Creative Director (Hybrid Options)

Splash Damage logo
Posted 21 November 2022
Salary Negotiable
LocationGuildford
Job type Permanent
DisciplineDesign
Reference18349
Contact NameLawrie Brennan

Job description

Splash Damage are recruiting for a Creative Director to be a key member of their leadership team responsible for project creative vision, direction, and success.

You will represent and reconcile the needs of the business, the player, and team members’ needs on the project and be responsible for the output and growth of the entire design discipline on your project and for the morale, alignment, and cohesion of all team members, across disciplines.

Beyond your project you will work to share knowledge, improve standards and processes across the studio and across disciplines, albeit with a focus on design.

You will regularly communicate the project’s vision throughout the studio and oversee the creation and maintenance of documentation including the GDD and wiki pages, though you will largely communicate verbally; spending time with each team member, at their desks, ensuring they understand the vision and design, are “bought-in” and have what they need to do their jobs. You will ensure the team feel the progress they are making and what their work is in service of, in the bigger picture.

You will regularly and effectively communicate with any external partners or publishers, managing those relationships, presenting the creative achievements of the team, negotiating feature / change requests. You will communicate outwards to press, communities and fans in various formats from live appearances to pre-recorded interviews to forum engagement acting as both an evangelist and representative of the product and as an ambassador for Splash Damage.

You will manage, mentor, develop & coach Lead Game Designers. You will be integral to the planning on your project working alongside Production to create roadmaps, hiring and succession plans, and scoping exercises.

As a leader you will set the tone on the project and ensure Splash Damage’s values are embraced and embodied by you team; including ensuring your team have autonomy and do not feel dictated to. 

The skills and experience you’ll bring to the role…

  • A passion for making and playing games
  • Deep understanding of all aspects of design with mastery in many areas including feedback, controls, balance, narrative, game-feel, retention, usability, on-boarding, social mechanics
  • Significant industry experience in a Lead or higher position
  • 3 shipped AAA console or PC titles that feature a multiplayer component, worked on from beginning to end
  • One or more shipped title featuring post-launch monetization beyond simple DLC packs; ideally a free-to-play title
  • Fierce attention to detail
  • Leadership experience, including the running of running a multi-person design team; man-management, mentoring, line-management
  • Experience of being the vision holder on a project, communicating that vision out and getting buy-in from your team and external stakeholders
  • Experience of being the flag-bearer / champion for a product including giving presentations to press and at conferences / events
  • Experience in creating first or third person shooters
  • Excellent verbal, written and presentation skills, including writing high quality and thorough design documentation
  • Knowledge of industry trends in regard to genres, gameplay, development models, and financial models
  • Experience with design documentation, diagram, and flow-chart creation, including wiki-based design documentation and spreadsheets
  • Experience with source-control applications (SVN, Perforce, AlienBrain, etc.)
  • The ability to work collaboratively with other disciplines and experience of being a key part of a leadership group
  • Strong maths skills; formulas, probability, statistics, and balancing
  • Highly experienced with Microsoft Office Products and other business software including Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel, Visio, Adobe Photoshop or similar
  • Strong problem-solving skills including lateral thinking
  • An understanding of systems, systemic design, emergent gameplay, and the place of procedural content generation in development
  • Deep player empathy
  • An understanding of player psychology and motivations


Bonus points for…

  • Degree in Video Game Design, Computer Science, Marketing, Entertainment, or a form of technical training
  • Experience running the live phase of a game as a service, including using telemetry / metrics to inform design and content decisions
  • Experience of parsing the results of, and acting on, market research e.g., Focus groups, qualitative and quantitative surveys, etc
  • Experience of prototyping gameplay mechanics using UE4, UE3, Unity, or similar