Lead Quest Designer

We’re looking for a Lead Quest Designer to join our award winning team in Middlesbrough (UK), home to the beautiful North Yorkshire coastline and countryside. 

As a Lead Quest Designer at Double Eleven, you’ll be leading the Quest Design Team for one of the largest and most well-known AAA IP’s, joining a development studio in a very senior, decision-making Design capacity. You’ll help mentor, grow and guide a highly creative team of Quest & Narrative Designers to create, develop, and implement content-driven experiences for our players. You’ll be accountable  for overseeing the creation of memorable player experiences in an ongoing live service environment. You will be a key contact in our partnership with a world-renowned developer and publisher, on a household-name franchise.

This role would suit a candidate who has excellent, multi-title experience in Quest Design but who also has a strong understanding of narrative structure, systems and mechanics, IP research, lore and writing in a live service environment.

As a global gaming company, we've enabled millions to conquer Minecraft Dungeons, battle in Rust Console Edition and create new adventures in Fallout 76. 

Recently, we collaborated with Rockstar Games to bring Red Dead Redemption to the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 as well as partnered with Obsidian Entertainment on Grounded: Fully Yoked Edition for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 and 5. 

Double Eleven is a place where our people come first. Our 400-person team proudly represents over 30 nationalities.

We strive to avoid crunch, we offer flexible working hours to allow you to truly enjoy work/life balance whilst making great games and any overtime is always planned, optional and paid. 

We can support UK relocation and have both a dedicated People and Operation teams on standby to assist you.   

Interested? We kindly ask all applicants to submit a portfolio to support their application. We’re afraid applications without an accompanying portfolio will not be considered and on this occasion, we’re unable to sponsor a visa for this role. 

What you’ll be doing

• Lead and mentor a team of quest and narrative designers through creating and iterating designs and implementing best practices.
• Collaborate across disciplines regarding quest implementation scope, quality, efficiency and workflow to create a cohesive game experience.
• Collaborate closely with franchise partners and Game Director to establish and drive a vision for what quest content will look like going into the future.
• Collaborate with Game Director, Project Leads, Project Client and Design Manager to concept and plan themes for each update.
• Plan and oversee the creation of narrative and quest content for each update of the game.
• Help express the story of the game via excellent exploration, gameplay and activities. 
• Produce deliverables such as schedules, pitches, design documents, scripts and marketing materials.
• Collaborate with production to handle the quest schedule, ensuring the team can deliver high quality quests on time. 
• Promote, contribute to and participate in our culture of inclusion and diversity.
• Champion work life balance for the Quest and Narrative team.
• Serve as an active partner in the Double Eleven Design Team leadership group.

What we’re looking for

• Previous experience leading and guiding a team through at least one project’s life cycle.
• A strong desire to succeed through others by understanding their needs, advocating on their behalf, and providing support and guidance as required.
• Extensive experience in quest content or outdoor world repeatable content.
• Experience in being responsible for designing significant chunks of game content from concept to completion.
• Previous  experience of leading and managing others.
• Strong writing and editing skills.
• A strong understanding of narrative systems and structures.
• The ability to deep dive DNA research into various IPs and franchises.
• Lead and support the development of comprehensive Narrative and Lore documentation, enabling multi-discipline access.
• Experience of working with a variety of established game toolsets.
• The ability to consider feedback from multiple conflicting viewpoints and provide design guidelines for teammates to make the best overall decision.
• The ability to effectively communicate in both written and verbal format.
• Presenting and pitching skills.
• Experience in Live Services is desirable
• Experience working on AAA titles is desirable
• Experience providing direction in the development of major features is a bonus

Qualifications

• All relevant qualifications considered

What to expect

Some of our benefits include:

Working life at Double Eleven 

• Start your day any time between 8:00am and 10:00am
• 35 working hours per week with a 1 hour lunch break (with the opportunity to flex down to 30 minutes or up to 2 hours)
• Opportunity to apply for hybrid working  (up to 2 days working from home per week) 
• 28 days annual leave (20 days annual leave + 8 days bank holiday) 
• 1 day leave for your birthday and 1 day leave if you’re moving house
• Up to 10 days discretionary annual leave during our end of year break
• Potential for annual performance bonus
• 5 additional days annual leave for 5 years service and a further 5 days annual leave for your 10 years service milestone
• A brand new, state-of-the-art studio facilities that includes a market hall serving nutritious, subsidised meals, round-the-clock gym access, an auditorium and more
• Free breakfast options, juice, hot drinks and fruit
• Employee referral bonus (up to £2000)
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Free game codes, game swag and merchandise
• Family-friendly leave available
• Christmas Saving Scheme
• Free parking
• Best-in-class tools and workflows so you can focus on creativity

Professional development and wellbeing

• Vitality Private Healthcare, discounts and rewards for you, your spouse and children (upon the successful completion of your 6 month probationary period) 
• Access to mental health and wellbeing support via Plumm (includes 4 free video therapy sessions per month for both the employee and up to 3 family members aged 18+), unlimited text therapy, courses, meditations
• A personalised development plan with dedicated support from our Learning team
• Access to an accredited Academy providing professional qualifications (and access to 500 UK discounts and offers via TOTUM when registered as a student) 
• A dedicated Workplace Experience team responsible for work environments, workplace and quality of employee life services to help foster collaboration, creativity and innovation
• In-studio wellbeing programmes and People team support

Team life 

• Free activities via our Bus Tours programme (where on occasion, partners and children are welcome to join you) 
• Many team events to celebrate team and game milestones
• Sponsored team activities including football, basketball, book club, movie club and more 
• Opportunity to contribute to our internal Employee Diversity and Equality Network

Our recruitment process consists of two stages:

Stage One: A quest design test, followed by a Q&A session.

Stage Two: A scenario-based assessment focused on people management skills, accompanied by an in-person interview.

The closing date for this vacancy is January 8th; however, we may close the advert early if we receive a high volume of applications. We encourage you to apply as soon as possible

Ways to reach us

If you have a general query or if you need support with your application and/or an alternative way to apply, please do not hesitate to contact our Talent team at jobs@double11.com