Associate Game Designer

Blizzard Entertainment is looking for a talented and enthusiastic Associate Game Designer for the World of Warcraft team.

As an Associate Encounter Designer for the World of Warcraft team you will contribute to the development of raid, dungeon, delve, and outdoor world content by designing and implementing engaging creature combat. You must have a passion for telling compelling stories and excel at crafting them through the medium of gameplay mechanics.

This role is anticipated to be a hybrid work position, with some work on-site and some work-from-home. The home studio for this position is Irvine, CA.

Responsibilities:

Priorities can often change while working on a live game, so this role includes, but is not limited to, the following responsibilities:

• Populate the world of Azeroth with creatures and bring them to life through combat behaviors
• Translate loose content ideas into formalized design pitches to be shared with design peers and collaborators across multiple disciplines
• Iterate effectively while working on both short and long-term design projects using a modern game editor
• Interpret and incorporate feedback on your content from a variety of sources, including players, peers, quantitative reports, and design leadership
• Empathize with a broad spectrum of player types to build encounters that provide an appropriate amount of challenge for different audiences
• Maintain a strong understanding of modern World of Warcraft combat and encounter design
• Meet target dates and work proactively with production to prioritize and balance your workload
• Communicate proactively across the development team to collaborate with peers in many other sub-disciplines

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience
• Two years’ experience working in a design role for live games or in an equivalent performance-driven professional setting
• Significant experience playing World of Warcraft dungeon and raid content
• Experience building games or mods in modern game engines e.g. Unreal, Unity, Godot, etc.

Knowledge & Skills

• Demonstrated skill using at least one game editor for a modern game engine
• Demonstrated ability to write scripts, code, or queries using at least one computer language (e.g. C#, Lua, Python)
• Knowledge of professional game development best practices and development roles
• A high standard of oral and written professional communication skills, including the ability to document work effectively and lead professional meetings/discussions

We provide a suite of benefits that promote physical, emotional and financial well-being for ‘Every World’ - we’ve got our employees covered! Subject to eligibility requirements, the Company offers comprehensive benefits including:

• Medical, dental, vision, health savings account or health reimbursement account, healthcare spending accounts, dependent care spending accounts, life and AD&D insurance, disability insurance;
• 401(k) with Company match, tuition reimbursement, charitable donation matching;
• Paid holidays and vacation, paid sick time, floating holidays, compassion and bereavement leaves, parental leave;
• Mental health & wellbeing programs, fitness programs, free and discounted games, and a variety of other voluntary benefit programs like supplemental life & disability, legal service, ID protection, rental insurance, and others;
• If the Company requires that you move geographic locations for the job, then you may also be eligible for relocation assistance.

Best known for iconic video game universes including Warcraft®, Overwatch®, Diablo®, and StarCraft®, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (www.blizzard.com), a division of Activision Blizzard, which was acquired by Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment experiences. Blizzard Entertainment has created some of the industry’s most critically acclaimed and genre-defining games over the last 30 years, with a track record that includes multiple Game of the Year awards. Blizzard Entertainment engages tens of millions of players around the world with titles available on PC via Battle.net®, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android.

Our World

Activision Blizzard, Inc., is one of the world’s largest and most successful interactive entertainment companies and is at the intersection of media, technology and entertainment. We are home to some of the most beloved entertainment franchises including Call of Duty®, World of Warcraft®, Overwatch®, Diablo®, Candy Crush and Bubble Witch . Our combined entertainment network delights hundreds of millions of monthly active users in 196 countries, making us the largest gaming network on the planet!

Our ability to build immersive and innovate worlds is only enhanced by diverse teams working in an inclusive environment. We aspire to have a culture where everyone can thrive in order to connect and engage the world through epic entertainment. We provide a suite of benefits that promote physical, emotional and financial well-being for ‘Every World’ - we’ve got our employees covered!

The videogame industry and therefore our business is fast-paced and will continue to evolve. As such, the duties and responsibilities of this role may be changed as directed by the Company at any time to promote and support our business and relationships with industry partners.