Realtime Worlds – creators of the no.1 hit game CRACKDOWN, are looking for an Assistant Producer to join the project management team for the highly anticipated, cutting-edge, AAA project – “APB: All Points Bulletin”.

The project management team is responsible for the planning, scheduling, tracking, issue and risk management of all work involving the development team. As an Assistant Producer you will be looking after a number of our sub-teams (up to 40 developers).

The Assistant Producer is a Producer in training, and as such can expect to be given the support and training necessary in order to succeed in the post. The tools and processes in use are continually evolving, so the successful candidate will be encouraged and expected to work alongside the rest of the project management team and participate in these efforts.

Responsibilities

• Work with the production team and development sub-leads to break down and schedule work
• Pro-actively identify issues and either resolve or escalate them as necessary
• Take ownership of key project issues and bring them to timely resolution
• Work with the teams in order to manage risks/issues and dependencies
• Ensure cross team/discipline communication occurs in a timely and effective manner
• Liaise with the Release Management and QA team when necessary
• Maintain and evolve the development processes as required
• Work alongside the other Assistant Producers under the guidance of the Project Manager
• Assist with task tracking
• Project reporting functions

Qualifications & Experience required

• Experience of project management methodologies, either traditional (e.g Prince2) or agile (e.g. Scrum)
• Console or PC game development experience
• Previous experience in a production role, preferably in a development production role
• Development experience with a minimum of two completed development cycles

Knowledge/Skills required

• Excellent planning skills
• Ensure efficient communication across the team, for example by organising meetings and following up action points.
• Must possess excellent oral and written communication skills
• Good information-handling skills
• Must be self-directed and detail oriented with a strong desire to contribute to a uniquely creative environment.
• Must possess the ability to handle multiple tasks from the team in an organized fashion while prioritizing these tasks effectively.
• Must be able to work with and as part of multiple teams
• MS Office software, especially Excel and Word.
• Bug databases/project management/task tracking software
• Experience using project management software and/or bug tracking software (Hansoft, Jira or similar) would be advantageous.

To apply

If you are interested in this position, please complete our recruitment questionnaire located here: Recruitment Questionnaire. Please send your CV, completed questionnaire, and current package details to: jobs@realtimeworlds.com and include Assistant Producer in the subject line.

IT Systems Administrator

Employment Status:

Full-Time / Benefits

Job Description:

Realtime Worlds, creators of the No. 1 hit game Crackdown, are looking for a SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR to join our IT department.

The Systems Administrator will be an integral member of the IT team providing mission critical support to our Boulder office as well as working with the Senior Systems Architect and Systems Engineer in Scotland and the Online Operations teams in Boulder to define technology solutions.

Responsibilities:

• Day to day administration of multiple Windows Servers and desktop environments.
• Deploy, manage and administrate Microsoft products and technologies.
• Provide creative solutions to unique and sometimes unusual requirements.
• Maintain technical documentation throughout entire project lifecycle.
• Administer audio visual and telecommunication equipment.
• Other IT duties as and when required.

Qualifications:

• Degree in technology related discipline or professional qualification desirable.

Experience Required:

• Administration experience Windows Server 2003/2008 and Windows desktop XP/Vista
• The ability to measure up hardware requirements for given applications.
• Extensive experience with Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL, MS System Center Family.
• Understanding of common virtualization technologies.
• Experience troubleshooting Microsoft Office 2007.
• General understanding of networking technologies.
• Proven ability to create and maintain technical documentation.
• Knowledge and understanding of ITIL best practice.
• Experience working across multiple time zones.

Knowledge/Skills Required:

• Ability to work unsupervised and able to act on own initiative.
• Well organized and the ability to priorities work within a changing environment.
• Experience maintaining the highest standards of quality.
• Good Communication and interpersonal skills.

To Apply:

If you are interested in this position, please send your CV along with any current package details to: boulderjobs@realtimeworlds.com and include IT Systems Administrator in the subject line.

REALTIME WORLDS – creators of the no.1 hit CRACKDOWN and forthcoming online game APB, are looking for a talented Front-End Web Developer, to work closely with the creators of the much anticipated online game APB. This is a contract role for 6-9 months.

Responsibilities:
You will be responsible for skilfully adapting high fidelity in-game content from our cutting edge game title, in to a web friendly user-focused experience. Further, you will be helping to build a dynamic user interface to deliver these assets; working hand-in-hand with our User Experience, Back-end Web Development, and the Product Development teams to fully realize this important extension of our game. You will review Product requirement documents as well as participating in analysis, design and development of application systems.

