Assistant Game Director
Toronto, ON, Canada
Full Time
Manager/Supervisor
Assistant Game Director
Would you like to work on some of the greatest franchises in gaming history? Certain Affinity has physical locations in Austin, Texas, and Toronto, Canada. Our culture reflects the values and the vibrant nature of the cities we call home. This includes a commitment to evolution, diversity, excellence, and work-life balance. We're best known for co-developing numerous AAA FPS games, though now we are also creating compelling new games of our own. We're always on the lookout for amazing talent to join our team.
Responsibilities:
Would you like to work on some of the greatest franchises in gaming history? Certain Affinity has physical locations in Austin, Texas, and Toronto, Canada. Our culture reflects the values and the vibrant nature of the cities we call home. This includes a commitment to evolution, diversity, excellence, and work-life balance. We're best known for co-developing numerous AAA FPS games, though now we are also creating compelling new games of our own. We're always on the lookout for amazing talent to join our team.
Responsibilities:
- Drive the Holistic Game Vision: Work with key stakeholders to help define and evangelize the core creative vision and game pillars, encompassing gameplay, narrative, art, animation, audio, and overall player experience, ensuring they align strictly with project needs and business goals.
- Translate Vision into Execution: Break down high-level creative and design concepts into clear, actionable goals, roadmaps, and deliverables for cross-functional discipline leads (Design, Art, Animation, Engineering, Audio, etc.).
- Establish and Maintain Quality Bars: Provide continuous direction, feedback, and quality control across all disciplines, ensuring the final interactive experience meets AAA standards and fulfills the established creative pillars for the IP while respecting the necessary business constraints.
- Manage Internal & External Partnerships: Serve as the primary creative liaison for the project. Align internal teams, external co-development partners, and key stakeholders, ensuring expectations, goals, and feedback loops are crystal clear. Escalate issues in a timely and proactive manner as they arise.
- Lead Cross-Departmental Collaboration: Act as the creative nexus between all internal departments, proactively identifying dependencies, resolving creative conflicts, and ensuring all teams understand how their work contributes to the unified player experience.
- IP & Universe Development: Oversee the expansion of existing IP or assist with the creation of original IP, performing market analysis to inform strategic goals and ensuring the universe translates seamlessly into compelling gameplay.
- 10+ years industry experience developing AAA titles.
- 6+ years of experience leading high-functioning game development teams and defining game design and IP direction.
- Experience in a senior leadership capacity on at least two major AAA console and/or PC games from concept to completion.
- Experience developing online multiplayer games and/or first or third person shooters or action games.
- Have a broad, in-depth knowledge of game design, game art and animation. Additional expertise in technology, production, business, online game operation, etc. are all a plus.
- Comfortable collaborating with creative developers both on and off site across different languages and time zones.
- Exceptional written and verbal communication skills; must be able to successfully evangelize the vision for a game and the company at large, both internally and externally to a wide array of audience types.
- A strong collaborator who welcomes feedback and criticism, and thrives in a fast-paced, iterative, agile environment.
- Highly organized with a knack for breaking down complex problems into manageable and actionable pieces for others.
- Experience working in UE4/UE5 to conceptualize, create, and implement game concepts.
- Experience working with a wide array of departments to define tests and interpret data to iterate on design effectively.
- Experience iterating the design and supporting an online community after launching a product.
- An absolute passion for games and game development, up-to-date on the latest industry trends and player sentiments.
- Co-development and/or outsourcing experience.
- Familiarity with Agile and other traditional project management methodologies.
- Shipped one or more AAA titles as a Director.
- Excellent understanding of animation/tech animation development pipelines in all phases of game development.
- College degree in a related field.
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