Title: Narrative Designer
Focus: Organize and write narrative content for our games
Type: Full time permanent position
Last day to apply: Ongoing, no end date. Will update the ad when the position is filled.
Location: Remote or in Malmö office
With every new Frictional Games project we aim to tell rich and engrossing narratives. To build absorbing worlds populated with living characters and stories for the player to be immersed in.
This is where you come in. Someone to help us structure, design and write the narrative on which we build our game worlds. Keep reading if this sounds interesting to you!
What will you work on?
We are looking for an experienced writer who loves sci-fi and horror, with a strong sense of structure and excellent organizational skills. Key aspects of this position is keeping track of lore and information regarding the worlds, characters and stories and also communicating this throughout the team. Important to note that this is not just a writing gig. Most of your job will be doing things like compiling information in spreadsheets, doing research, writing down environmental design descriptions, and so forth.
We are a small studio, and see that as one of our core strengths. You will have a great impact on our games, and work directly with all disciplines involved in our projects. You will tackle a wide variety of challenges and tasks throughout our projects.
Your focus will be:
- Structure, plan and organize – i.e. keeping track of where all the text in game is, how narratives threads interweave, character relationships etc.
- Communicating and ensuring all levels of production are up to date and synced regarding narrative. This is super important.
- Researching and investigating at great depth. It’s imperative that you enjoy diving deep into science, technology, cultures etc.
- Writing a wide range of texts. From flavor texts, barks, dialogue, deep lore, to store texts.
- Keeping our game worlds consistent, believable and immersive.
- Help out with managing and overseeing tasks like translation and voice recording.
What are we looking for?
Everyone in CET±2 hours time zones are welcome to apply. If you want to relocate to Sweden, you have to be an EU/EEA resident.
The person we’re looking for is creative, driven, and self-sufficient. Being a hybrid-remote team such as ours, organizing your own work and communicating clearly with the rest of the team are fundamental skills we require.
We welcome applicants regardless of background, situation, sexual orientation, religion, and similar, so don’t let anything like that hold you back from applying!
Here are some essential skills we require:
- Experience in interactive storytelling – hobby projects, such as being a gamemaster in role playing games, also counts as experience.
- You love writing.
- A strive for structure, efficiency, and clarity. You are able to come up with systems for a comprehensive overview of all the text in the game.
- A good understanding of world building from conception until final implementation in the game.
- Fluency in and excellent grasp of English – written and spoken.
- A willingness to learn and work with our in-house tools for translation, dialogue and placing items in the map, etc.
- Great communication skills.
- A critical approach to your work, where you think things through, reflect and improve.
- Ability to challenge yourself and tackle new obstacles head-on.
- Love of games as a medium.
- You enjoy working on a variety of tasks.
Here are some hardware essentials:
- A Windows PC that runs AAA games that came out the last few years on high quality.
- Hardware and equipment to work with. Additional equipment can be provided as we go, but it’s important to have something to start working with.
- A fast and stable internet connection.
If you really want to impress us:
- You have worked on a game from pre-production to launch.
- You have experience working with game engines, such as Unity or Unreal.
What do we offer?
We are a small team, which means you will be able to work on a wide variety of things and contribute to our future games in a meaningful way.
We also believe a healthy balance between work and life reflects positively on your work. We offer a variety of perks for our full-time employees, especially those who live in or relocate to Sweden. We also don’t encourage crunch.
Here’s what we offer:
- Relocation support to Malmö if you don’t already live here.
- Flexibility if you need to go to the doctor or other appointments during work hours.
- Variety in your work tasks, ability to influence your workload and workflow.
- Flexibility to work from home if you want to.
- Participation in our internal game Show & Tell sessions, so you’ll have input into all aspects of the game.
- An inclusive and respectful work environment.
- Fun workmates, game and movie nights, and other outings.
How to apply?
Did the position pique your interest? Are you the person we’re looking for? Then we would love to hear from you!
Please note that the application period will be ongoing until we find the right person for the position. Therefore it might take some time for us to reply to your message.
Please send us your:
- Cover letter (why you should work with us, what do you bring to the table)
- CV
- Portfolio (or links to your works)
- Answers to preliminary questions (see below)
Preliminary questions
Please provide a document answering the following questions:
- When is the earliest you could start working?
- In a realistic, medieval, action adventure game the player is followed by a child sidekick. A tool for creating a bond between player and child is to have the child comment on various game states. Write a few example barks and describe how you would approach this system.
- In a thriller game, set in an alternative 1970s, the player is tracking down a person they suspect of being a spy. They manage to find their secret locker and search its contents. After a bit of thinking, the player realizes their suspicions were true. Describe the 5-7 objects found in the locker. Try not to rely too much on text.
- Describe an interactive scene in a game that you think made good use of narrative design and writing. Explain what approaches and details you found especially well made.
- Link to a piece of your writing that feels relevant to the work you can see yourself doing at Frictional.
Send your application to apply@frictionalgames.com
