Game Designer

Game Designer

Location: Redwood Shores

At Maxis, we thrive on outrageous thinking. It’s the fuel that inspires the best games in the world. We’re creators and great storytellers. Our mission is not just about amazing our peers – it’s about amazing our fans. Taking risks, collaborating with each other and daring to dream big. Together, we can improve the way millions play every day. 

As a Designer on The Sims, you’ll report to the Design Development Director and work with a team of enthusiastic industry craftspeople from all walks of life.  You will use your passion and knowledge to design and implement player-first experiences that surprise, delight, and invite millions of Simmers around the world to Play with Life. 

The Sims 4 has a very unique player base with 60% of our audience being women between the ages of 18-24.  We are looking for someone with deep insights on how to create the best experience for our players.

Responsibilities

• Design and own features from concept to completion.
• Establish player experience goals for designs, implement and tune features to meet those goals.
• Improve designs based on play test feedback, game metrics, team input and community feedback.
• Think creatively using the tools and time available to build unique and fun experiences for players.
• Think about the future when implementing content, resulting in smartly scripted scalable systems and good design patterns and practices.
• Collaborate with all team disciplines, including artists, animators, modelers, engineers, quality assurance, and producers to get support from the team and guide a project from initial design to final production.
• Advocate for the design vision and get the team excited to work on it.
• Balance your design vision with input from your peers to find practical solutions that achieve the intended player experience.
• 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.
• Help establish best practices for the team and improve process and efficiency.
• Adopt and become proficient in new or proprietary development tools to implement and debug your work.
• Provide feedback to other designers.

Qualifications

• Excellent creative skills with experience creating detailed design documentation and maintaining it throughout a project life cycle.
• Design and implementation experience with game features that focus on open-ended player creativity.
• Experience with games in The Sims PC franchise and other simulation games.
• Effective at working both autonomously and in groups of different profiles.
• Knowledge of and enthusiasm for gaming: playing, deconstructing and creating.

Desirable Skills

• Shipped a AAA HD title.
• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent.
• Comfortable with Visio, JIRA, online collaboration suites such as Confluence