Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Collaborates with artists and programmers to develop AAA quality visual and visceral combat experience for a massively multiplayer RPG, including but not limited to visual flow of combat, NPC AI, and basic combat control.
• Drives combat playtesting: setting up and running the tests, gathering the feedback, and driving the task lists to iterate upon.
• Responsible for systems design, aid with developing character progression options, dungeon and boss creature design.
• Reports to the Lead Combat Designer.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree.
• 5 Years industry experience in game design and game systems design.
• At least one shipped-AAA title with strong, action-oriented and visually compelling avatar-based combat.
• MMO play experience, including high end play (such as raiding or city sieging) is a plus.

Plus’s

• Familiarity with avatar-based fantasy or science-fiction genre games a must.
• Strong 3rd and/or 1st person combat design skills.
• Fundamental knowledge of game design and ability to create rough 3D test environments required.
• Must possess knowledge of the game production pipeline in order to communicate effectively with other team members.
• Must understand the relationship between gameplay elements within the overall game and player responses.
• Ability to communicate fluently with programmers and artists.
• Able to write clear and concise documentation.
• Self-motivated, with a strong drive to see projects through to completion.
• Proven experience with worldbuilding tools such as HeroEngine or UnrealEd.
• Practical experience with MS Excel, MS Access and programming or script languages such as Perl or Python a plus.
• Familiar with numerous pen and paper roleplaying systems a plus.
• Proven ability to think holistically, and understand how adjusting game balance will adjust far-reaching parts of the game design.
• Proven ability to see large, far-reaching projects to completion.

How to Apply

Optional Submission

Send in an example design document, 6 pages or less in length. This design document should show your written communication skills and creative problem solving. It should showcase the addition of a major new system or game design element into an existing MMORPG, such as World of Warcraft or City of Heroes. The document should focus on a feature that would increase the visual appeal of combat in one of these games.

Please do not send copyright materials belonging to other companies.

Please quote the following competition number in the subject line of your electronic application, or include in the cover letter of your mailed application:

08-Design-Combat

To apply via email, send your submission docs and resume to:

DesignerJobsAustin@bioware.com

Along with your submission, you MUST include a signed product submission agreement. Fax it to: 780-439-6374

Resources to help you apply:

• FAQ on Hiring Artists
• Helpful Art Portfolio Submission Guidelines
• Product Submission Agreement (PSA)

Due to the volume of applications we receive for our job postings, we are unable to respond personally to telephone inquiries regarding the status of an application. Only candidates being considered for interview will be contacted at this time.