Store

Game Designer, Missions (THE LONG DARK)

Duration: 12-month contract, with possibility of conversion to full-time

Location: Remote, must be able to work in Canada


We're looking to add a talented mission designer to the development team creating THE LONG DARK. If you have worked as a mission or level designer on highly-regarded open-world games, we'd love to hear from you.

The ideal candidate has at least 3 years of experience designing and scripting missions for open-world games. Experience with Unity and visual scripting systems is required. This role involves taking missions from paper-design to finished implementation, including all scripting for mission logic, integration of cinematics and gameplay animations, playtesting, etc. We particularly value candidates who have familiarity with THE LONG DARK and its WINTERMUTE story campaign, as well an appreciation for what makes them unique and effective.

Your Impact


You will work under the guidance of the Design Lead, in collaboration with designers and artists, to create compelling narrative-driven experiences in one of the world’s leading survival games. Your contribution will help elevate the quality of the final episode of THE LONG DARK’s story mode. You will help ship Episode Five, and support post-launch efforts around the game.

Your Day to Day


Working within the mission team. Collaborating with designers and artists. Taking direction from the Design Lead. Scripting mission logic within Unity using a visual scripting language. Playtesting and reviewing feedback notes to implement changes that improve the player experience. Contributing to discussions about mission logic, and the integration of narrative with gameplay. Writing documentation. Logging and fixing bugs. Heavily working within the Unity engine. Collaborating with others in a remote work setting, using a variety of communication and documentation tools.

Your Responsibilities


  • Using effective design principles, implement approved missions in Unity using Node Canvas visual scripting tools, with an emphasis of building and maintaining mission logic, while iterating and tuning as needed based on playtesting.
  • Write and create any supporting materials or documentation as needed for effective implementation and playtesting.
  • Setup in-game Regions with appropriate gear, loot, and other resources consistent with The Long Dark’s existing WINTERMUTE survival gameplay.
  • Create and tune any new gear items as needed to execute on approved mission designs.
  • Hook up cinematics, animations, audio cues, and other storytelling assets to deliver a compelling and effective experience based on the episode scriptment, as needed and in conjunction and collaboration with any other cinematic stakeholders in Design or Animation.
  • Write functional, first-pass text strings and maintain the Localization table in Unity, as needed.
  • Work with animators, programmers, audio designers, and other team members to deliver the experience as described in episodic scripts and other documentation.
  • Using Perforce, maintain proper source control of the project and any files used for your Design work.
  • Work autonomously, with the support of the Design Lead, to ensure all edited assets and changes are appropriately playtested for validity prior to submission.
  • Fix and test assigned game bugs as documented in JIRA and assigned by the Design Lead.

Your Skills & Experience


  • 3-years of experience as a mission designer, with a demonstrable portfolio of shipped mission work.
  • Skill with mission scripting.
  • Excellent documentation and communication skills.
  • Strong attention to detail and ability to collaborate effectively across disciplines.
  • Ability to take ownership for work and proactively follow up to ask questions and get feedback.
  • Familiarity with open-world games, and knowledge (if not passion for) survival games.
  • Desire to actively participate in discussions and collaborate in a high-autonomy, high-accountability workplace environment.
  • Willingness and ability to communicate effectively using written and verbal tools in a remote-centric team.

Salary: $85,000 - 90,000 CAD

Apply Now

ABOUT HINTERLAND

In an industry not known for taking care of its people, Hinterland strives to be different. We believe that the diversity, points of view, experience, and individual backgrounds of our team members contribute to a rich mosaic that helps us create better experiences, and helps those experiences reach a wider audience.

Hinterland is an equal-opportunity employer. We encourage applicants from all backgrounds to apply for our positions, regardless of ethnicity, social class, sexual orientation or identity, or religious affiliation. We value seniority and experience for our senior and leadership roles, but are always looking for ways to bring diverse viewpoints and experiences from across the spectrum of entertainment and technology.

We embrace a flexible working environment that focuses on high-autonomy balanced against high personal accountability. All our positions are remote-first, focused on finding the best fit for culture and talent. This remote-first flexibility is balanced with a physical studio in Vancouver, which is optionally available (COVID-permitting) to anyone on the team who wants to use it. We strengthen our team bond through offsite retreats, where we focus on creating memories together. We feel this balance of remote and in-person opportunities creates the strongest alloy for our culture.

We encourage everyone on the team to find balance between work and life, and never ask anyone to compromise one for the other. We are a No Crunch studio. We have high expectations of the level of commitment and the quality of the work done by our team, and trust everyone to manage their own schedule and workload. We offer a generous bundle of benefits and vacation time, and strongly encourage our team members to enjoy the 5+ weeks of paid time off we offer annually. We are a family-first studio and offer a range of tools to support our team and their growing families.