Qualifications Required:
• A minimum of 4-6 years of development experience in Front-end website development.
• Expert and up-to-date XHTML / Javascript / CSS coding skills.
• Working knowledge experience with relevant client-side libraries such as JQuery / Dojo.
• Deep and thorough understanding of web standards, CSS-based design, and cross-browser compatibility.
• Ability to work collaboratively with design, product management, and engineering teams.
• You design web applications, not just websites.
• You have an eye for detail, pixel-perfect is your motto.

Experience Required:
• Expertise in deploying websites to multiple platforms including Browsers / Mobile / Print.
• Experience with user testing and complicated workflow design.

Knowledge/Skills in the following areas a plus:
• Knowledge of Flash and ActionScript 2.0 / 3.0.
• Knowledge of XML, XSLT, XPATH.
• You have graphical background, be it traditional or digital.
• Familiarity with revision control software such as Subversion / Perforce.
• Game industry experience.

If you are interested in this position, please complete our recruitment questionnaire located here: Recruitment Questionnaire. Once you have completed the questionnaire, please send your CV along with any current package details to: jobs@realtimeworlds.com and include “Senior Front-end Web Developer” in the subject line.

REALTIME WORLDS – Located in Dundee, Scotland, creators of the no.1 hit game CRACKDOWN, are looking for a highly experienced GIS Data Modelling Engineer to work on their next ground breaking title. This is an exciting opportunity for a motivated GIS Engineer looking for a challenging role that will require lateral thinking to develop solutions to novel GIS data requirements working on extremely large data sets.

This is an ideal opportunity for those wanting to make a career move from traditional a GIS role to a closely-integrated and multidisciplinary software engineering environment, by contributing their in-depth knowledge of geographic data and geoprocessing.

Responsibilities:
• Development of tools within a GIS context to process, convert and integrate multiple sources of GIS data.
• Development of rules-based GIS modelling methodologies.
• Investigation and assessment of new GIS data sets.
• Proactive role in creating solutions to meet sometimes complex spatial data needs.
• Database schema development and workflow planning.

Qualifications Required:
• Good BSc or equivalent in a relevant subject.
Experience Required:
• At least 5 years’ professional GIS Engineering in a multidisciplinary team environment developing geoprocessing models.

Knowledge/Skills Required:
• ArcGIS (ArcInfo with experience of Spatial Analyst, Data Interoperability and Model Builder extensions. Some experience of ArcGISServer may be a plus)
• Python scripting and development of batch geoprocessing.
• Experience working with large data sets.
• Experience with a wide variety of GIS data formats (both vector and raster) from a broad range of modelling applications
• Ability to communicate ideas well and assist programmers.
• Ability to quickly develop novel solutions to derive bespoke spatial data.

Knowledge/Skills in the following areas a plus:
• An ability to demonstrate knowledge of or skills in other relevant areas of GIS or related disciplines may be beneficial.

If you are interested in this position, please complete our recruitment questionnaire located here: Recruitment Questionnaire. Once you have completed the questionnaire, please send your CV along with any current package details to: jobs@realtimeworlds.com and include “GIS Data Modelling Engineer” in the subject line.

Key Responsibilities

• Be a key stakeholder, along with the Studio Creative Director and Executive Producer, in driving the development and success of the APB franchise
• Lead and mentor an effective team of designers, including collaboration with in-house User Experience team
• Be a key stakeholder in the future evolution and growth of APB from a balance of pragmatism and quality-focus
• Identify and drive improvements to the Design processes, tools, and workflows
• Review and drive improvement to overall game quality and structure
• Oversee the collection, filtering, and analyzing of game feedback from various internal and external sources such as the community, publishing partners, and etc.
• Evangelize the APB Vision and evolution to the team and company at large

Experience Required

• 5+ years of professional game design, including previous design leadership experience
• 2+ years in a design leadership role for medium-to-large (15-30 personnel) design team
• At least 2 shipped AAA persistent online and/or action titles

Knowledge/Skills Required

• A positive leader who can comfortably motivate, mentor & coach direct reports.
• A strong work ethic and passion for expanding and innovating on a persistent online action game
• A structured approach to work and ability to prioritise effectively
• Ability to overcome truly unique design challenges
• Excellent written/verbal communication that succinctly communicates intent
• Able to sift through public and internal feedback from all areas to determine necessary design goals to improve APB post-release
• Able to work under pressure, managing multiple activities in an organized manner
• Ability to work closely with all disciplines and be responsive to feedback
• Strong analytical mentality/conceptual way of thinking
• Advanced understanding of game logic and problem solving
• Passion for and broad knowledge of various genres of games and an ability to critically analyze them

If you are interested in this position, please complete our recruitment questionnaire located here: Recruitment Questionnaire. Once you have completed the questionnaire, please send your CV along with any current package details to: jobs@realtimeworlds.com and include “Design Lead” in the subject line.

