Job Posting Title
Lead Game DesignerWhy Big Fish Games?

Big Fish Games is the home of some of the biggest hit mobile casual games including EverMerge, Gummy Drop, Cooking Craze, Fairway Solitaire, and many more.
• We are curious and constantly seek improvement in all we do because that's what our business demands
• We operate with good intentions, confidence, and humility
• We welcome diversity of background, thought, and experience
• We listen actively and value each other
• We foster a fun environment that inspires creativity
Overview
This role will be a Lead Designer for EverMerge. Your designs will be shaped by who the players are and what motivates them, and this will be informed by player behavioral and insights data. You'll work closely with other game designers, data analysts and scientists, user experience designers, artists, and narrative designers to create or guide delightful player experiences that incisively align with business goals. You will work across teams to... review a high volume of detailed game design proposals that have been generated both internally and from our development partners.

The candidate for this role also needs to possess the experience to concept and design new casual game ideas and drive prototyping to pre-production teams to create new breakthrough hit games. A passion for casual games and an understanding of the evolution of the casual game market is essential.

This role is based in Montreal, Canada, a new hub for Big Fish Games. As a Senior Manager of the company, there will be expectations of providing guidance to the Senior Vice President of Studios and Senior Vice President of Operations, as well as the Head of People & Culture on establishing a presence in the talent market. These responsibilities may include hiring and local supervision of talent, supporting our facility and leading a studio culture that establishes excellence and fun in game making.What You'll Do
• Lead a team of game designers by setting clear and measurable objectives while guiding and mentoring them to do their best work
• Be a champion of player sentiment, with an eye towards increasing the "wow" factor while maintaining healthy game KPIs
• Internalize and evangelize the game vision, particularly with and eye toward long term sustainability and growth by way of delightful and compelling player experiences
• Collaborate with other discipline leads to shape the roadmap and strategy of game growth
• Understand complex system and economy interactions and how each new feature will likely affect the overall "sum of the parts"
• Guide toward feature and content proposals that give a lot of bang for their buck (example: LiveOps templates that can be reskinned or tweaked along thoughtful variables to create a large scale of content using the same core technology)
• Review many varieties of documentation– business requirement documents, design proposals, and technical design documentation– to provide incisive feedback for improvement and implementation viability.
• Be a strong but flexible player advocate.
• Direct and delegate to other team members based on your knowledge of their strengths and passions
• Diplomatically manage relationships with development partners and help to assess their strengths and weaknesses
• Take into account information from research groups, such as data scientists and player insights teams when building your designs.
• Define, measure and analyze KPI's and base your priorities/decisions for next steps on metrics.
What We're Looking For
• A minimum of 10 years of game design and development with proven experience in casual games, free to play businesses and mobile gaming
• An avid gamer who enjoys playing a wide variety of mobile, PC, console, and tabletop games
• A proven ability to design and adjust everything from short moment-to-moment experiences to multi-week metagame cycles
• Excited to dive into the numbers to correctly balance complicated features and economies
• Ability to work patiently and productively with a wide variety of other teams, including other designers, product managers, producers, engineers, artists, and QA
• Naturally communicate and even sell your ideas to your teammates and get them excited about what they're building
• Ability to take feedback and adjust accordingly, and whilst you're able to advocate your point of view, you also have the ability to find the best compromise
• Comfortable making sense of game performance KPIs and metrics and how they relate to game design
Benefits And Beyond

Employees constantly rate Big Fish Games highly for its leadership, flexibility, well-being, diversity and inclusion through quarterly surveys.
• FLEX-Forward work environment: Customize the when, where, and how you work while delivering goals
• Health & More: Medical, dental, vision, life, disability, Teladoc services, employee assistance program (EAP)
• Work-Life: Wellness Friday (half-days), paid time off, parental leave, flexible work policy, studio holiday closure (Enjoy the week between Christmas and New Year)
• Wellbeing: Wellness fairs, weekly virtual workout classes, 24/7 access to mental health and wellbeing support, free therapy and counseling sessions for you and your family
• Wealth Care: 401k matching, flexible spending account (FSA), employee discounts, employee stock purchase program
• Learn & Grow: LinkedIn Learning subscription, mentorship program, career development, individual development plans, educational assistance on job-related professional development
• Community & Fun: Company social events, employee impact groups, company swag, volunteer opportunities
About Big Fish

Building upon our 20-year legacy as a leader in the biggest gaming categories in the world, we are innovating and developing new products within the casual space to add to our extensive portfolio. Big Fish is dedicated to delivering amazing experiences for players to connect, compete and discover play, anywhere and on any device. This means games for broad global audiences in genres that are easy to learn, and difficult to master. Be a part of the team from the start.

Big Fish is part of Pixel United, the free-to-play, mobile-first video games business of Aristocrat Leisure Ltd (ASX: ALL)

Big Fish Games is an equal opportunity employer. We bring unique talents together to build something special that's why we welcome and encourage diversity in the workplace regardless of race, gender, religion, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or veteran status.
Location
MontrealJob family
Games DesignContract Type
RegularTime Type
Full timeCompany
Big Fish Games
Montreal QC

Salary Criteria