In my ongoing quest to better understand the secrets of ArenaNet, my RSS reader alerted me to another clue. ArenaNet continues to add members to their team. This time around, the job is for a Game Designer. Wow, that sounds like a tough career right? It probably involves years of experience and requires an advanced degree. No, I checked out the job description and it seems ridiculously easy. Well, at least when compared to the other Guild Wars jobs.
Design – Game Designer
Location: Bellevue——————————————————————————–
Description – ArenaNet, creator of the block-buster RPG, Guild Wars, is looking for game designers with a passion for online games and mission design to work on Guild Wars as a member of the game design team. Candidates must have extensive game playing experience across a wide variety of game genres, and be able to script missions and quests using our in-house editing/scripting tools. For information about our team and products, please visit www.arenanet.com.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES include the following.
- Other duties may be assigned.
- Give input on design issues
- Scripting of Missions and Quests using our in-house tools
- Writing of quest and mission text including NPC dialogue
- Play through Quests and Missions and take feedback to tune designs
- Communicate with artists, programmers and other members of the design team
QUALIFICATIONS
- Understanding of how game play affects the end user experience
- Creative writing ability
- Experience using game level and world building tools
- Experience with scripting languages
- Familiarity with Word and Excel
- Must work well in a creative team environment
- Must be a hard-core gamer with extensive experience playing games
- Passion for Guild Wars
- Strong communication skills
- Creativity and innovation
- Strong problem solving abilities
If you’re having a tough time in today’s job market, and are considering a dramatic career change, maybe this is a big break. With the most basic of game development skills, you could be hanging out with the pros over in Bellevue. I like that. It shows that ArenaNet is not elitist. This looks more like an entry-level position. If you’re talented, qualified and hard working, this could be an amazing break into the industry.
…but what does it mean for Guild Wars?! Well, it’s a good sign. In the beginning, when the game is less refined, ArenaNet would need to hire brainiacs. Otherwise, some rookie could really screw things up. I’m thinking that the Guild Wars 2 world building tools are in place. ArenaNet probably needs to hire some more grunts to tackle a mountain of work. This does put some perspective on the GW2 release time-line, but the outlook is still hazy.