Lead Game Designer.

As a Lead Game Designer, you will be highly creative and have a strong passion for playing and creating games. You will lead a team of designers and take responsibility for specific areas of the game design and work closely with all disciplines to deliver on the overall game vision.

Third Kind Games is one of the largest independently owned game development studios in the UK, based in Royal Leamington Spa. We also have remote studios in Poland and Spain. Our three studios have been built on the same original spirit and values since our beginning. Founded in 2016 by nine leaders in the industry, with extensive experience in the development of critically acclaimed titles such as Guitar Hero Live and DiRT, we have been growing ever since. Today we work with some of the biggest names in the games industry such as Blizzard, Amazon, Microsoft and Mythical Games. Alongside several new high-profile, unannounced projects, our team is also working on our own IP, so TKG is an incredibly exciting place to be right now. We are also setting new benchmarks for creativity in the games industry, driving technical expertise in programming alongside creative innovation.

What is it like to be a Third Kinder? We are a diverse team of people. We are collaborative, open-minded creatives who embrace ideas and knowledge from everyone in our team, with the aim of developing and inspiring ourselves, our projects and our games. Work life balance and flexibility are very important to us and our team. At TKG we offer a place where our team can be their most creative, imaginative and confident selves. We want all of our team to feel valued, appreciated, and free to be who they are at work. TKG recently received a GOLD Award in Mind Charity's Workplace Wellbeing Index, recognising our dedication to our team's mental health and wellbeing.

Role Overview

• You enjoy understanding our consumer needs and ensuring the designs developed by the team will contribute to player satisfaction and enjoyment, managing the game mechanics, core loops and game systems that make our games more fun to play.
• Leading and managing Game Designers to deliver projects on time.
• High standards, responsible for delivering high-quality documentation with coherent and compelling visions of game features from you and your team.
• Working with our team to support the delivery of fresh and innovative ideas for games.
• Maintaining a close working relationship with the management team, producers, leads, directors and other teams to raise project quality.
• Mentoring and assisting your colleagues to support their personal development.

What we are looking for from a Third Kinder

• Lead and motivate a team that designs game systems, content and level design to craft an engaging player experience.
• Make useful contributions to our creative planning sessions, scrums, and retrospectives and help us drive the development of our projects and the team.
• Be naturally inquisitive, you keep up to date with emerging technologies and industry trends and cascade according to support the development of your team.
• Collaborate and communicate well with internal teams and customers to realise a shared vision.
• Talk and write enthusiastically about game ideas, championing their potential.
• Have the motivation and passion to keep up to date with industry developments and bring efficiencies and increased quality, whilst growing your skill set.
• Show an ability to keep team members motivated and working efficiently and toward project goals.

Skills you need

• 5+ years industry experience in game design positions.
• 2+ years experience leading a small team of designers.
• Unity, Unreal, or similar game engines.
• Strong, passionate communicator with excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Proven ability to deliver fun gameplay features that keeps players wanting more.
• Ambitious and motivated.

Skills it would be great to have

• Experience with all stages of a project, from concept to launch.
• Modern console development.

If you think this is the role for you please send us your CV and an introductory email, which helps us to get to know you better. We aim to respond to your application within 2 working days. Usually we will conduct a telephone interview, prior to any face to face or virtual interviews.