Level Designer

About Offworld Industries:

Offworld Industries Ltd. (OWI) is the independent studio behind the successful military first person shooter game, “Squad”. OWI was formed in 2014 by more than 15 developers who had worked together on the well known Project Reality mod for Battlefield 2. The founding purpose of the team was to bring a standalone successor of this acclaimed mod to market and build a game development studio and a livelihood from that foundation.

Fast forward to 2020, OWI has nearly 90 employees and is rapidly growing. We have been expanding the studio into both serving as a publisher supporting mods, as well as a technology provider building a framework for character based multiplayer games based in UE4.

We are built on passion, unified spirit and continuing efforts to break the mold. We strive to become a leader in creating large-scale multiplayer games as well as supplying others with the ability to do the same. We are looking for a talented Level Designer for our current and upcoming Unreal Engine based multiplayer games. If you are passionate about making great games and a team player, we are looking for you!

About the Role:

The Level Designer is responsible for creating virtual game environments and playable spaces, incorporating their vision of the gameplay. In collaboration with other artists, they create concept designs, whitebox environments, as well as create levels with all necessary assets and object placement.

The Level Designer is responsible for ensuring that the flow and pacing of action creates fun and rewarding gameplay, provides a good learning curve for new features and mechanics, and all while driving the narrative in a cohesive and clear manner.

When creating multiplayer levels, the Level Designer is responsible for ensuring all levels support fair and balanced gameplay, with spaces that cater to multiple various play styles, and provide players with multiple avenues of approach.

Job Duties:

• Plan levels that incorporate major gameplay elements by creating design concepts, gathering references, and evaluating resources needed for development
• Incorporate strong design that supports player movement, survivability, and enjoyment using existing game mechanics
• Prototype, iterate, and refine gameplay on level to ensure quality combat and mission experiences for play
• Demonstrate strong eye towards aesthetics, with an ability to work collaboratively with the art team
• Provide concepts and feedback to environment artists
• Collaborate with game designers and other level designers to designate points of interest, victory conditions, and gameplay mechanics specific to the level
• Use game engine software to place objects and foliage to create immersive virtual environments that support and enhance the player experience and creative vision of the game
• Integrate the content produced by other disciplines for your designs into the game engine, to include visual effects, sound effects, etc.
• Conduct gameplay evaluations with the team providing feedback and suggestions to help fine tune and improve game levels
• Identify and help fix errors and bugs
• Work with software engineers and technical artists to achieve performance targets
• Create, edit, and expand upon level documentation to assist other team members
• Help define and oversee level creation pipelines and best practices, as needed
• Identify, prioritize, and suggest solutions to problems

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in game design or level design
• At least 1 year of level design experience
• Experience with Unreal Engine 4 computer software or equivalent (Unity, QERadiant, Source Engine)
• Experience with design production tools and level editing pipelines
• Experience with World Machine or similar terrain creation software
• Experience with visual scripting processes, such as Blueprint
• Experience with imaging software, such as Adobe Photoshop
• Skills in optimizing games and understanding of instancing, merging, levels of detail, hierarchical instanced static meshes, proxies, etc.
• Ability to thrive in a highly collaborative team environment
• Excellent communication skills with the English language, both verbal and written
• Ability to anticipate, prioritize, and organize work to meet objectives
• Experience developing multiplayer video game environments

This is a full-time permanent position, where the successful candidate will be working from home for now, with a long term view to relocate to Vancouver, BC, Canada.

This role offers:

• Competitive salary
• Health and dental benefits
• Wellness spending account
• 3 weeks paid vacation and 2 weeks paid studio shutdown over the December holiday period
• 1 week paid annual company trip
• Annual employee anniversary gifts
• Wonderful colleagues!

If you meet the above qualifications, and OWI sounds like the kind of company you want to be a part of, please apply now with a cover letter and a copy of your resume. Initial round of applications will be reviewed on January 8th 2021.

Offworld Industries is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, language, citizenship, creed, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, physical and/or mental handicap, financial ability or any other characteristic protected by law.