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Video Game Level Designer Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

Lightspeed Studios

Senior Mission Designer

Irvine, CA · On-site

$93.10 - $216.70/hr

As a Senior Mission Designer, you will be responsible for designing and creating missions, quests ... Proven experience in mission design or level design in the video game industry (a plus but not ...

New

Exploding Kittens

Contract Game Designer

Los Angeles, CA · On-site

$30 - $38/hr

The Game Designer plays a key role in the game and product development process from start to finish ... Write instructions & "How to Play" video scripts with accessibility and clarity in mind * Partner ...

Exploding Kittens

Contract Game Designer

Los Angeles, CA

$30 - $38/hr

The Game Designer plays a key role in the game and product development process from start to finish ... Write instructions & "How to Play" video scripts with accessibility and clarity in mind * Partner ...

Exploding Kittens

Contract Game Designer

Los Angeles, CA

$30 - $38/hr

The Game Designer plays a key role in the game and product development process from start to finish ... Write instructions & "How to Play" video scripts with accessibility and clarity in mind * Partner ...

Side

Lead Designer

Los Angeles, CA

Drive gameplay, systems, level, and technical design initiatives from concept through delivery ... About Side Side (formerly PTW) is a global video game development and services provider, offering ...

Cloud Chamber

Senior Combat Designer (AI archetype)

Novato, CA · On-site

$119K - $128K/yr

Required : • Shipped at least one AAA title as a designer responsible for AI combatants. • 5+ years professional experience in video game design. • Excellent written and verbal communication ...

Zwift

Senior Designer, Creative

Long Beach, CA · On-site +1

$70K - $110K/yr

... level of craft and attention to detail. * Capture cinematic in-game imagery from the Zwift video ... Experience designing for sport, gaming, or culturally relevant consumer brands. * Experience art ...

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Video Game Level Designer information

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How much do video game level designer jobs pay per hour?

As of Aug 20, 2026, the average hourly pay for video game level designer in California is $18.31, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $16.59 and $19.90 per hour, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What does a video game level designer do?

Video game level designers use development software to build specific sections within a video game. In this role, you focus on one aspect or progression of the game, determining what steps a player needs to take to progress to the next level. The nature of a level depends on the game; it can be as simple as selecting and developing challenges for the player to overcome or as complicated as a dense, objective-filled map. This is a highly-collaborative position; video game level designers often work with asset creators and producers to design levels that match the intended concept and play environment.

What does a video game level designer do?

A video game level designer is responsible for creating the environments, stages, and challenges that players experience within a game. They work closely with artists, programmers, and writers to craft engaging gameplay, ensuring that levels are both visually appealing and fun to play. Level designers use specialized software to build layouts, place objects, and script events, all while considering pacing, difficulty, and storytelling. Their goal is to guide players through the game in a way that is immersive and rewarding.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a video game level designer, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Video Game Level Designer, you need strong spatial design abilities, knowledge of game mechanics, and often a degree in game design or a related field. Proficiency with industry-standard tools such as Unity, Unreal Engine, and level editing software, as well as familiarity with scripting languages, is typically required. Creativity, problem-solving, and effective communication are standout soft skills for collaborating with artists, programmers, and other designers. These skills are crucial for creating engaging, balanced, and technically feasible game environments that enhance player experience.

How does a video game level designer typically collaborate with other departments during the development process?

Video Game Level Designers work closely with artists, programmers, and writers to bring a cohesive vision to each level. They frequently participate in cross-functional meetings to ensure that gameplay, visuals, and narrative are well integrated. It's common for designers to iterate on their levels based on feedback from QA testers or gameplay engineers, requiring strong communication and adaptability. Collaboration is essential, as level designers must balance creative ideas with technical constraints and project timelines.

What is the difference between Video Game Level Designer vs Video Game Environment Artist?

AspectVideo Game Level DesignerVideo Game Environment Artist
Primary FocusDesigning gameplay spaces, level layout, and player flowCreating visual assets and environments for levels
Skills & ToolsLevel design software, game engines, scripting3D modeling, texturing, art software
Work EnvironmentCollaborates with designers, programmers, artistsWorks mainly with art teams, using creative software
Industry UsageUsed in game development to craft playable levelsUsed to produce visual environment assets for levels

While both roles contribute to the game's environment, the Video Game Level Designer focuses on designing the gameplay experience within levels, whereas the Video Game Environment Artist creates the visual elements that bring those levels to life. Both roles often collaborate closely to ensure a cohesive and engaging player experience.

