World Designer

Overview

Established in 1999, Arkane Lyon is one of the most renowned game development studios and has earned a matchless reputation for creating games with unique style and immersive action. The studio’s titles, which include the Dishonored franchise and DEATHLOOP, have received numerous prestigious accolades around the globe, including hundreds of "Game of the Year" awards.

Arkane Lyon is developing the upcoming title Marvel’s Blade, a third person, single player, action-adventure set in the heart of Paris. The game is based on the comic book hero Blade and will feature an original story with the studio’s signature immersive gameplay and world-class narrative.

Joining Arkane Lyon is an opportunity to collaborate and evolve within a passionate team, on cutting-edge technologies and innovative games enjoyed by millions of players. You will work in a stimulating and welcoming environment in our offices located in the Lyon (France) Confluence district, a place of greenery, sports, gastronomy and music.

Arkane Lyon is owned by ZeniMax Media and Microsoft.

Responsibilities

Reporting to the Campaign Director, and in close collaboration with the Design and Art department teams, the Principal World Designer is entrusted with the gameplay and narrative consistency, depth, and quality of the game’s environments and the various optional activities they contain.

• Build and maintain a creative toolbox that guides designers in creating content outside of the main campaign, from side quests to narrative vignettes, that makes the game’s environments feel alive while supporting the game’s themes and systems.
• Ensure a proper distribution of this content depending on the various environments’ needs and particularities.
• Rationalize the type and amount of content that can be created by the team while balancing bespoke interactions with recurring ones to foster player curiosity.
• Work closely with the Art and Narrative department to ensure a good spread of assets that reinforce narrative consistency and depth across the game.
• Coordinate with the System Design team to make sure that the simulation-driven overarching systems are expressed to the player in interesting, organic ways.
• Ad Hoc testing of the game missions and environments to provide informed feedback to the teams and help them make the world feel unique, immersive and reactive.

Qualifications

• Outstanding experience and track record in World Design
• Strong affinity for systemic, story rich playgrounds
• Interest and understanding of the Immersive Simulation philosophy
• Great interpersonal skills with various profiles and disciplines
• Solid understanding of player psychology
• Relevant experience in creating/owning clear, expansive, and practical living documentation
• Experience using game-specific editing packages/editors
• Knows how to foster, and then curate great ideas from the entire team and turn them into solid designs
• Good presenter that can generate excitement and support for the agreed upon design choices and decisions
• Experience with receiving and acting upon feedback from the dev team, the User Research specialists, and player playtests
• Quality oriented

Preferred Skills

• Passionate gamer with a solid video game culture
• Good understanding of the industry, foundational games, and current the competitive landscape
• Analytical thinking: Capacity to quickly understand game design rules, mechanics, balancing concepts and techniques.
• Creativity: think outside the box, being able to see things in a different perspective
• Good knowledge of MS Office (Word, Excel, Power Point)
• Excellent level in written/spoken English
• Team Player

We embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion in everything we do – from recruiting for our studios, publishing and operations to fostering safe and respectful workplaces that encourage collaboration. Our culture is based on principles of respect, inclusion, and fair treatment and we welcome anyone into our family without regard to race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, or age.

Our diversity fuels our innovation and inspires us to create game worlds that bring us closer to the global community of players we serve.