Principal Systems Designer (Factory Game, Unreal Engine)

Please apply via our recruitment agency 8bit via https://8bitplay.com/jobs/principal-systems-designer
By applying you agree for your data to be processed by 8Bit for the purposes of this recruitment.

We're looking for a Principal Systems Designer for our next big project: a new 3D factory game built in Unreal Engine, in development until the end of 2028 with a team of around 20 people.

We're tobspr Games, a small, fully remote studio based in Germany. You might know us from shapez and shapez 2. For years we've been all-in on factory and automation games, and that's where we're staying.

This is a senior, hands-on role. You won't hand off specs and wait. You'll build systems, break them down, test them, and own them until they work.

What You'll Do
You'll be the Game Director's closest design partner. The Game Director keeps the overall vision. You take the core mechanics and turn them into systems that hold up over hundreds of hours of play.

Your responsibilities

• Design the core systems of the game, with input from the game director: production chains, resources, logistics, progression and economy.
• Take high-level mechanics and break them down, step by step, into something the team can build.
• Prototype and tune systems yourself, in spreadsheets, simulations, Blueprints.
• Write and maintain clear design docs, and keep them in sync with what is actually in the game.
• Work daily with programmers, artists and production so design and implementation don't drift apart.
• Bring structure to the design work: priorities, open questions, decisions and their reasons.
• Act as a sparring partner for the Game Director: challenge ideas, bring alternatives, say when something doesn't work.
• Later on, lead a small design team (Level Designer, Content Designer) and help shape how we do design as a studio.

What We're Looking For
Must-haves

• 8+ years of professional game design experience, with a strong focus on systems design.
• At least one shipped title where you owned major systems, ideally a systemic game (simulation, strategy, sandbox, automation, survival, colony builders or similar).
• You play factory and automation games in your free time and genuinely enjoy them. You don't need to have worked on one, but you need to know why players lose 500 hours to them.
• You think in systems: feedback loops, dependencies, scaling, emergent behaviour and edge cases.
• Hands-on work style. You prototype and test your ideas yourself, not just on paper.
• Excellent written and verbal communication in English.
• Working times compatible with the CET timezone.

Nice to have

• A programming background, or solid scripting skills (Blueprints, C++, C#, Python, Lua or similar).
• Experience with Unreal Engine.
• Experience leading or mentoring other designers.
• You've worked in small or remote indie teams before.
• Bonus: personal projects related to factory games (mods, tools, prototypes, calculators, blueprints). Please include them!

What We Offer

• Full-time (40h/week), fully remote.
• Very flexible working hours.
• Real influence on a game from its early stages.
• Paid overtime (though we do our best to avoid it in the first place).
• Book & training budget (100€/month, more if needed).
• Focus days for learning new skills or researching.
• Yearly on-site team events.
• Automatic baseline salary adjustment of 2% per year.
• Hardware & home office budget (2.000€ when joining, then 1.000€ yearly).
• Job Ticket (if you live in Germany).

Please apply via https://8bitplay.com/jobs/principal-systems-designer