REALTIME WORLDS – creators of the no.1 hit game CRACKDOWN, are looking for an Associate Live Producer to join the team for the highly anticipated, cutting-edge, AAA project – “APB: All Points Bulletin”.

Live Production is the team responsible for facilitating communications and interactions between development teams, game operations, security, accounts/billing, customer service, community management, marketing, legal and web development to ensure that the game and associated services get from development to the customer and delivering the very best user experiences possible.

Responsibilities

• Working within the Live Production team to organise internal/external play sessions and tests.
• Assist with the planning, deployment and ongoing maintenance of external open and closed beta.
• Assist with creating, deploying and maintaining the release live service for a large scale, AAA, persistent, online action game.
• Assist with facilitating communications between Game Operations, Customer Service, Community Management, Development, Web Development, Accounts/Billing and Quality Assurance.
• Ensure that all legal requirements are adhered to before a release is deployed to the live service.
• Develop and enforce procedures to ensure that only releases of the utmost quality are green lit for publishing.
• Be prepared to be on point and responsible for enacting escalation procedures across the organisation to ensure the success of the APB lives service.

Qualifications & Experience required

• Bachelor’s degree (or higher) in a relevant subject area e.g. Games/Media/Software Development, Computing Science, Business Administration or Software Project Management.
• Experience working with online games and/or services or within a large scale games/media software publishing environment.
• 3+ years’ AAA development experience with a minimum of 1 complete development cycle, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

Knowledge/Skills required

• Must possess the ability to handle multiple tasks from the team in an organized fashion, prioritizing these tasks and communicate progress effectively.
• Must have excellent organizational, problem solving, and communication skills.
• Must be proactive, resourceful, self-directed and detail oriented with a strong desire to contribute to a uniquely creative environment and succeed.
• Very strong initiative with a desire to learn and be challenged.
• Experience working with internal, external and international teams.

Knowledge of the following areas a plus

• Demonstrated knowledge and experience of the customary procedures and development strategies in games titles.
• Working knowledge of Perforce, MS Office, MS Project and Jira software.
• A solid technical background in media and software production.
• Experience working in Live Production teams, especially with online and MMO games.

To apply

If you are interested in this position, please complete our recruitment questionnaire located here: Recruitment Questionnaire. Please send your CV, completed questionnaire, and current package details to: jobs@realtimeworlds.com and include Associate Live Producer in the subject line.

The contest is open to university students of any year, as long as you can program. It’s an algorithmic programming contest, similar to the IOI or ACM collegiate contest but in our competition the questions have a game programming slant and each team has just one computer. Last year’s contest was hugely enjoyable for all involved. For more details and last year’s questions, please see the write-up.

Student Programming Contest

When:
Saturday, 6 March 2010, 11 a.m.

Where:
Abertay’s Whitespace
Dundee, Scotland

Rules

• In teams of up to five
• Each team will have one computer to work from
• Choice of C++ or C# programming environments
• Doesn’t matter what year you are as long as you can program

Deadline for entry

The deadline for entry to the contest is 29 January 2010.

Prizes

There will be prizes for the top three teams.

How to participate

If you want to take part please send your team name and names of your team members with contact details to: katieb@realtimeworlds.com. The deadline for entry is 29 January 2010. For any further information, please call Katie Boner at 01382 202821.

REALTIME WORLDS – Creators of the No. 1 hit game Crackdown and the eagerly awaited APB are looking for a talented Senior Environment Artist with a real flair and passion for cutting-edge graphics technology, to work on a new and exciting R+D project. This role represents a unique and exciting opportunity for an exceptional environment/ technical artist with a flair for creative problem-solving and a passion for graphics technology. Please note this is a 12 month contract role.

We are determined to stay at the cutting edge of artistic excellence and graphics technology. Do you feel you fit the above description? Do you have a passion for graphics technology and want the opportunity to help drive this for a company like ours?

If so, then apply now!

What Does The Role Involve?
• A great opportunity to work in partnership with an exceptional Graphics Programmer to research and develop key graphics technologies that can be utilised by the company in future projects
• Growing and developing this partnership through constant communication and advancement of new ideas, to ensure you become a winning team… and we get the best results possible
• Developing a strong vision for an environment-based graphics R+D project that can be clearly conveyed to Senior Management and planning the realisation of this vision
• Providing all the creative and technical art support for this work and ensuring that everything, from the initial concepts to the end results, are of the highest visual quality
• Researching cutting-edge graphical technologies and techniques and pushing them to the limit to exploit every opportunity they can afford
• Creating clear, concise and accessible documentation of all work being undertaken such that everyone from the Art Director to Senior Management can review the work at any time… and get excited by what they see

Who Are We Looking For?

