Gameplay Designer

Who We Are

Founded in 2005, 2K Games is a global video game company, publishing titles developed by some of the most influential game development studios in the world. 2K publishes titles in today’s most popular gaming genres, including sports, shooters, action, role-playing, strategy, casual, and family entertainment. Our studios responsible for developing 2K’s portfolio of world-class games across multiple platforms include Visual Concepts, Firaxis, Hangar 13, CatDaddy, Cloud Chamber, and HB Studios. Our portfolio of titles is expanding due to our global strategic plan, building and acquiring exciting studios whose content continues to inspire all of us! 

Located in Vancouver, BC, 2K Sports Lab is a small collective being formed within 2K Games that is driving the research and development of future sports interactive entertainment programs. Within this group, speculative work will be done on future sports games with an eye towards taking the magic of 2K’s publishing and development expertise and applying them to future opportunities. 

Our team of engineers, marketers, artists, writers, data scientists, producers, thinkers and doers, are the professional publishing stewards of our growing library of critically-acclaimed franchises such as NBA 2K, 2K PGA, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, Lego Drive, BioShock, Borderlands, The Quarry, Mafia, Sid Meier’s Civilization, Marvel’s Midnight Suns, WWE 2K, and XCOM.

At 2K, we pride ourselves on creating an inclusive work environment, which means encouraging our teams to Come as You Are and do your best work! We encourage ALL applicants to explore our global positions, even if they don’t meet every requirement for the role.  If you're interested in the job and think you have what it takes to work at 2K, we encourage you to apply!

What We Need

Our studio is looking for an experienced Gameplay Designer who has a high-quality bar, a passion for replicating authentic sports behaviors, and experience in systems design.  

In this role, you will work with a production partner to creatively lead AI Engineers, Animation Engineers, and Animators to set the vision for and implement authentic sports behaviors to build a highly polished world-class gameplay for what will be the next massive sports franchise in our industry!

The Gameplay Designer will work with the Gameplay Design Director to set a vision for a significant gameplay area and partner with production and tech peers to lead a team to deliver against that vision.

What You’ll Do

• Be the ‘Product Owner’ for your gameplay area
• Acquire an intimate knowledge of our target player and our product goals
• Acquire an intimate knowledge of the competitive landscape
• Work with the ‘Gameplay Design Director’ to define the vision for your gameplay area
• Partner with producer and tech peers to lead your team
• Drive the generation and prioritization of your team’s backlog
• Collaborate with the QA team to drive testing of the game experience and drive external testing as needed
• Evaluate progress and game quality and partner with Production to formulate and revise plans to drive execution
• ‘Craft the Design’ of your gameplay area
• Collaborate with your team to create designs that execute on the agreed-upon feature visions
• Live our creative process and create the necessary documentation
• Manage the timely generation of design documentation
• ‘Steer the Implementation’ of your gameplay vision
• Collaborate with Engineers and Animators to steer the execution of your vision
• Collaborate with your Project Management and Technical partners to lead your feature team (5-10 developers)
• Champion the player experience, bringing the players' perspective to all decision-making
• Be constantly analyzing the software, adding to, grooming, and prioritizing the backlog
• Inspire and align your team on your vision for your gameplay area
• Passionately and clearly present visions to the team
• Share design material in asynchronous ways to aid visibility
• Work closely with Engineers, Animators, and Artists to implement your vision
• Help to create a positive, inclusive, and collaborative environment for your team
• Be an ‘individual contributor’ when time allows
• Understand the technical details of how the game works
• Exemplify WGLL by being keen and able to be in engine in order to deliver the strongest possible experience

What Will Make You A Great Fit

• Passion for Sports and Sports Video Games
• Experience designing high-quality ‘second-to-second’ game experiences
• Experience with, and passion for, systemic game design
• Experience leading a feature team team (7+ developers)
• Experience working with Animation SEs and Animators and is familiar with animation technology (Blend techniques, Masking, Procedural Animation, etc.).
• Appetite for taking on  ‘Product Owner’ responsibilities (backlog management and prioritization)
• Positive, ‘can do’, proactive, and ‘hands-on’ attitude 

Beneficial Qualifications

• Experience working on sports games
• Experience with animation-based features
• Experience with AI-based features