Jobs at Blackbird Interactive

Designs and implements high-quality levels, combat spaces, encounters, traversal, exploration, and gameplay events for an action RPG. Owns levels from concept and blockout through scripting, implementation, playtesting, iteration, debugging, and polish. Collaborates with combat, systems, art, narrative, audio, engineering, and production teams to support pacing, readability, progression, replayability, and varied player builds.

Lead creative vision and execution for a narrative-driven investigative game. Define narrative, characters, gameplay, and environmental storytelling; mentor and manage the design team; collaborate with art, engineering, audio, and production to prototype, implement, iterate, and polish content; identify risks and balance creative ambition with scope and schedule.

Lead and mentor the UI/UX team to adapt a complex simulation game's interfaces for new platforms. Define design standards, create flows, wireframes, and mockups, resolve platform-specific UX challenges (including controller-first), ensure readability, accessibility, and consistency, and participate in playtests to refine player experience.

Design and adapt UI/UX for a complex simulation game across new platforms. Create user flows, wireframes, mockups, and platform-specific interactions; improve navigation, readability, accessibility, and usability; identify UX challenges from platform transitions; participate in playtests and design reviews; collaborate with design, art, engineering, and production to maintain visual and interaction consistency.

Implement and adapt existing game UI systems for new platforms and resolutions. Build, debug, and polish responsive UI screens and interactions, solve controller-first UX challenges, partner with engineers, and produce documentation and iterations to preserve player experience.

Design, prototype, tune, and maintain complex gameplay, economy, and progression systems for an Unreal 5 first-person action game. Produce documentation, tools, and dev-facing features, debug data, guide technical content creation, participate in planning, and mentor other designers to deliver emergent, immersive player experiences.

Design and implement end-to-end multiplayer levels and combat spaces using UE5. Collaborate with design, art, engineering, and production to iterate, script encounters, test and polish levels to support varied playstyles and balanced multiplayer experiences.

Develop and optimize core gameplay and engine systems in Unreal Engine 5 using C++ and Blueprints. Build modular, data-driven systems across multiplayer, UI, and performance budgets. Collaborate with design, animation, and audio, mentor junior engineers, and improve tooling and workflows while staying current with UE5 subsystems.

Create and implement real-time VFX in Unreal Engine 5 using Niagara for a third-person action shooter. Collaborate with creative leads, meet technical and performance targets, manage scope, document pipelines, and support tools/tech development.

Lead technical direction and bootstrap an original Unreal Engine 5 game: implement core gameplay and runtime systems, establish pipelines and engineering best practices, drive performance and production readiness, mentor engineers, and align technical execution with design and production goals.

Prototype, implement, and iterate gameplay systems, investigative mechanics, narrative scripting, and scripted sequences in Unreal Engine 5 using Blueprint. Collaborate with cross-disciplinary teams, troubleshoot implementation issues, improve tools and pipelines, and support milestone estimates and delivery.