Job Opportunity – Accentuate History of Place, Games Designer

Accentuate History of Place
Games Designer

Screen South is looking for a company or one or more freelance professionals to undertake the role of Games Designer to create up to four games and or trails for our project.  These might take the format of ‘real world games’ exploring heritage sites. The games may have a common structure, but will have content unique to the individual sites. The Games Designer will also produce four online trails exploring four sites.

The aim is to create games genuinely inspired and informed by participation by young people, or a community group, but aimed at general audience.   A key challenge will be balancing the creative freedom afforded to the participating group while achieving production values high enough to have appeal to all potential players of the game.

The Games Designer will work with a Creative Facilitator to produce and lead the testing of the actual games and trails.

The intention is to develop games involving real participation with real spaces.   This approach seems more appropriate for this project which focuses on sense of place, and also because a real-world experience is likely to be less ‘contrived’ than an  entirely on-screen interaction, and may offer a more long term impact. Due to the nature of our project, and our audience, it will be necessary to have a form of each game or trail available to play remotely, on the website, which also reflects the actual real live event activity in an engaging way.  We need to ensure the widest access possible, particularly for deaf and disabled people who may not be able to travel to take part in events.

For more information on the games and the related digital projects, please see the Accentuate History of Place Digital Media Plan, which can be found in the brief. Please note that the media plan was written during the development stage of the project, so the timeline for production is no longer relevant.  Therefore, please use it as just a guide.

Please download the full brief, which can be found at the bottom of this page.
Role Description

The Games Designer will work with the Accentuate History of Place Team and the Creative Workshop Facilitator to deliver the final games, ensuring that they meet a high standard of access for deaf and disabled people; reflect the input of the workshop participants and are appealing to potential players.

In addition to the required technical skills, this person/company should:
• have good understanding and experience of creating ‘real world games’;
• be flexible and imaginative in their approach;
• have a good understanding of access in games and how this can be ensured;
• be aware of the needs of the game users;
• be flexible in their approach and responsive to feedback from the Accentuate team and the user testing.

Fee and Timescale

The total fee for this role is £40,000+VAT. This is to cover all costs, including any necessary gaming/testing events and all travel.

There is a further budget available to cover any access costs.

The games are to be launched as part of Disability History Month in November/December 2017. It is envisages that the workshops will take place early in 2017. It is anticipated that the fee will be broken down into quarterly payments, based upon the following annual allocations:

A full timetable of work will be developed with the successful applicant and final agreement of a payment schedule will be based upon this.

Application Process

Applicants are required to send a CV with proposal in which you outline, in no more than one page, how you would plan to address the brief.
• Please ensure that you have read and understood the Digital Media Plan (provided) fully, as this forms the core document for the development of all digital elements.
• Please provide relevant evidence of experience of delivery at this level, methodology and a full costing of the time allocation.  We would also like to know more about your company or your freelance practice; how long have you been established and how many people would be working on this project.
• Please provide examples of previous games you have designed and delivered preferably in a community setting.  It would also be beneficial if you can show examples of where you have worked in historic settings in the past or with historic or archive material.
• We will be looking for best value for money as well as exciting and creative approaches to delivery at this level.

Applications should be made both as a hard copy and electronically, and sent to:

Accentuate
Screen South
The Wedge
75 – 81 Tontine Street
Folkestone   CT20 1JR

Email: info@accentuateuk.org
Tel: 01303 259777

Alternatively you can telephone or email to request application materials in other formats.

Deadline for applications: Monday 9th January 2016

Interviews to be held at our Folkestone offices on a date to be confirmed in January.

For a full role description and instructions on how to apply, please download the below job brief.

Games Designer Brief