Experienced Game Designer


Job Description
We are looking for an experienced game designer with some level design skills to join our team in making story-driven adventure, role-playing, and tactical games. You will play a key part of our design process, doing game design and gameplay-centric level design. Your tasks will be varied and include design of mechanics, whiteboxing and level flow, gameplay logic, onboarding, balancing, bug-fixing and documentation. You will help us set up effective balancing tools (combining game data with external spreadsheets) and implement mechanics and flow, analyse playtests to improve gameplay and do rebalancing, and more.

You will be part of a Game Design and Writing team of 5 people.

The Games
You will be working on a new unannounced project(s) published by DON’T NOD (developers of Life is Strange, Vampyr, Tell Me Why and other award winning titles), as well as prototypes and demos for other future games.

The Studio
PortaPlay is your friendly neighbourhood developer, combining storytelling with non-casual gameplay. We primarily develop premium games grounded in reality but with a fantastic twist. We are artistically ambitious, and make bold games that go beyond entertainment to say something about our world. We work mostly on our own IP but have some work-for-hire on the side. The company has an ongoing partnership with the French developer/publisher DON’T NOD (Life is Strange, Tell Me Why, Vampyr, etc).

Our work culture is focused, sociable and friendly. We value open discussion and respectful feedback, sharing ideas and opinions, taking initiative and thinking ahead. We encourage every person in our team to have their own creative autonomy, where work with directors and other stakeholders is an open conversation around shared goals.

PortaPlay is an English-speaking team of around 15+ people with a semi-flat structure (art, sound, tech, and design departments, each with a single lead). We are an equal opportunities employer and encourage people of any and every background to apply.

Life at PortPlay
Our studio is located at the very heart of Copenhagen, in a lovely neighbourhood and extremely accessible by public transport and by bike from anywhere in the city. We work 9 to 5, five days a week, with flexible hours; we value a relaxed workstyle and healthy work-life balance, and strive to minimise stress and overtime. We do not work nights or weekends – your private time is precious. Vacation days are according to the Danish standard, and the entire company goes on a summer hiatus in July.

We are studio-first workplace, but we allow ourselves to work from home every now and then, if someone needs a quiet day to focus on a big task, or if the plumber is coming. We provide lunch every workday and we eat together at noon. We’re not a “fampany” that will take over your free time, but we do have casual friday-beers (and non-alcoholic alternatives!), and celebrate a few traditions together, like a summer BBQ, or a christmas lunch.

Requirements:

  • 2 years or more of professional experience
  • Decent Unity and spreadsheet skills
  • Strong analytic sense
  • Collaborative spirit
  • Practical experience with balancing
  • Practical experience with analysing tests / player feedback
  • Several completed projects on your portfolio (can also be hobby/student projects, demos, jam games etc.)


Bonus – Experience with any of the following is a plus:

  • Design Documentation and Presentation
  • Light scripting
  • Graph-based scripting (Blueprints/Bolt/Playmaker or similar)
  • Narrative Level or Quest Design
  • Economy and Progression Design
  • Tactical Combat Design
  • Experience from other creative fields


The pipeline
We are working in Unity with a suite of custom gameplay scripting tools. We work in self-organised teams in a flat hierarchy structure. Work is mainly on-site from our office in the centre of Copenhagen. Crunch is something we actively strive to avoid, and rely instead on proper planning, individual responsibility, and empowering team-members who come up with opinions and solutions.

Practical info

  • The position is full time, salary and terms depend on qualifications
  • The position can begin from November 2022 and is permanent
  • The position is on-site in central Copenhagen, occasional work-from-home days are possible

Application Deadline:

10 August 2022

Please apply with C.V. and a portfolio with links to projects (playable/video).
Send any questions, and your application, to hansvonknut@portaplay.dk

Apply