Narrative Designer for High-Profile IP Game Development

NARRATIVE DESIGNER - UNANNOUNCED PROJECT

Job Title: Narrative Designer

Location: Fully Remote

Company: Smile Break

Department: Narrative Design

Reports To: Narrative Director

Job Summary:

We are looking for a Narrative Designer to join our fully remote game development team for an unannounced project within a high-profile IP.

We are in development on an ambitious, unannounced, cross-platform Strategy/MMO title, creating a team of talented and passionate game makers to join us on this exciting journey. This could be your opportunity to make a lasting impact on one of our next big releases.

Key Responsibilities:

As a storytelling specialist, you will be creating with the narrative team an epic serialized journey that immerses the player in the world of a globally recognized IP and offers agency to customize the story in a meaningful way through branching narrative design. As a teammate, you will bring to our writers’ room your professional integrity, inventive ideas, and IP knowledge. As an individual, you will autonomously deliver best-in-class narratives across outlines, scripts, and features.

• Demonstrate experience with crafting and implementing system-driven, player-owned, branching narratives
• Proactively contribute in the writers’ room to story development
• Design story outlines that align with IP requirements, product goals, and art, animation, and production scope
• Write emotionally rich scripts featuring authentic dialogue for an expansive cast of IP and original characters
• Collaborate within and across departments, proactively communicating and applying feedback efficiently and effectively
• Contribute to the development of narrative features and events
• Assist in the training of more junior designers as the team grows

Requirements:

• Experience in serialized storytelling for multi-year game and/or TV projects
• Strong RPG storytelling, writing, and branching narrative design skills
• IP knowledge* and enthusiasm for working within the boundaries of an IP
• Understanding of F2P game development pipelines and monetization strategies
• Implementation experience to convert scripts to in-game conversations as well as block, light, and direct dialogue scenes
• Organizational agility, task management, and communication skills
• High degree of professional integrity and discretion

Nice-to-Have Qualifications: 

• A passion and predilection for team writing
• Avid player of games, especially Narrative RPG and 4X Strategy
• Directing experience - character blocking, camera positions and editing abilities.

*Qualified candidates will be asked to sign an NDA and complete a project-specific narrative assessment.

What We Offer:

• Fully remote full-time position.
• Work on a high-profile IP alongside a passionate and experienced team.
• Great benefits, including company paid health insurance, unlimited PTO, paid holidays, and 401k match.
• We foster a supportive, collaborative environment where creative ownership and work-life balance are valued. If you are passionate about designing engaging and impactful player experiences, we'd love to have you join our team.