Senior Designer | Wellington NZ

About the role:

Permanent full-time on-site in Wellington, NZ – 40 hours per week –  $80k-$100k+  based on experience. Due to Covid-19 travel and immigration restrictions, applicants must currently be living in New Zealand or have a valid work visa.

We’re Dinosaur Polo Club, an award-winning video game design studio full of lovely people making games in Wellington, New Zealand.

After developing and supporting two successful titles in our Miniverse franchise, we’re branching out and are working on a brand-new management simulation game with a fresh and exciting IP. We’re looking for an enthusiastic and experienced designer to join the team and hopefully that person is you! 

Ideally, you have several years of systems design experience. You’ll be jumping into prototyping so will be working closely with team members of all disciplines on early gameplay experiments, and your excellent communication skills will help when leading or contributing to discussions and championing features.

What you'll do in this role:

• Collaborate with the vision holder to effectively deliver the game’s intended experience.
• Lead the creation of new features, systems, and other in-game content.
• Create and maintain design documentation, including feature specification and implementation guidelines.
• Liaise with the art and programming departments to ensure robust understanding of implementation details.
• Offer direction and feedback to other designers to ensure a consistent tone and level of quality.
• Provide guidance and direction for more junior designers within the company.
• Regularly take part in design reviews, both offering and responding to feedback from your peers.
• Be a part of both a department and studio team, actively seeking to develop a method of communicating that is understandable to those outside of your immediate department.

The skills and experience we're looking for:

• At least 3-5 years professional industry experience as a game designer across multiple projects, preferably in core systems and mechanics design;
• The ability to take a clear vision and intended experience and make it reality; 
• Fantastic organisational skills, with a high level of initiative;
• Skills and experience in providing feedback and direction to others;
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, fluent in English;
• An interest in developing unique and high-quality video games;
• Dedication to working in a professional, inclusive, and supportive environment.

About us:

At Dinosaur Polo Club we value a healthy work-life balance where our dinos can flourish both inside and outside of the studio. We have a creative team, opportunities for growth, and a wholesome, supportive studio environment.

We value diversity and believe that our team should be as varied and wonderful as the people who play our games all around the world. Differences such as disabilities, gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity and any other aspects of various cultures and identities are important perspectives that contribute to an inclusive, well-rounded and engaging work environment. We know we’re creating better games when we have varied perspectives and experiences contributing to them. Women, LGBTQ+ community, Māori and Pasifika  – we want to hear from you! 

If there is anything we can do to allow for easier participation in the interview process, please let us know at careers@dinopoloclub.com.

What we can offer:

• A lovely bunch of skilled and enthusiastic team members for you to work alongside.
• Generous training allowance for things such as conferences, workshops, online courses and self-directed learning.
• Dedicated training days.
• Support structure including regular one-on-ones.
• Team activities such as a quarterly pot-luck lunch, movie nights at the studio, holiday functions and more.
• Healthy snacks, yummy treats and close proximity to some of Wellington’s best eateries! Plus an impressive array of locally made tea and coffee.
• Quarterly personal discretionary wellness allowance.
• Quarterly bonuses based on studio performance.
• Monthly workplace massages.
• Friday afternoon socials.
• Flexible workplace with core hours and optional work-from-home days.