability to learn and become proficient in a variety of proprietary development tools.
• Strong sense of ownership and responsibility.
• Design and implementation experience with game features which focus on open-ended player creativity.
• Effective at working both autonomously and in groups of different profiles.
• Knowledge of and enthusiasm for gaming: playing, deconstructing and creating.
• Experience with Maxis games and other simulation games.

Desirable Skills

• Shipped a AAA HD title.
• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent.
• Comfortable with MS suite (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc.), Google Docs, Visio, JIRA, online collaboration suites such as Confluence.

 

City:

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Community / Marketing Title: Sr Game Designer

Company Profile:

We are a global team of creators, storytellers, technologists, experience originators, innovators and so much more. We believe amazing games and experiences start with teams as diverse as the players and communities we serve. At Electronic Arts, the only limit is your imagination.

EEOText:

About Electronic Arts

Everything we do is designed to inspire the world to play. Through our cutting-edge games, innovative services, and powerful technologies, we bring worlds with infinite possibilities to millions of players and fans around the globe.

We’re looking for collaborative and inclusive people with diverse perspectives who will enrich our culture and challenge us. We take a holistic approach with our benefits program, focusing on physical, emotional, financial, career, and community wellness to support our people through every chapter of life. We provide comprehensive benefit packages and support for a balanced life with paid time off and new parent leave, plus free games and so much more. Our goal is to provide a safe and respectful workplace that empowers you to thrive in both work and life.

Electronic Arts is an equal opportunity employer. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, genetic information, religion, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, marital status, family status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We will also consider employment qualified applicants with criminal records in accordance with applicable law. EA also makes workplace accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities as required by applicable law.

Days Open: 51

Can this position be remote?:

EEO Employer Verbiage:

About Electronic Arts

Everything we do is designed to inspire the world to play. Through our cutting-edge games, innovative services, and powerful technologies, we bring worlds with infinite possibilities to millions of players and fans around the globe.

We’re looking for collaborative and inclusive people with diverse perspectives who will enrich our culture and challenge us. We take a holistic approach with our benefits program, focusing on physical, emotional, financial, career, and community wellness to support our people through every chapter of life. We provide comprehensive benefit packages and support for a balanced life with paid time off and new parent leave, plus free games and so much more. Our goal is to provide a safe and respectful workplace that empowers you to thrive in both work and life.

Electronic Arts is an equal opportunity employer. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, genetic information, religion, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, marital status, family status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We will also consider employment qualified applicants with criminal records in accordance with applicable law. EA also makes workplace accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities as required by applicable law.