Staff Gameplay Designer

About teamLFG & Sony Interactive Entertainment: teamLFG is an elite, cross-disciplinary game development division operating under Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) to engineer an original, high-visibility multiplayer action franchise natively for the global PlayStation ecosystem. Driven by an ambitious vision to craft immersive interactive spaces, teamLFG builds games that bond global players together into deeply invested communities, shifting traditional PvP frameworks into authentic digital third places. Backed by the unmatched infrastructure of PlayStation, teamLFG combines systemic, combinatoric game design with premium technology assets to deliver expressive action sandboxes filled with dynamic, unexpected social moments.

Position Overview

We are seeking a highly creative, technically sophisticated contract Staff Gameplay Designer to lead the structural design, prototyping, and long-term execution of core social sandbox components for an unannounced multiplayer PvP flagship project. In this senior individual contributor leadership track, you will assume absolute ownership over the character verbs, player avatars, and environmental systems that govern cooperative social gameplay and fluid player expression. Partnering tightly alongside engineering, animation, and technical art directors, you will draft the modular code frameworks that translate physical character motion into responsive, hilarious player memories. This position demands a T-shaped design veteran who brings outstanding scripting mechanics, understands AAA action game balances, and comfortably navigates highly ambiguous project goals.

Key Responsibilities

• Avatar Sandbox Systems Architecture: Model, implement, and maintain scalable avatar movement controls, layout properties, and core sandbox systems that encourage universal player expression and structural community trust.
• Customization & Progression Economies: Build extensible technical backbones to govern avatar customization components, driving player investment loops and sustainable progression economics.
• 3C Gameplay Design Implementation: Design, iterate, and ship compelling client-side interactive modules utilizing expert-level 3C (Character, Camera, and Controls) sandbox design and prototyping rules.
• NPC Behavioral Engineering: Program endearing, systemically consistent non-player characters (NPCs) that enhance narrative IP quality while respecting baseline sandbox constraints.
• Multi-Disciplinary Signal Synchronization: Collaborate with internal audio engineering, particle effects, and technical animation cells to communicate complex gameplay affordances and timing responses smoothly to the player asset.
• Rapid Prototyping Scripting: Leverage advanced technical scripting tools to rapidly stub out combinatoric game concepts, evaluate operational market loops, and maximize feature deployment speeds.

Required Skills & Qualifications

• Demonstrated professional history operating as a Senior Gameplay Designer, Sandbox Engineer, Systems Designer, or Technical Game Developer inside large-scale online game studios.
• Profound, expert-tier scripting and system design fundamentals, with a deep understanding of how to structure interactive tools to unlock game variety and mechanical complexity.
• Advanced, masterly grasp of character motion metrics, encompassing acceleration weight, physical timing, camera tracking curves, and skeletal animation responsiveness.
• Proven capacity to manage and establish technical feature direction autonomously while navigating highly fluid corporate creative pipelines.
• Outstanding verbal and written communication mechanics, with absolute fluency in English to drive alignment across artists, producers, and backend programmers.
• Location Context: Full-time contract parameters providing qualified design leaders with the absolute flexibility to operate remotely from home anywhere within the United States.

Preferred Strategic Indicators (Nice to Have)

• Prior experience serving as a Staff-level Sandbox or Gameplay Designer on a shipped AAA multiplayer game, owning character customization or social hubs.
• Hands-on familiarity with balancing systems, match configurations, or content delivery metrics for live-service cooperative action games with active player bases.
• Broad, multi-disciplinary development experience across game engines, visual modeling environments, or sound system files.

What We Offer

• Premium Hourly Compensation Matrix: A highly lucrative, experience-benchmarked contract base wage range of $76.00 – $115.00 USD per hour, tailored transparently to evaluate your specialized design portfolio.
• The exceptional creative runway to directly code, design, and launch a premier new franchise backed by the institutional power of PlayStation.
• Profound work-from-home remote parameters offering high creative independence, flexible shift scheduling, and excellent personal autonomy.
• Comprehensive health insurance benefit offerings available through our partner networks, encompassing medical coverage, dental care, and vision protection plans.