Riot Games was established in 2006 by entrepreneurial gamers who believe that player-focused game development can result in great games. In 2009, Riot released its debut title League of Legends to critical and player acclaim. As the most played PC game in the world, over 100 million play every month. Players form the foundation of our community and it’s for them that we continue to evolve and improve the League of Legends experience. 

We’re looking for humble but ambitious, razor-sharp professionals who can teach us a thing or two. We promise to return the favor. Like us, you take play seriously; you’re passionate about games. We embrace those who see things differently, aren’t afraid to experiment, and who have a healthy disregard for constraints.

That's where you come in.

As Lead / Senior / Principal Game Designer*, you'll design, tweak, and optimize the player experience. You'll apply rigorous critical thinking and a Dr. Mundo-strength dose of imagination to engineer fun in the form of thrilling in- and out-of-game experiences. You'll work with every tool at hand and collaborate with interdisciplinary teams to innovate and iterate player-focused design that'll delight millions around the world.

You are:

• Experienced: you have around 5+ years of working experience in a professional setting, ideally in game development, and you have shown a track record of making games
• A design maverick: you concisely articulate game concepts with balanced persistence and analyze and ideate mechanics with equal and opposite force; you're fluent in many prevalent game systems and mechanics but have the critical thinking skills to know when it's time to chuck them in favor of something more radical; you have good taste in games, easily understanding why games you don't like are loved by other players
• Intellectually curious: you probably have at least a bachelor's degree, but if you don't, you are exceptionally self-educated and a clear case study in college not being necessary for everyone; regardless of your education level, you seek knowledge as a lifelong pursuit; you think on your feet and absorb new knowledge every day while relishing new challenges for their learning opportunities; you know when to pummel a problem solo, and when to leverage a team; you constantly form models and perspectives around all things, and are eager to test them on example cases
• To the point: your verbal and written communications are crisp and clear; your best work comes from a place of collaboration and teamwork and you know that quality results come from sharing your work and perspective with others effectively throughout the design process
• Tech-friendly: you either have a technical or programming background, or you think like an engineer and attack problems with the same systematic precision; experience with scripting languages and designer tools is a definite plus; if you want to dual-class as an engineer, we also can offer that role too ("tech designer")
• A gamer: your passion for play is matched only by the breadth of the games you've enjoyed online; you easily identify and explain any game's strengths and weaknesses and have played hundreds of games in your life; a few of which you've played at least 500 hours, and one of which is a currently popular multiplayer game
• Prone to strong opinions, reasonably held: you have strong opinions about a lot of things, most of all games, but always engage in a reasonable discussion about your opinions; you tend to forever update your conclusions to better and better models
• A leader: when you speak, you speak persuasively, and people want to listen; you frequently help co-workers focus on the right things, mentor others in design, and push products in order to avoid mistakes and find opportunities

You will:

• Improve the function of the team you are on either through individual achievement or through leadership; ideally you improve the organization too
• Solve hard game design problems that are worth solving; elevate the strategy and sensemaking quality of the product or product segment you are responsible for in partnership with other leaders
• Continuously learn about the game space you are operating in, distilling and sharing those learnings
• Maintain rich, thoughtful, candid communication sideways, down and up in order to ensure the very best game is built
• Gather, acknowledge, and respond to internal feedback, adjusting design choices as necessary
• When implementing, use quality work procedures that set a good example for others
• Know when to initiate and lead, and know when to play back-line and support - the best leaders also can follow

* Senior Designer is a role of equal seniority to most Lead Designer roles at Riot - it’s a distinction based upon portion of the job that is people management (lead being more focused on people management, senior being more focused on design - both are critical to serving players). Principal Game Designer is parallel to more senior Lead Designers along the same lines.

Don’t forget to include a resume and cover letter. We receive a lot of applications, but we’ll notice a fun, well-written intro that shows us you take play seriously.