Smoking Gun Interactive, a Keywords Studio, is an industry-leading game development studio founded in 2007 by award-winning industry veterans. SGI is fearless in creating IP and boldly partners with renowned brands to develop a wide range of world-class, immersive titles and interactive experiences that resonate with strategy gamers worldwide and entertain millions of casual players every day.
Job Purpose
As a Design Director with Smoking Gun Interactive (SGI), you're a talented and passionate natural leader with at least five years of industry experience in game design leadership. You have a strong understanding of game mechanics and design philosophies to communicate a clear vision for the project. You will provide mentorship and support to the Lead Designers to ensure a positive culture among the design team and project. You are a flexible and collaborative individual who is excited about motivating a multi-disciplinary team to achieve excellent results.
Requirements
In this role, you will:
- Collaborate with the Creative Director to deliver and drive a cohesive vision for the projects.
- Work with production to ensure the vision is achievable within the project constraints.
- Be a key champion of the game vision to the team/s and clients.
- Build strong creative game designs that are original and imaginative.
- Work with Creative Director and other Leads on product pitches.
- Mentor and support to Lead Designers and design team members in developing designs, tuning features to create engaging player experiences.
- Work with lead designers to help delegate tasks among the design teams and give feedback for improvement to align with high quality of work being delivered.
- Act as a regular liaison and provide guidance to other discipline teams to ensure the game features being developed will bring the project vision to life.
- Oversee or own the analysis of game KPI's, user testing, and market trends.
- Be a main conduit of design discussions between the clients and SGI.
- Mentor the design team and help manage conflicts that arise to promote a positive working culture.
- Be able and willing to lead the design of a game team for any product.
To be successful in this role, you must have:
- 5+ years experience in a Design Leadership role on mobile, PC or console products.
- Shipped at least three titles in a Design Leadership role.
- Taken games all the way from initial concept to live operations.
- Experience with both Premium and Freemium game mechanics, KPI's, and monetization strategies.
- Proven track record of bringing out the true potential of their design team.
- Experience in live tuning, scripting and tools of multiple game engines.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills, able to communicate ideas clearly.
- Strong critical thinking and problem solving skills.
- Ability to accept and provide direction, work well under pressure, and handle multiple tasks.
- A naturally self-driven demeanor, taking initiative when needed – demonstrated ability to work independently.
- Willingness to push the envelope and innovate within game parameters.
- Experience with Word, Excel, Photoshop.
- A positive attitude and a great team-player.
It would also be helpful if you had:
- Direct experience creating, and tuning strategy titles.
- Multi-platform development experience (ideally, with various mobile platforms).
- A bachelor's degree.
Benefits
- 10 days vacation leave
- 5 paid days personal leave
- 7 paid sick days
- Life Insurance & Accidental Death & Dismemberment
- Dependent Life Insurance
- Long Term Disability (LTD)
- Extended Healthcare Benefit
- Dental Care
- Hybrid working
- Training & Development
Salary Range: $120,000 CAD - $150,000 CAD