Technical Game Designer
Job Description
Key Skills Required
Master these to land this role
Want to know if you're a match for this job?
We are a small studio dedicated to crafting unique and high-quality interactive experiences, and we are looking for a talented designer-programmer hybrid who will collaborate with both the engineering and design teams. The goal in this role is to drive the creation and improvement of core gameplay and technical systems and tools highly tuned for the level of rich feedback and player immersion that helped define our games.
An example week for this person might be: Attend a design meeting and discover the need for a new camera feature to support a new content release. Program the camera feature and jump into the level editor to test and refine its implementation. Then, improve the level editor’s toolset to enable the rest of the design team to make full use of your new feature in future levels. Of course, the role isn’t limited to just camera features. Any interactive system applies — procedural animation, cloth simulation, player controls, AI creatures, NPC interactions — use your imagination!
What you'll do here:
- Crafting technical systems that enable gameplay (either alone or with a small team)
- Create fluid user interactions with rich feedback and polished game feel
- Enjoys enabling team members by improving the creative pipeline
- Is comfortable with cross-disciplinary work and collaboration
Must haves:
- Proficient in C++ (preferred), C, C# for quickly prototyping 3D gameplay
- Visual scripting
- Multiplayer game development
- Online operation of a live game
- Maya or 3D game engines
- Portfolio of your work
- Ok to take a test as part of our process
Nice to haves:
- Seek adventure and uncertainty in exploring experimental and risky game concepts
- Believe in the practice of rapid prototyping and relentless iteration
- Have a desire to create meaningful, enriching experiences that touch and inspire players
Perks:
- Paid Time Off, Holidays and Two Weeks Winter Break
- Employees and their dependents get medical, dental, and vision coverage, regardless of their level, tenure, or position within the company. Moreover, these benefits start on the first day of the job—there’s no waiting period before they kick in.
- Pet Insurance for those who need it too.
- Compassionate leave for employees who needs to take care of their family members
- Pre-tax wellness stipend
- Pre-tax work from home stipend
- Access our savings plan (401K program) with company match
- Mental health resources including Headspace membership and Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
- Discount portal for everyday goods and services
- Employee inclusive and diversity initiatives such as Grow Together
- Support for personal professional development
We look forward to meeting you!
Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment Visa at this time.
The salary range for this position is $80,000 USD to $140,000 USD annually, with the opportunity to earn an annual discretionary bonus. This salary range is an estimate, and the actual salary may vary based on the Company’s compensation practices. Employees in this position are eligible to participate in the Company’s standard employee benefit programs, which currently include the following: medical, dental, vision, 401k, and paid time off.
How would you rate this job post?
See what other professionals think about this role.
Similar Opportunities
More Openings at thatgamecompany
Explore Top Companies in this Space
Crossmedia
Marketing & Advertising / Media Planning / Independent Agency
RealAdvisor
PropTech Search Aggregation & Real Estate Data / Automated Property Valuation Platforms / Independent Mortgage Brokerage SaaS
Nova Pioneer
Primary & Secondary Education (K-12) / Independent School Networks / Pan-African EdTech & Curricular Development
Warner Music Group
Music Entertainment & Media Production / Recorded Music & Independent Services / Music Publishing & IP Licensing / Entertainment & Audio Technology
thatgamecompany
View Company Profilethatgamecompany (operating under thatgamecompany.com, legally thatgamecompany, Inc.) is the premier, award-winning independent video game development studio, interactive art pioneer, and emotional design powerhouse engineered to act as the definitive, high-velocity creator of timeless, broadly accessible, and deeply enriching digital experiences designed to inspire human connection globally. Founded in 2006 by visionary game designers Jenova Chen and Kellee Santiago during their graduate studies at the University of Southern California's Interactive Media Program, the studio completely eliminates the severe systemic limitations of mainstream gaming—where industry landscapes prioritize repetitive loop mechanics, high-frictional microtransactions, and hyper-violent competition at the expense of genuine emotional depth, narrative beauty, and universal demographic inclusion—by deploying an artistic, experimental development matrix. Moving far beyond traditional, transaction-heavy publishing models or generic action-driven mobile games, thatgamecompany natively unifies deep atmospheric world-building, minimalist non-verbal communication frameworks, high-throughput multiplayer matchmaking layers, and evolutionary social gameplay into a high-availability global cross-platform ecosystem. The studio first captured critical acclaim through a historic, exclusive three-game development deal with Sony Computer Entertainment, producing a legendary trilogy of titles—flOw, Flower, and Journey—that permanently redefined video games as an institutionalized art medium, culminating in Journey winning multiple Game of the Year awards and becoming the first video game score nominated for a Grammy Award. Scaling its design philosophies into the live-service era, the company launched its massive multiplayer social indie hit, Sky: Children of the Light, which has amassed hundreds of millions of downloads worldwide and broke the Guinness World Record for the most users in a virtual concert. Validating its massive commercial and cultural acceleration, the studio secured a monumental $160 million growth financing round led by prominent global asset managers TPG and Sequoia Capital, pushing its institutional market valuation to $1.9 billion. Under the hood, its technology core utilizes sophisticated custom cross-platform rendering engines, secure asynchronous social networking loops, and specialized community moderation architectures designed to cultivate safe, empathetic online environments without reducing operational performance or gameplay velocity. What sets thatgamecompany apart is its uncompromising dedication to replacing fragmented, transaction-driven player habits with absolute emotional resonance, timeless creative integrity, and artistic depth; by bridging the gap between performance-intensive online multiplayer systems and the absolute pinnacle of human empathy, the enterprise remains the definitive cornerstone of modern algorithmic game development and global interactive entertainment transformation.
Safety First
- Never pay for a job application.
- Do not share sensitive bank info.
- Verify the client before starting work.
