Contract Game Narrative Designer Jobs (NOW HIRING)

We're seeking a Senior Level Designer to join our Level Design team - a multidisciplinary group responsible for crafting immersive, emotionally resonant gameplay spaces that blend exploration, storytelling, and player agency. The ideal candidate is a seasoned generalist who thrives in collaborative environments and can take ownership of complex levels from concept to completion. 

This role is central to shaping the player's journey through pacing, flow, and environmental storytelling. You'll work closely with directors and discipline leads to ensure that each space supports the game's emotional and gameplay goals - and you'll be ready to own combat setups from start to finish when called upon. 

Responsibilities:  

• Own and deliver gameplay spaces from concept to final polish, blending exploration, narrative, and combat into cohesive player experiences. 
• Collaborate with animation, art, tech designers and engineering to develop levels, gameplay systems, and pipelines that support world-class design execution. 
• Create and maintain Unreal Engine assets, scripting gameplay logic, events, and interactions using Blueprints, Sequencer, and related tools. 
• When needed, design and implement combat encounters within levels. This includes initial setup, iteration, and collaboration with dedicated combat encounter designers. 
• Partner with production and leadership to define priorities, scope, and milestones for level development. 
• Drive iteration between disciplines, balancing creative vision, technical feasibility, and player experience. 
• Provide mentorship and feedback to other designers, fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing across the team. 

Requirements & Skills:  

• Deep experience building levels in Unreal Engine from concept to completion, including layout, loading, optimization and balancing mechanical with narrative goals. Skilled working with world partition and data layers, managing content at scale and balancing optimization with fidelity is a must an understanding with unreal tools 
• Comprehensive understanding of scripting in a variety of contexts, including blueprints, animation and presentation systems. Comfortable moving between scripting and sequencer, montages and dialogue systems 
• Passion for interactive narrative in all its forms and familiarity with complexity involved in bringing it to quality.  
• Excellent debugging skills and a solid understanding of scripting architecture at scale a significant plus. 
• Comfortable designing and implementing combat encounters when needed, with a working knowledge of AI behaviors and player flow.  
• Comprehensive understanding of spatial markup techniques and nav implementation. 
• Strong sense of spatial design, readability, pacing, and player guidance. 
• Excellent cross-disciplinary communication skills and ability to collaborate in a fast-paced environment. 
• Demonstrated ability to take content from prototype to polished final implementation. 
• Passion for creating immersive, high-quality player experiences that balance gameplay and narrative. 

Qualities: 

• Collaborative, communicative, and confident working across multiple disciplines. 
• Approaches design with a holistic mindset, embracing how all elements of gameplay and presentation fit together. 
• Adaptable - able to step into different types of content ownership, from exploration to combat to narrative presentation 
• Mentorship-oriented, invested in helping others improve their craft. 
• Comfortable iterating and problem-solving in a dynamic, creative environment across multiple disciplines. 
• Passionate about the craft and delivering experiences that resonate with players. 

(This is a temporary "Project Hire" position. The anticipated duration of this assignment will vary. TNM Project Hire employees will be eligible to participate in a number of TNM benefit plans such as medical, dental, vision, 401(k) matching, and flexible PTO)

TNM considers a number of factors when determining each role's base pay range, including industry benchmarks, location, experience, and other job specific skills. In addition to base pay, this role may be eligible for other incentive compensation including equity and profit share. The estimated base pay range for this role is U.S. only and not applicable for locations outside of the U.S.

The estimated base pay range for this role is: $120k - $145k