About the role
Company Overview
Warner Bros. Discovery is a global media and entertainment company. Avalanche Software, a division of WB Games Inc., is a studio located in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, focused on creating interactive experiences for world-class franchises, including the open-world action RPG Hogwarts Legacy.
Role Overview
The Advanced Narrative Designer will join the team responsible for Hogwarts Legacy. This role focuses on visionary storytelling, player agency, and creating immersive narrative experiences that players can influence through their choices. The position involves direct collaboration with design and narrative leadership, writers, artists, IP owners, producers, and peers across every discipline.
The Daily: Responsibilities and Duties
- Craft compelling missions and rich stories that build a satisfying player experience.
- Collaborate with directors and IP owners to ensure authentic stories that tickle fans, ignite the imagination, and connect with players on an emotional level.
- Champion the narrative goals of the project on a day-to-day basis.
- Promote and drive narrative, thematic, and mechanical coherence across story and gameplay.
- Visualize, track, manage, and communicate the branching structure of narrative choice content in the game.
- Resolve issues, mediate, provide feedback, and iterate on mission designs based on direction from the development team and franchise representatives.
- Provide narrative support for design elements, such as story beat creation, game mechanics delivery, character profiles, character motivations, narrative feature design, player choices, and the player emotional journey as delivered through narrative during game development.
- Evaluate missions and provide feedback to mission implementors and artists for how to maximize storytelling and narrative immersion through game mechanics, player choices, dialog options, and environmental storytelling.
- Own and drive production on large or complex narrative features or content arcs from initial design through polish and ship.
- Translate creative direction, team feedback, and cross-discipline conversations into clear mission specs, narrative documentation, and implementation plans.
- Work with discipline leads and stakeholders across the studio to gather input, vet proposals, and align narrative content with the broader needs of the project.
- Work with production to prioritize narrative content and keep milestones on track.
- Provide clear guidance and feedback to other narrative designers on mission design, documentation, and franchise alignment.
The Essentials: Qualifications and Experience
- Previous experience in interactive storytelling, narrative design, and game writing; RPG experience preferred.
- A strong record of quality in writing and/or narrative-focused game design.
- Experience working within an established franchise, authoring exciting new experiences that still feel authentic and tonally consistent.
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills, including documentation of narrative plans.
- Contributed to shipped titles and participated in a full development cycle from concept through release.
- Familiarity with standard game-development processes and workflows.
- Possess a deep literacy in games, film, television, and literature with a love of the fantasy genre.
Preferred Qualifications
- Knowledge of the Wizarding World franchise.
- Experience with Unreal Engine 5.
- Experience with Blueprint.
- Experience with dialogue authoring tools such as Articy.
Working Conditions and Benefits
- Position Classification: Hybrid, with required onsite days weekly at the Avalanche studio in Salt Lake City, Utah.
- Relocation: Provided for candidates living out of the area.
- Guiding Principles: The company operates based on core values found at the official WBD guiding principles website.
- Inclusion: Warner Bros. Discovery is an equal opportunity employer committed to a diverse workforce and providing accommodations for candidates with disabilities during the recruitment process.