Producer

Company Description

Smoking Gun Interactive, a Keywords Studio, is an industry-leading game development studio founded in 2007 by award-winning industry veterans. SGI is fearless in creating IP and boldly partners with renowned brands to develop a wide range of world-class, immersive titles and interactive experiences that resonate with strategy gamers worldwide and entertain millions of casual players every day.

Job Overview

As a Producer at Smoking Gun Interactive (SGI), you’re an experienced team leader with excellent communication skills, and expertise in managing projects, priorities, schedules and team members. You work with the Studio Directors and Leads to define the Product Vision, develop milestone deliverables for the internal team and ensure they are met on‑time and within budget. Additionally, you serve as the main point of contact with external publishers, and are able to communicate the project status and identify potential risks clearly at any time. You have robust experience producing and releasing PC and mobile titles in the game industry, and running live operations on released games. You’re also responsible for taking an idea from concept through all stages of development to completion and owning and driving the product to completion.

While this position is being offered on a remote basis, we are only able to consider applicants who are currently located within the greater Vancouver area.

Responsibilities

• Manage the development of a game title from concept to final product release, with an eye towards meeting defined budgets, schedules and quality targets;
• Work with Studio Directors and Team Leads to develop and communicate a clear vision for the product;
• Create milestone schedules to build the game in an optimal way for the client, the team and the success of the product; then get buy in from the Leads and studio director on the plan
• Continually drive forward the development of the game
• Monitor released products and work with live operations team to continually update and add features that improve the product;
• Work with team members to ensure daily tasks are in line with the product vision and that each member of the team is working from a tracked schedule and has a strong sense of ownership, responsibility and accountability for quality and timelines;
• Identify risks as early as possible in order to mitigate them and communicate both issues and proposed solutions clearly;
• Promote positive working relationships through leadership, teamwork and communication within the development teams to ensure consistent vision and goal setting;
• Conduct annual reviews and career goal setting for Team Leads;
• Continuously assess risk and keep scope of the project in line with budget and schedule, while also working with team to be creative and produce the best quality game achievable within constraints;
• Interface with publishing or other business partners on milestones and other deliverables, and maintain excellent working relationship as the main point of contact on all development issues;
• Exhibit passion and ability to rally others by providing motivation for the team and all involved in the project;
• Create and maintain project management documents including status reports, project plans, communications plans, post‑mortems and compiling of historical information;
• Mentor junior production staff, as needed;
• Be open and willing to accept and provide direction, work well under pressure, and handle multiple tasks.

Qualifications

• 3-5 years of experience as a game designer
• Experience with at least 2 shipped titles as a game designer on mobile and PC games.
• Experience designing for UI centric games
• Experience tuning of complex gameplay systems
• Experience with game analytics and running a live product
• Demonstrable expertise in game mechanics design and tuning
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, able to communicate ideas clearly
• Ability to accept and provide direction, work well under pressure, and handle multiple tasks
• Self‑driven, take initiative and work independently without supervision
• Experience in understanding the market and target audience for mobile, online & console games
• Willingness to push the envelope and innovate within game parameters
• Display a positive attitude, and passionate about gaming and striving to improve the quality of games

Production Experience

• Minimum of 5 years’ experience in the production of PC, mobile and console games, working in a project management role.
• Experience with at least 2 shipped titles in a project manager or senior production role.
• Experience working from start to finish on a game project.
• Strong understanding of project tools like Jira (ADO, Excel Dev, Test Dev, etc).
• A natural ability to be highly responsible, self‑directed, detail‑oriented problem solver with a burning desire to contribute to a creative environment;

Live Operations

• Ability to manage and run effective live operations of release games;

Organizational Skills

• Proven to be self‑sufficient and proactive in organizing and prioritizing tasks;
• Outstanding organizational, communication and management skills;

Project Management Practices

• Well‑versed experience in project management practices, agile development, and software project management software packages;

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with LiveOps
• Knowledge of additional software such as Photoshop, PowerPoint, MindManager;
• A Bachelors’ Degree/Diploma or equivalent experience

Benefits

• 10 days vacation leave
• 5 paid days personal leave
• 7 paid sick days
• Life Insurance & Accidental Death & Dismemberment
• Dependent Life Insurance
• Long Term Disability (LTD)
• Extended Healthcare Benefit
• Dental Care
• RRSP matching
• Hybrid working
• Training & Development

Salary Range: $85,000 - $120,000 CAD

Smoking Gun Interactive is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, citizenship, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran’s status, age or disability.

Keywords Studios is dedicated to following a well‑established Equal Opportunities Policy. We endeavor to create a workplace which provides for equal opportunities for all employees and potential employees.

By providing your information in this application, you understand that we will collect and process your information in accordance with our Applicant Privacy Notice. For more information, please see our Applicant Privacy Notice at https://www.keywordsstudios.com/en/applicant-privacy-notice.

Role Information: EN Studio: Smoking Gun Location: Americas, Canada, Vancouver Area of Work: Game Development Service: Create Employment Type: Full Time Working Pattern: Remote