Principal Game Designer, Gameplay - Unpublished R&D Product

All Game Designers at Riot have a base set of skills: you design, tweak, and optimize the player experience. Your analytical skills, player insight, and creativity aid in crafting in- and out-of-game experiences that engage and surprise players. You will collaborate with interdisciplinary teams and work with every tool at hand to innovate and iterate player-focused designs that'll delight millions around the world.

As a Principal Game Designer focused on core gameplay on the MMO team, you’ll build satisfying and deep player combat and other moment to moment actions. You own and shape the core combat fundamentals that the team will be able to build a large volume of player and enemy content on top of. You excel in the systems and components of compelling player combat and enemies. Tuning and getting the finest details perfect for great feel, depth, and strategic decision making is your focus. You are comfortable operating in an ambiguous environment where the team owns its own goals, and where change, big and small, is a critical part of the process. You will report to the Design Director on the team.

• Contribute to a unified combat vision that resonates across both small and large player counts
• Deliver on our combat aspirations in the solutions, content, and decisions in the details of design and implementation
• Inspire and support all members of the team to continue striving for their best possible work in a healthy and sustainable way
• Mentor and grow designers on the team in both craft and collaboration skills
• Champion an effective playtesting process that can validate our goals and fuel continuous improvement over time
• Be the primary owner for a significant portion of player combat, traversal, or enemies as an IC
• Build direction for core player actions like Camera, Controls, and Character
• Design and iterate on low level details of inputs and player actions that contribute to great feel, rich decision making, and a balanced ecosystem
• Create and provide multiple potential designs and solutions, articulating trade-offs and risks between different options

• 7+ years of experience in professional Game Design
• 4+ years of experience in Combat Mechanics in real time games
• Has built combat systems that are approachable, satisfying, and engaging for many years of play
• Can build a gameplay feature vision that lays out goals, values, and the most critical solutions
• Experience communicating and expressing complex and nuanced designs in simple ways
• Can work effectively with non design disciplines to deliver a unified and cohesive experience for players
• Shipped or worked on at least one AAA+ game
• Can create complex mechanics and systems with attention to the player impacts and downstream effects
• Experience designing enemy systems that interact with player combat to create varied and satisfying encounters

• Experience with group based combat and cooperative play
• Iterating on combat in a live service environment with balance, improvements, and new content
• Experience creating systemic change to a team’s process or principles to improve output significantly across the team
• Leadership experience resolving conflict, and when needed offering difficult feedback with respect
• Familiarity with the LoL IP

For this role, you'll find success through craft expertise and a collaborative spirit that prioritizes the delight of players. We will look at your past studies and experience, but for this role, we also look for dedicated people with a personal relationship with games. If you embody player empathy and care about players' experiences, this is the role for you!

Riot focuses on work/life balance, shown by our open paid time off policy and other perks such as flexible work schedules. We offer medical, dental, and life insurance, parental leave for you, your spouse/domestic partner, and children, and a 401k with company match. Check out our benefits pages for more information.

At Riot Games, we put players first. That mission drives every decision in our quest to create games and experiences that make it better to be a player. Whether you’re working directly on a new player-facing experience or you’re supporting the company as a whole, everyone at Riot is part of our mission. And just like in our games, we’re better when we work together. Our goal is to create collaborative teams where you are empowered to bring your unique perspective everyday. If that sounds like the kind of place you want to work, we’re looking forward to your application.

It’s our policy to provide equal employment opportunity for all applicants and members of Riot Games, Inc. Riot Games makes reasonable accommodations for handicapped and disabled Rioters and does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, handicap, veteran status, marital status, criminal history, or any other category protected by applicable federal and state law. We consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with applicable federal, state and local law, including the California Fair Chance Act, the City of Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, and the Washington Fair Chance Act.

Per the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, the following core duties may create a basis for disqualifying candidates with relevant criminal histories:

• Safeguarding confidential and sensitive Company data
• Communication with others, including Rioters and third parties such as vendors, and/or players, including minors
• Accessing Company assets, secure digital systems, and networks
• Ensuring a safe interactive environment for players and other Rioters

These duties are directly related to essential operations, safety, trust, and compliance obligations within our organization. Please note that job duties may evolve based on business needs and additional responsibilities may be assigned as necessary to maintain operational efficiency and security.