Principal Level Designer

at  People Can Fly

Company Description
People Can Fly is one of the leading independent AAA games development studios with an international team of hundreds of talented individuals working from offices located in Poland, UK, Ireland, US, and Canada and from all over the world thanks to our remote work programs.
Founded in 2002, we made our mark on the shooter genre with titles such as Painkiller, Bulletstorm, Gears of War: Judgment, and Outriders. We are one of the most experienced Unreal Engine studios in the industry and we are expanding it with in-house solutions called PCF Framework.
Our creative teams are currently working on several exciting titles: Gemini is our new project being developed with Square Enix; Maverick is a Triple-A game developed in collaboration with Microsoft Corporation; Bifrost, Victoria and Dagger are projects we’re growing in the self-publishing model. We also have one project in the concept phase – Red; as well as two projects in VR technology – Green Hell VR and Bulletstorm VR - an exciting VR version of our cult-classic shooter.
With over 20 years of experience, PCF sets out to explore new horizons. We aim to combine our expertise with the creativity of the best and most forward-thinking talents in the industry to work together on the new generation of action games for the global gaming community.
If you decide to accompany us on this journey, you’ll have a chance to perfect your craft and expand your knowledge, working alongside leaders in the industry to bring a brand-new unique experience to the players worldwide.
Project Red is a yet unannounced AAA game. The game development involves primarily our Europe based teams.

Job Description

• Take full level ownership – from paper design, through the whitebox phase, script, iteration, debugging, optimization – until our game ships.
• Work hand in hand with the Creative Director to iterate, implement and execute on key design and level building principles.
• Collaborating with the art department to ensure that the levels are of the highest visual quality while retaining gameplay and fun as well as design and code teams on making maps as fun as they can be and integrating any new features into the built-in levels.
• Maintaining the big picture of all connected features used by the department, identifying weak spots and missing links, proposing and driving improvements to the toolset, workflows and pipelines.
• Ensure that levels will meet design requirements for game modes.
• Assessment of designs, game features and pipelines, identifying potential risks, looking for systemic improvement.
• Block out and build levels and iterate through playtesting and providing/implementing feedback.
• Proactively identify cross-discipline challenges and risks to the project and offer solutions.
• Manage or supervise work of established Strike Teams.
• Bug Fixing and describing case studies in the knowledge base.
• Sharing knowledge with less experienced peers.
• Occasionally support Lead in recruitment projects with HR collaboration.
• Occasionally can onboard new hires.
• 80% of time spent in Engine.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Typically 6/8+ years of professional level design experience.
• Typically at least 2 successfully shipped AAA games on PC or console.
• Expert in level design both in practice and theory (chokepoints, routes, lines of sight, engagement distances).
• Strong mentoring skills.
• Good presentation skills.
• Strong problem solving and trouble-shooting skills.
• Deep understanding of systems design, player psychology, and emerging industry trends.
• Great understanding of creative and game development processes.
• Experience with visual scripting systems.
• Excellent knowledge of Unreal Engine 4 and Unreal Engine Editor full working proficiency.
• Proficiency with Atlassian software (JIRA, Confluence).
• Self-motivation.
• Unreal Engine 4 or 5 Experience.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills in English.

Nice to have:

• Unreal Blueprint
• Knowledge of Maya, 3DS Max or similar 3D package
• Experience leading a level design team

Additional Information

Please refer the Job description for details