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What are the most commonly searched types of Video Game Level Designer jobs in California?

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For Video Game Level Designer jobs in California, the most frequently searched job titles are:

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Cities in California with the most Video Game Level Designer job openings:

Video Game Level Designer jobs near you
Infographic showing various Video Game Level Designer job openings in California as of August 2026, with employment types broken down into 1% Internship, 1% As Needed, 82% Full Time, 14% Part Time, and 2% Contract. Highlights an 83% Physical, 3% Hybrid, and 14% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $38,094 per year, or $18.3 per hour.

Motion Designer / Video Producer

Macroscope

San Francisco, CA • On-site

$150K - $300K/yr

Full-time

Posted 27 days ago

Job description

About Macroscope
Macroscope aims to be the source of truth of what's happening for any company that builds software. Our mission is to give leaders clarity and engineers time.
We help leaders understand how their products and codebases are evolving-what's changing, who's working on what, and where progress is happening-grounded in the ultimate source of truth: the code.
Macroscope is founded by former entrepreneurs who have started and sold multiple companies, and operated as product/engineering executives at public tech companies. We're fortunate to be supported by the best VC firms and angels in the business, including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Thrive Capital, Google Ventures, and Adverb.
About the role
We're hiring a Brand & Motion Designer to own how Macroscope shows up in the world. Every week there are new launches that deserve high craft visual concepts and polished videos to broadcast them.
This is a full-time, in-house creative role. You'll own visual marketing assets, motion design, and video production end to end: animated launch videos, short-form video social content, and a creative pipeline that makes it scalable.
You'll work directly with the founders and our growth marketer, with full creative ownership of the craft.
What You'll Do
  • Own all visual marketing output: UI motion graphics, social video, and ad campaign materials.
  • Proactively find stories-understand the product, watch what the team is shipping and turn it into meaningful content, rather than waiting for briefs.
  • Balance high production value launch moments with a scrappy, always-on cadence of social video between them.
  • Build and own our motion pipeline leveraging coding agents and custom design tools to scale visual craft with product velocity.
  • Evolve and maintain our brand across every surface.
  • Own the story end-to-end: Pitch, design, shoot, edit, animate, and publish yourself.
What Success Looks Like
  • Every feature ships with a launch videos that matches the quality of the product.
  • A steady, recognizable cadence of video and motion content that reinforces our visual identity.
  • Stories surface from inside the company because you found them, and brought them to life.
  • The motion asset pipeline is fast and repeatable instead of a bottleneck.
  • The brand feels coherent and unmistakable everywhere it appears.
Who You Are
  • 2+ years in brand, motion, or video design, with a portfolio of shipped work-launch videos, social content, and motion graphics you made yourself.
  • Full-stack creative: comfortable across animation, editing, design tools, and ideally code-driven video like Remotion or similar.
  • A smart storyteller -you can find the narrative in a technical product update and make people actually care in 30 seconds.
  • Experience with developer or technical audiences strongly preferred; you know the difference between content that developers respect and slop they scroll past.
  • Creatively autonomous: scrappy, fast, self-directed, and happy owning everything from concept to publish.
  • You use AI tools throughout your creative workflow, and you're curious about staying up to date with the latest and greatest.

The base pay for the Brand & Motion Designer position ranges from $150k/year to $300k/year. Pay is based on several factors and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.
About you
  • You are extremely high agency. We are a small startup and we intend to keep an extremely flat organizational structure for as long as possible. Instead of relying on people managers, product managers and heavy processes, we rely on exceptionally talented individuals with high agency to be self-motivated towards contributing to our mission.
  • You want to work at an early stage start-up. The default state of any startup is failure. The only way to overcome the daunting odds of making a startup venture successful is for a densely packed group of insanely hard working and talented people to work together to building something useful to and loved by customers. If you're not willing to work extremely hard on something high risk, this startup isn't for you.
  • You act like an owner. You put immense care and craft into what you build because you take responsibility for all parts of the product. You don't walk past broken windows.
  • You care about what we're building. Life's too short to work on something you're not passionate about. We are a small group of ambitious people who want to build something insanely great that we want to use, and that we think every company will want to use. If our mission and product doesn't resonate with you, we understand and would encourage you to find something that does.

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