Why working with us is awesome

We have been fully remote since our founding in 2013.

We don’t crunch – ever. It’s never happened, not for one person, not for one day or for one hour.

There is no required time to be online. We collaborate asynchronously, so you can choose your own hours and days to work.

Your work will make people happy, and you’ll see that. Our team is small, so you’ll own specific things and see people engaging with them.

We work on games that explore novel ideas and new game design concepts. Every product tries to do something that has never been done before.

Our team is small, so there’s room to take on different kinds of tasks and to grow into new skills.

Our game community is full of knowledgeable, friendly, creative, thoughtful people.

Ludeon is wholly owned by Tynan Sylvester, a game creator. This means that unlike at investor-owned companies, our company strategy does not focus on boosting short-term growth metrics. Ludeon seeks to build long-term success by making creatively-rich products with a stable group of talented team members. At the end of it all, we want to be proud of what we’ve created and how we’ve treated team members and players.

How to apply

To apply, email [email protected]. In your message, please include:

• Which role you’re interested in.
• Your location
• A traditional resume with work history.
• A relevant portfolio:
  • For programmers, show us code you’ve written. Bigger projects are best.
  • For artists, send a link to your online porfolio.
  • For designers, show us design writing you’ve done, including specs, analyses, articles, etc.

We are based in Ottawa, Canada but can hire internationally. We generally start with a 1-3 month trial contract.

Ludeon’s mission is to make creatively-vivacious, original, provocative, and engaging games. Our team members come from diverse origins and hold many different beliefs. Please be ready to work on this mission with people who might think differently from you.

Role: Programmer

Status: We are not currently looking for immediate help with this role. However, you’re still welcome to apply! We’ll keep your info for review when any work opens up.

We need a capable programmer who can write code, handle design specification, create architectures, optimize systems, solve bugs, and so on. This person will understand how to write code as part of a larger creative and collaborative effort, with a strong focus on player desires.

Since our studio is small, you’ll be touching many systems.

Depending on your interest and ability, you may or may not be involved in game design work as well. This can range from filling in details of a new system, to writing candidate designs for solving a design problem, to broader evaluations of design direction and comparisons with other games.

We are open to candidates of varying experience levels, from very senior to relatively junior (though juniors should still have substantial work to show as noted below).

Core responsibilities:

• Implement written game design specifications, both for new content and changes to existing systems.
• Do minor game design: Understand game designs and independently figure out how to handle ambiguities and unspecified details.
• Offer feedback on design specifications and work with designers to identify and solve problems.
• Write implementation plans and specification for technical features and architectures.
• Review code from yourself and other programmers.

Requirements:

• Be able to do useful programming from day one. At minimum, you’ll need practical experience working on large codebases and complex problems in a C-like language. C# experience is ideal since that’s what we use for most of our code.
• Have programming projects of significant scope to show off. These could be mods, indie games, game engines, professional games you worked on, or something else. These can’t be typical school projects or something you threw together with pals in a couple weeks or months. As a general minimum, a “significant project” is one that you worked on most days for at least six months.
• Be productive. You should be able to get a lot of stuff done well in a given span of time. You must know how to allocate your effort effectively.

In the application:

• Please include links to large code samples you created. Ideal code samples are large, complex C# game projects you worked on for years, but other large projects are acceptable as well. Tiny code sample are less useful. We want to see not just how you write a page of code, but how you handle larger architectural decisions that come up in long projects.

Role: Game Designer – Systems

Status: We are always looking for senior and exceptional designers, so if you fit that description please contact us! However, we are not looking to fill a vacancy.

We seek a game designer with a focus on systems design. This means writing design specifications, analyzing game systems in writing and spreadsheets, and other such tasks.

Please note: This is not a programming position.

Applicants should have done substantial written work in game systems design, ideally on released games. Student projects are not enough.

Applicants should be able to demonstrate their ability at written game design analysis. Games you’ve designed before, game designs you’ve written, or articles about game design are all relevant.

Core responsibilities:

• Write game system specifications for implementation by developers.
• Work with structured data formats like XML to implement and tune gameplay data like weapons, player tools, constructibles, animals, and so on.
• Use analytical tools including spreadsheets, Monte Carlo simulation, debug tools, tester requests, and others to analyze game designs.
• Review implemented features and specify improvements, cuts, and feature replacements.
• Prioritize large lists of tasks to find the most valuable work.

Secondary responsibilities:

• Coordinate developers, artists, audio experts, testers, and others to keep the project running smoothly and set everyone up for success.
• Organize the project’s polish phase before release. Ensure that the details are handled, everything is high-quality, and nothing slips through the cracks.
• Engage with the community to understand player desires. Adapt designs to service them while also retaining your own design intent.

Non-essential but useful cross-disciplinary skills:

• You can read and write C# code enough to understand implementation details and talk to developers about them.
• You’re skilled enough with image editing to make useful UI mockups.
• You’re a good enough writer to write player-facing texts like quest descriptions, object descriptions, tutorials, and so on.
• You can create pretty good art, or at least understand the elements of an aesthetically-pleasing image.
• You can use data to implement visual effects like explosions, interaction particle effects, and so on.

Good to have:

• You’ve created games, design articles, books, paintings, animations, music, or anything else in your deep past. We seek people who created things for years just because they wanted to. It’s not enough to have passion for the idea of creating games; one must have passion for the work of creating games.
• You have deep knowledge. You’ve read books beyond the top sellers and can talk about the ideas in them. You know some history beyond high school and have coherent opinions on them. You’ve played many games that aren’t big hits. You have interests in subjects that other people don’t. You have sources of ideas which give you unique reference points to draw from. You have opinions about games and game development which diverge from the most common views in schools and online, because you thought of them yourself.

In the application:

• Please include samples of design writing. Attach or directly link to written samples of your design specifications, design analyses, or design articles. Long documents about sophisticated game mechanics or design problems are ideal. If you have nothing to share that isn’t under NDA, please let us know.

Role: Gameplay Artist

Status: We are not currently looking for immediate help with this role. However, you’re still welcome to apply! We’ll keep your info for review when any work opens up.

We’re seeking a talented, flexible artist who understands how to make art that serves its gameplay purpose while also looking good.

This person will:

• Create art that’s seen in-game. This includes vector-style 2D graphics (small and large), terrain and environmental textures (photosource or otherwise), particle effects and systems, meta-UI elements and icons.
• Work on UI design and graphics. Create the look of menus backgrounds and UI layout elements, icons, loading screens, diagrams, charts, etc.
• Help determine the overall look of the game by collecting reference material and discussing visual concepts with other team members.
• Possibly, create paintovers, mockups, and concept art.

A great applicant will:

• Have a strong portfolio that shows the ability to create gameplay assets for games like ours.
• Be able to produce artwork that clearly communicates the gameplay situation to the player, draws the player’s eyes to the important parts of the image, and does not produce excess visual noise, while also looking good and being easy to understand for players and video/stream viewers. It’s not just about making art that looks great in isolation – it’s about making art that serves the gameplay experience, the player’s story, and the technical constraints of the project.
• Produce a lot of art quickly.
• Be comfortable with vector and raster art, Illustrator and Photoshop.
• Be familiar with RimWorld.

The work is primarily 2D, but 3D experience is also useful.

Please note that a gameplay artist will mainly spend time creating assets for use in the game. Skills in other kinds of art, like concept art or animation, are good to have but not the main focus of this role.

In the application:

• Please include a link to your online portfolio.