Game Designer, Pokémon Go, Tokyo Studio

Niantic Labs, creator of Ingress and Pokémon GO, is seeking a Game Designer to help build gameplay experiences that delight and engage our players. We’re a fast paced, multi-disciplinary team of software developers and creative professionals based in San Francisco, Seattle and Tokyo. You will be responsible for using content, game mechanics, and systems to piece together a compelling Live Game experience for Pokémon GO, helping merge the virtual with the real world and inspiring people to explore together!

Responsibilities

• Create, test, and tune game content for live operations gameplay in Pokémon GO.
• Create one-page designs, content drafts, and gain alignment with cross-functional teams for live game events and content.
• Communicate content requirements, implementation processes, risks, and interactions.
• Identify and collaborate with internal teams to implement new ways to apply content to keep the game fresh and engaging for players.
• Create market analysis and user outreach to understand the local player behaviors and game play desires.
• Collaborate with IP holders to ensure brand integrity.
• Partner with producers, designers, and marketing to deliver compelling live service experiences.
• Be available for on-call troubleshooting, including support for Pokémon GO live operations and events.
• Collaborate with cross-functional team members and stakeholders, including regular and reliable attendance and participation in meetings.
• Required in-office 3 days on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

Qualifications

• 3+ years crafting and running content for a live mobile game.
• Extensive content creation experience, completing implementation from concept to delivery.
• Experience with game balance and pacing in a free-to-play economic model.
• Expertise with spreadsheets and in manipulating, summarizing, and maintaining large data sets.
• Excellent verbal and written communication in both English and Japanese.
• Flexibility in a demanding team environment.
• Passion for video games; an avid gamer with a proven understanding of mobile games.
• Solid understanding base of Pokémon GO and the general Pokémon franchise.
• Have worked on a high profile game with a significant amount of daily active users.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced hybrid environment and handle stress appropriately and/or ability to solve practical problems and be sufficiently adaptable to handle dynamic situations with little advance notice.
• Experience working on cross-functional teams with ability to communicate effectively through written and verbal communications, including asynchronous interactions with others.
• Based in Japan.

Plus If...!

• Experience with AR games or features.
• Experience with prototyping data models.
• Proficiency in Unity game development.
• Proficiency in scripting or tools writing.
• Experience in other related fields such as user interface design, art, programming or sound.
• Loves Pokémon GO or the IP

Join the Niantic team!

Niantic's global-scale augmented reality platform and digital map powers spatial computing experiences in the real world. Incubated out of the Maps team at Google, Niantic first created Ingress and then Pokémon GO, a cultural phenomenon and hit game played by tens of millions of people each month. Niantic’s Lightship platform, which powers Pokémon GO, also supports the company's other games including Pikmin Bloom, Peridot and Monster Hunter Now. Developers use Niantic’s platform to build their own AR applications and experiences, either with the Lightship Platform or directly through the web with 8th Wall.

We believe that cultivating a workplace where our people are supported and included is essential to creating great products our community will love. Our mission emphasizes seeking and hiring diverse voices, including those who are traditionally underrepresented in the technology industry, and we consider this to be one of the most important values we hold close.

Niantic is a hybrid first company. We believe that in person interaction and collaboration fosters creativity, a sense of community, and is critical to our future success as a company. Our hybrid work schedules allow for a mix of remote and in-office work.

We're a hard-working, fun, and exciting group who value intellectual curiosity and a passion for problem-solving! We have growing offices located in San Francisco, Sunnyvale, Palo Alto, Bellevue, Kansas, London, Tokyo, Hamburg, Hyderabad, and Zürich. #LI-HYBRID

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