A well-developed individual…
• Degree/diploma from Art College in Games Development course or other art or design-related course preferred
• An exceptional knowledge of industry standard 2-D package (e.g Photoshop)
• Equally, an exceptional knowledge of industry standard 3-D package is necessary (3D Studio Max preferable but Maya acceptable)
• Preferably will have worked on at least 2 shipped games titles in your career

An exceptional artist…
• Excellent 2-D and 3-D asset creation skills. You must be highly skilled in hand-authoring materials (diffuse, specular, normal maps) and hard surface 3-D modelling (environments, props, vehicles)
• Strong traditional art skills are greatly preferred
• An excellent eye for colour, shape, mood, lighting and composition

A technology whizz…
• An excellent understanding of how various different aspects of graphics technology work and how best to exploit them to get exciting and groundbreaking results. We are not just looking for an exceptional artist, but an artist with a clear flair and passion for pushing graphics technology to its limits
• Experience working with complex shaders and materials, in-game lighting systems, visual effects systems and a variety of post-processing techniques

A natural problem solver…
• A keen problem-solver with an aptitude for troubleshooting. Capable of getting to the heart of a technical challenge very quickly and come up with an exciting and efficient solution
• A lateral thinker, capable of looking at a technical challenge from a different and interesting perspective and using the technology at hand in new and exciting ways.

A meticulous organiser…
• Capable of planning out their own work thoroughly, giving realistic and achievable timescales and then working to these
• Someone that can remain completely focussed, goal driven and productive with only minimal supervision

A good communicator…
• Capable of conveying important information to all relevant stakeholders in the work including graphics programmers, production staff, Art Director and company Senior Executives

A real team player!..
• Someone with a very easy-going nature and ‘can do’ attitude
• Someone who relishes new creative and technical challenges
• Someone who inspires and enthuses others they work with
• Capable of taking art direction well and working productively based on the feedback they receive

To apply

If you are interested in this position, please complete our recruitment questionnaire located here: Recruitment Questionnaire. Please send your CV, completed questionnaire, and portfolio with any current package details to: jobs@realtimeworlds.com and include Senior Environment Artist in the subject line.

REALTIME WORLDS – Creators of the No. 1 hit game Crackdown and the eagerly awaited APB are looking for a talented Senior Visual Effects Artist to work on our ground-breaking new unannounced project. This role represents a great opportunity for an extremely creative and versatile effects artist to join us on our exciting and ambitious new project. We are looking for someone with great artistic vision who can come onboard and design and implement visual effects in a unique style that fit with our equally unique art vision.

Are you looking for a new challenge? Do you have a passion for constantly pushing the envelope to create new and exciting visual effects? Are you highly creative and looking for a project that will really give you the opportunity to shine?

If so, then apply now!

What Does The Role Involve?
• Working with the main stakeholders in visual effects work (Design, Audio and Code) to gather all visual effects requirements for the launch of our product… and beyond
• Evaluating a selected set of industry standard visual effects authoring tools and viewers to determine what is the best all-round product for our project. Writing up clear and concise documentation based on this
• Working closely with the Code and Design teams to come up with requirements for placing visual effects on a variety of assets in the world and implementation of the system that will be used to achieve this
• Working closely with the Art Director to come up with a visual effects vision that compliments and enhances the overall art vision
• Planning and strategising for future visual effects work beyond the projects initial launch

Who Are We Looking For?

A well-developed individual…
• Degree/diploma from Art College in Games Development course or other art or design-related course preferred
• An exceptional knowledge of industry standard 2-D package (e.g. Photoshop)
• Equally, an exceptional knowledge of industry standard visual effects authoring tools (E.g. FX Studio, Fork Particle, Unreal Particle Editor)
• Preferably will have worked on at least 2 shipped games titles in your career

An exceptional artist…
• Strong traditional art skills are greatly preferred. You should be capable of producing quick concepts of the effects you are planning to work on
• Very Strong 2-D and 3-D asset creation skills. You must be highly skilled in hand authoring materials (diffuse, specular, normal maps) and generating 3-D models to be used in more complex effects
• An excellent eye for colour, lighting, composition, style and drama (all vital to creating high quality, unique and dynamic effects)

A technology whizz…
• An excellent understanding of all of the features used in cutting edge visual effects
• Capable of coming up with interesting and ingenious combinations of the technology to achieve truly unique and striking results
• The ability to help drive the direction of development for all aspects of visual effects authoring and placement tools and to assist the Code team with the best implementation of runtime components

A natural problem solver…
• A keen problem solver with an aptitude for troubleshooting. Capable of getting to the heart of a technical challenge very quickly and come up with an exciting and efficient solution
• A lateral thinker, capable of looking at a technical challenge from a different and interesting perspective and using the technology at hand in new and exciting ways.

