You likely already saw this story as it’s roughly a day old at this point but as I have been a little out of the News Loop the past week or so I just stumbled upon it today.
Seems that Irrational Games, the brilliant developer of games we all know and mostly love, is looking for Design Manager. Nothing odd about that.
The requirements all look somewhat standard: 6+ years as a game designer in the video game industry; 4+ years of experience managing direct reports; Shipped a minimum of 3 game titles from pre-production through ship; Proven knowledge of game design, theory and execution; A strong passion for and experience with First Person Shooters; Credit on at least one game with an 85+ Average Meta Critic Review Score.
Wait, what?
Now, I have no idea if there’s wiggle room here or not and I am curious if they meant to place that last line in the “pluses” category and not the “requirements” but you are seriously telling me that if you apply for this job at Irrational and you headed up the team on a game like Metro 2033, you’re out of luck — don’t even bother? But Max Payne 3 is on your resume? Sold!
I don’t want to be too hard on Irrational, the company makes wonderful products, but come on guys, what a ridiculous criteria for landing a job. A negative review from Tom Chick at Qt3 that drops a game to an 84 score could cost someone from working at Irrational?
See what you’ve done, Tom!? I hope you’re happy!