Senior Technical Designer

Galaxy Grove is a game studio in Utrecht, Netherlands, specializing in high quality 3D management and building games (entertainment games, not applied/serious games). Our games have a strong atmosphere, striking art and unique, intuitive gameplay. We are currently a team of 13 people and have released our first game Station to Station last year, to great critical acclaim. We currently have a new game in production and are starting pre-production for two more games in the coming months. Galaxy Grove is founded and led by award winning game industry veteran Joost van Dongen (Awesomenauts, Swords & Soldiers, Blightbound, Robo Maestro, Proun, Cello Fortress, De Blob). Galaxy Grove is looking for a Senior Technical Designer to join us around November 2024. As a Technical Designer, you’ll be the central person on one of our unannounced new management & building games. You bring together gameplay, tech, art and UI, all while keeping the player experience at top priority. The project you will be working on is a new game that’s built on our existing codebase. Together with a Programmer (who is already on the team and has experience with our codebase and workflows) you will be this game’s core team and together you will build the prototype. Once the game moves into production and more people join, you will keep being the central person on the team. You’ll work with Blueprint in Unreal to create gameplay and UI. While experience with Unreal is definitely a plus, it is not requirement: we will give room during the first weeks to learn Unreal if needed, and we have plenty of experience with Unreal to help guide you in this. You’ll also be involved in the games and company as a whole, like joining in playtests and sharing your ideas and thoughts for all of our games. Galaxy Grove is an inclusive game studio where everyone with a passion for making great games is welcome. We believe in helping each other get better at our craft, in learning new skills, and in a healthy work-life balance where overtime and crunch are avoided. Responsibilities: Create gameplay Create UI and UX Create levels and do balancing Code in Blueprint Work closely together with a C++ Programmer Organize and observe playtests Iterate all aspects of the game Build the game according to the Creative Director’s vision, while also being critical and questioning this vision to help create the best game possible Implement audio and graphics Requirements: An excellent feel for the player experience At least 5 years of professional experience creating games Worked on at least one shipped title A deep understanding of UI/UX A strong communicator Self-managing: can figure out tasks and workload together with the Programmer based on goals that are defined together with the Creative Director Good at communicating in English Doesn’t need a visa to work in the Netherlands (if you have an EU passport you don’t need a visa) Able to work 32-40 hours per week Plusses: Experience with Blueprint scripting in Unreal Experience with C++ If you think you could do the job but don’t meet some of the requirements, then we encourage you to apply anyway. This is a hybrid position, with Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday working from the Galaxy Grove office in Utrecht. The other days can be either working from home or from the office, depending on your preference. We don’t do fully remote and can’t help you with getting a visa, so you need to have an EU passport to be able to apply for this job. You will also need to be willing to work from the Netherlands during the job so you can actually come into the office on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. To apply, please send an email to jobs@galaxy-grove.com. Please include: A link to your extensive portfolio, showing the quality of your best work, but also the diversity of your skills CV Cover letter