what should I major in if I want to game design experience?
Some schools do offer dedicated game design degrees, so if that's where you want to specialize that can be a good choice. Difference in quality between different schools can be enormous though, so important to research your options well.
Software engineering is also a very good way to get into design, not because it teaches you game design skills specifically, but because it's such a useful skillset for a designer to have.
how would one get involved with the balance team? I never really appreciated comp sci, but I have a dual major in bio/economics with a focus on statistics.
Just an idle thought, im already committed to a career path but i was always curious about how the balance team accepted new hires.
You'd want to keep an eye out for Insights roles on our website in this category:
https://www.riotgames.com/en/work-with-us/jobs#craft=insights
Balance team, or related work also using stats, would have 'Gameplay' or 'Summoner's Rift' in the description somewhere
Do you guys hire data scientists/statisticians? Any tips for someone looking to get into that kind of role?
We do. I'm not familiar with that hiring pipeline myself, you'd want to watch out for roles in the 'Insights' category on our website though:
https://www.riotgames.com/en/work-with-us/jobs#craft=insights
Example job:
Read morethis might sound dumb but what are the requirements for this job
Required Qualifications: 2+ years of experience as a game design manager 5+ years of experience as a game designer, at least some of which has been on PVP game(s) Senior Design craft ability across Mechanics, Systems, and Metasystems design Demonstrated expertise in competitive games having delivered genre leading designs Demonstrated managing other designers leading to promotion and substantial positive improvements in their work Leadership experience resolving conflict within and across teams, and when needed offering difficult feedback with respect Has been a leader on teams who built a healthy culture and higher performance Builds strong relationships with leadership from a range of disciplines to multiply their quality and output Demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously, keeping them on track and providing the essential feedback they need to succeed
More details at:
Read moreDoes that mean you expect Gwen to be a champion with perfectly average difficulty, since youre aiming for 50%?
No, we use 50% as the target for her long term resting win rate average. Mains of a champ tend to be above the average.
I'm really glad I added my podcast to my resume then.
It was a short lived project but it was still something
Stuff like that certainly helps
You require 4-8 year of game design experience. How do people even get that if they are not in the gaming industry? Are you not fishing in a very tiny pool?
This one's a very senior role, hence that minimum requirement. Entry level roles do get posted fairly regularly, normally just with the title 'Game Designer' and are good fits for people without existing industry experience but other relevant qualifications (relevant degrees, modding experience, game jam work etc).
Im looking to apply to a an associate level design role, you have any words of wisdom?
Emphasizing a portfolio of things you've worked on in a cover letter is really valuable. That doesn't have to be full games necessarily, could also be things like mods, student projects, theorycraft blogs/videos etc.
A stupid question that I can't find the answer to:
I want to apply for an internship when the spots open this year BUT I had to stop uni because my country doesn't offer something related to concept/illustration on top of taxes.
Can I be accepted for an internship if I'm not enrolled in an uni?
I believe we require people either be currently studying at a university/college or have just graduated in order to be eligible to apply for an internship. I'm not the expert there though, so there's a chance that's wrong. When internships are posted on our website they will outline the required qualifications
What are the chances for a graduated but inexperienced game designer outside of the US to join, for example on the League balance team?
At present it's fairly hard to get inexperienced international candidates visas so they can work in the US, since most of the visa programs require demonstration of expertise in your field. Not impossible, so worth applying when a role is open, but challenging.
random question, this isn't going to be possible for three years or so, but is there a realistic way somebody living in Canada could work at Riot games? Is there an office in Toronto or would online work be reasonable? I've been passionate about the field for a long time and I kind of just want to know
Not at present at least. Given the way the industry as a whole is moving towards more remote work who knows though in three years?
So it’s essentially a basic upper level management job? I’m assuming you need qualifications relating to game development/design? Mainly curiosity. I feel like companies bring in a lot of third party management from unrelated fields to “gain new perspective” and in my experience that has always led to a decline in the overall quality of work. Everyone has their own style and a lot of companies make the mistake of thinking something different means better.
It's a combination of management, strategy development and just plain design problem solving when needed.
Significant game design experience is essential for this one. While we're very open to people from other fields getting into design that needs to happen in more junior roles, not one with this degree of oversight. Expectation is this person will help mentor other designers to grow their craft, so they need to have a strong history of design themselves.
Hey, I love statistics and data.
I really would love to work on the huge data that LoL generates from the millions of games some day. That data dump just sounds like the coolest collection of organised data imaginable.
How big is your team that works on game statistics to find trends, etc ?
Rather than having a single team that does game stats work we have one or two people as part of the teams that work on different parts of the game (e.g. the SR team that does balance has an analyst, the teams that make skins and other cosmetics have a couple, TFT has a couple etc). It's a role we're often looking for more people for too, so definitely opportunities there!
200,000 years of experience
Ok, I'm convinced. Everyone - turn up at the office on Monday.
Having said that, if anyone at all is missing, deal's off.
based on the responsibilities and requirements, this sounds like a damn exhausting job
It's a demanding job at times, speaking from experience (I used to do this job myself) it's an awful lot of fun too though :)
If you guys can wait about a year I’ll have finished my Diploma of Game Design by then :’)
Oh well, maybe there will be another spot open once I graduate
We're a big company and growing, I'm confident we'll have design roles open in a year :).
For recent graduates the ones with the title 'Game Designer' are generally ideal, they're aimed at people with college qualifications and/or some relevant professional experience. We don't have any currently open I can link as an example but we do open them up pretty regularly!
Hmm hot fix buffing a champ literally a day after release when people haven’t figured how to play her? Getting Volibear and Yummi and Akali flashbacks
The way we determine wether or not to hot fix comes down to our estimated win rate growth and where we expect them to be for players with zero experience in the champ. In Gwen’s case, we estimated that she’d grow a little under 10 percent given her fragility and high mechanical burden. Her win rate on launch plus our estimate still put her under 50%, so we did a cautious buff in order to try and get her more in line.
Yuumi was actually a learning experience for us, that we should be factoring larger growth estimates for weirder champs. That’s why these buffs are so minor. We could buff her to be 50% right now, but the goal is to buff her to be long term balanced. Like everything we do, the live environment is much different from our testing one, so we monitor the champ closely as the players grow to learn the new one.
There sure is a lot of pressure to get this appointment right no? If the plan is to keep League kicking for another decade.
I fear that all these new games will start cannibalising LoL, especially the MMO. Don’t you think?
It's an important role certainly, but at the same time LoL doesn't succeed or fail because of a single person IMO. Like other leadership at Riot this role isn't about dictating exactly what to do to the teams and people on them, but instead about building a strategy for the teams, helping people grow their skills, reviewing work etc.
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