PC Game Design Specialist Role

When thinking back and reflecting on some of my favourite experiences and moments in games, I tend to think of the game experience more so than the specific hardware I played it on. The magic of playing a game and feeling truly immersed comes down to the game’s individual mechanics, its characters, its presentation and the world its set in. But really, what it ‘feels’ like to play is the end result of all of those elements coming together seamlessly, along with how well its then integrated with the hardware its running on and the method of control being used. Getting this right is very much like a handshake between the designers of a game and the players who turn on expecting a great experience. It’s a part of game development that designers will naturally take pride in and should never be underestimated.

It goes without saying that one of the key skills of a designer is to first and foremost think only of the player, to push them further then they may yet have experienced, to surprise them, but also to meet them half-way in terms of how they expect to control and interact with the game.

With all of that in mind, I wanted to talk about a new role we’re hiring for at Rare. We’re looking for a PC Designer to help us make Sea of Thieves a world class experience on PC as well as Xbox One.

We’ve recently opened up this new role to help us focus in realising the vision and gameplay of Sea of Thieves specifically on PC. However, no matter where you choose to play the game, we want you to be playing a first class version that feels custom made for your chosen platform. Delivering on this impacts so many aspects of the game and how its presented, from the user interface to supported control options and what can be tweaked and adjusted to suit each player’s unique setup. When it comes to the PC version, It requires a different design approach and knowledge of how real PC players like to enjoy their games on a multitude of different hardware and input configurations. Of course, we are approaching this without compromising what we believe is core to the vision of the game and what makes Sea of Thieves special. Ultimately, whether you’re playing on Xbox One or PC, it’s our goal to deliver a great gameplay experience.

In terms of the types of people we’re looking for, we’re keen to consider applications from a variety of backgrounds. Even if you don’t have any traditional design experience, but you’re still active within a PC game community and have some experience interacting with developers and other passionate players, we’d love to talk to you. This successful applicant might even be from our own Sea of Thieves community, as long as you can demonstrate that you’re the right person for the role, irrespective of whether you have worked formally in design before. Designers with experience can still apply of course, but the critical knowledge we are looking for is around what it takes to make great experiences on PC and how to meet the requirements of the most engaged and active PC players.

If you’ve kept up to date with the development of the game so far, I hope it’s become clear that the team believes feedback from players is an important part of the development process. Hearing your feedback, thoughts and analysis of what we’ve shown so far has been an inspiration for us all and the way this new role fits into that should be no different. Throughout the development of the game, we see our PC designer working closely with the community and listening to their feedback as they work to make the PC version the best it can be.

Whether it be listening to players on social media and forums, or dealing with actual live data that shows how real players are playing and the setups they use, the role will ensure that the needs of PC players are always championed and represented. After all, the people who are best equipped to tell you if something feels good or if a feature is working as intended are the players themselves – the people who liked the concept of the game enough to play it and feel passionately about it. The players who already love it or want to if given the chance.

If you feel like you have necessary skills to be our world-class PC designer, head over to the official job posting and drop us an application: PC Game Design Specialist