Job Summary:

The Manager, Game Design is responsible for providing creative leadership, guidance and support to enhance and improve the player’s experience across multiple Walt Disney Games products ensuring we’re delivering the highest quality and most enjoyable authentic experiences that will resonate with our fans and audiences in this highly competitive gaming marketplace.

The Manager, Game Design will establish game design and narrative best practices and brand guidelines to be shared with our licensing partners and teams across multiple franchises. They will manage a team of game designers and writers that support various products across Walt Disney Games. They provide editorial direction and feedback on game proposals, story documents and builds. They help conceive, develop and communicate creative possibilities for games based on upcoming and existing Disney, Pixar, and Avatar IP by encouraging creative exploration of our characters and worlds while retaining their authenticity and appeal.

This Creative Leader works with both internal and external teams to conceive, develop and present game design and narrative approaches for products of all genres and platforms. They will collaborate with multiple divisions across Walt Disney Games including studio franchise, production and business development to actively deliver against our goals and priorities. They’ll assist in creating new business opportunities, properly support our titles, guarantee our gameplay and narrative experiences are high-quality and authentic, and effectively build strong partnership with various teams to advance the development and expansion of our products.

This role will act as Creative Game Design Ambassador that promotes gaming best practices and supports creative efforts across Walt Disney Games but that can also be leveraged by the larger CPGP and DPEP division.

Responsibilities:

• Provide game design direction, guidance and support for all Walt Disney Games to deliver a high level of execution while meeting our brand requirements.
• Establish and articulate game design and narrative best practices, processes and procedures to be utilized during production.
• Provide editorial review for both internal and external game concepts, providing actionable feedback on game design and creative content; identify potential areas of risk affecting product quality and timeliness.
• Provide brand guidance to licensing partners balancing the needs of the game with the authenticity of Disney characters and worlds.
• Analyze existing and upcoming Disney, Pixar, Avatar franchises to identify key brand pillars and gameable moments.
• Act as a Creative Liaison for all game design support and concerns for Walt Disney Games.
• Manage a team of Game and Narrative Designers; build up their skillsets, mentor talent and provide opportunities for growth.
• Deep dive into core game mechanics and game play loops, and communicate these systems in both written and verbal form, including the ability to provide detailed reviews of Game Design Documentation.
• Share brand knowledge and best practices with licensees to boost and bridge each group's expertise across genre and platform.
• Construct creative presentations that excite and energize new licensees and help drive new game opportunities for our business.
• Support both internal and external creative teams with brand understanding and diverse representation in the overall product vision.
• Partner with Production to facilitate and organize playtests for specific games, gathering data and sharing out key findings.
• Organize Build Reviews; generate thoughtful, appropriate and actionable feedback.
• Champion our brands and games through conferences, townhalls, greenlight meetings and peer-to-peer settings; share creative endeavors across Walt Disney Games and larger CPGP and DPEP.
• Stay informed regarding latest gaming trends; share insights and findings with larger creative and production teams.
• Leverage data and consumer insights when appropriate, to inform and enhance key creative decision making.
• Partner with Franchise and Studio to ensure our characters and worlds are authentically represented through character abilities, dialog and story.

Basic Qualifications:

• 7+ years experiences total, including 2 years managing teams.
• Exceptional game design and narrative skills, experience working with world-class brands.
• Experience working in a creative leadership capacity within games.
• Extensive game development knowledge across multiple genres and platforms.
• Excellent understanding of our games licensing business including trade-offs and production challenges.
• Ability to achieve consensus balancing the needs of the developer, production and brand stakeholders; experience working with both domestic and international dev teams.
• Adept at problem-solving (both alone and in groups) with the ability to foresee and highlight challenges and provide effective and achievable mitigation efforts.
• Experience operating in a matrix environment with multiple points of contacts; ability to reconcile conflicting information or objectives.
• Highly organized with the ability to manage multiple complex projects simultaneously and meet deadlines consistently.
• Exceptional attention to detail with a clear understanding of the big picture, always focusing towards quality, authenticity and the intended audience.
• Experience building and supporting top grossing, critically acclaimed, or AAA budgeted games.

Additional Information:

Benefits and Perks: Disney offers a rewards package to help you live your best life. This includes health and savings benefits, educational opportunities and special extras that only Disney can provide. Learn more about our benefits and perks at https://jobs.disneycareers.com/benefits.

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About Parks, Experiences and Products:

The Parks, Experiences and Products segment includes Disney’s iconic travel and leisure businesses, which include six resort destinations in the United States, Europe and Asia, a top-rated cruise line, a popular vacation ownership program, and an award-winning guided family adventure business. Disney’s global consumer products operations include the world’s leading licensing business across toys, apparel, home goods, digital games and apps; the world’s largest children’s publisher; Disney store locations around the world; and the shopDisney e-commerce platform.

About The Walt Disney Company:

The Walt Disney Company, together with its subsidiaries and affiliates, is a leading diversified international family entertainment and media enterprise with the following business segments: media networks, parks and resorts, studio entertainment, consumer products and interactive media. From humble beginnings as a cartoon studio in the 1920s to its preeminent name in the entertainment industry today, Disney proudly continues its legacy of creating world-class stories and experiences for every member of the family. Disney’s stories, characters and experiences reach consumers and guests from every corner of the globe. With operations in more than 40 countries, our employees and cast members work together to create entertainment experiences that are both universally and locally cherished.

This position is with Disney Online, which is part of a business segment we call Parks, Experiences and Products.

Disney Online is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or protected veteran status. Disney fosters a business culture where ideas and decisions from all people help us grow, innovate, create the best stories and be relevant in a rapidly changing world.