A meticulous organiser…
• Capable of planning out their own work thoroughly, giving realistic and achievable timescales and then working to these
• Very ‘goal driven’. An understanding of exactly what the user-facing result of the work must be and ensuring this is achieved in the set timescale

A good communicator…
• Capable of conveying important information to all relevant stakeholders in the work including graphics programmers, art team line managers, Art Director and production staff

A real team player!..
• Someone with a very easy-going nature and ‘can do’ attitude
• Someone who relishes new creative and technical challenges
• Someone who inspires and enthuses others they work with
• Capable of taking art direction well and working productively based on the feedback they receive

To apply

If you are interested in this position, please complete our recruitment questionnaire located here: Recruitment Questionnaire. Please send your CV, completed questionnaire, and portfolio with any current package details to: jobs@realtimeworlds.com and include Senior Visual Effects Artist in the subject line.

REALTIME WORLDS – Creators of the No. 1 hit game Crackdown and the eagerly awaited APB are looking for a talented UI Artist to work on our ground-breaking new unannounced project. This role represents a great opportunity for an extremely talented 2-D artist who is highly skilled in both graphic and user interface design and is acutely aware of what constitutes high quality in both of these specialist areas.

Are you looking for a new challenge? Do you have a passion for constantly pushing the envelope to create new and exciting user interface design? Are you highly creative and looking for a project that will really give you the opportunity to shine?

If so, then apply now!

What Does The Role Involve?
• Contributing significantly to the art vision for the user interface of a huge, ambitious and unique project
• Working closely with all major stakeholders in the work (Art, Design, Code, Audio and UX (User Experience)) to ensure all requirements for the UI are gathered and well understood
• Creating a significant portion of UI assets for the product based on the established art vision. Working on these assets from initial concept to final implementation and testing
• Working within the Design Team and reporting directly to a Senior Artist in charge of the UI but ultimately to the Design Lead and with regular art direction from the Art Director
• Creating clear, concise and accessible documentation of all work being undertaken such that everyone from the Art Director to Senior Management can review the work at any time… and get excited by what they see

Who Are We Looking For?

A well-developed individual…
• Degree/diploma from Art College in Games Development course or other art or design-related course preferred
• An excellent knowledge of Flash
• An exceptional knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite essential (e.g. Photoshop and Illustrator)
• Some experience working with Dreamweaver greatly preferred
• Some experience with xHTML, XML and other web-standard languages is highly desirable though not a requirement
• Some commercial UI experience essential (can be for games, websites, graphic design etc.)

An exceptional artist/designer…
• An extremely good understanding of the fundamentals of good UI design in terms of the entire user experience
• An extremely high level of awareness and creative flair in graphic design. This is the foundation of all the best UI designs
• An excellent eye for colour, shape, composition and iconography

A technology enthusiast…
• An extremely strong awareness of the full feature set of Adobe Flash CS4. The capability to come up with interesting and ingenious ways to push this software to achieve truly unique and striking results
• An excellent understanding of the full pipeline for getting UI assets into a game engine

A natural problem solver…
• A keen problem solver with an aptitude for troubleshooting. Capable of getting to the heart of a technical challenge very quickly and come up with an exciting and efficient solution
• A lateral thinker, capable of looking at a technical challenge from a different and interesting perspective and using the technology at hand in new and exciting ways.

A meticulous organiser…
• Capable of planning out their own work thoroughly, giving realistic and achievable timescales and then working to these
• Very ‘goal driven’. An understanding of exactly what the user-facing result of the work must be and ensuring this is achieved in the set timescale

A good communicator…
• Capable of conveying important information to all relevant stakeholders in the work including designers, Art Director, graphics programmers, production staff, and company Senior Executives

A real team player!..
• Someone with a very easy-going nature and ‘can do’ attitude
• Someone who relishes new creative and technical challenges
• Someone who inspires and enthuses others they work with
• Capable of taking art direction well and working productively based on the feedback they receive

To apply

If you are interested in this position, please complete our recruitment questionnaire located here: Recruitment Questionnaire. Please send your CV, completed questionnaire, and portfolio with any current package details to: jobs@realtimeworlds.com and include UI Artist in the subject line.