Jobs

Do you love zombies? Do you love console games? Are you excited about the possibilities of playing online with your friends in a vast, beautiful world in the throes of the zombie apocalypse? Do you have game development skills?

Undead Labs is home to an elite team of technologists, concept artists, game designers, and experienced producers. We’re not building an army; we’re building the Navy SEALs. If you think you have what it takes to join us and help create the definitive MMOZ, we want to hear from you!

WorkerWhat can you expect from us? You can expect to work with people you admire, respect, and trust, and you can expect to have it returned in kind. We are not a “rock star” studio. You won’t find anyone’s name in front of our game titles, or any single person taking credit for the design of the game. You can expect to work on a game you are excited about, while also living a full life. The leads at Undead Labs have a proven track record of building and nurturing development cultures that are respectful of personal lives and families. You can expect to work in open, collaborative environments, and you can expect everyone else in the company to do the same. Offices, cubicles, and development culture just don’t mix. You can expect to work for a company that pursues excellence and sets ambitious goals. We’re not in this to create mere games; we’re in this to create cultural phenomena. You can expect to be asked to contribute to the design of the game and challenge the boundaries of your role, rather than working strictly to a specification that someone else gives you. You can expect candor, honesty, and transparency from the company. We’re in this together, and we’ll treat you as a peer.

You can expect to love your job. In fact, you should demand it.

We do not have positions open immediately, but we will be looking for additional team members soon, so please take a look at the “coming soon” job descriptions below, and send an email expressing your interest to jobs@undeadlabs.com. We’d encourage you to attach a resume and relevant portfolio links to ensure you get the notice you deserve.

Please note that we can only accept materials by email, and we cannot return anything sent to us. However, anything you do send will be held in the strictest confidence.

We’re looking forward to hearing from you. Good luck!

11.22.09 Jobs

Designer

Tired of the same ‘ol same ‘ol? Imagine how invigorating it would be to work on something you know is truly fresh. A zombie MMO built for console. It’s kind of  like…

It’s like nothing else out there. Which means we get to design everything from scratch. And, we get to design for fun, rather than designing to be different. Which of course requires high-caliber, veteran design talent.

Is that you?

Here is what we are looking for in an MMOZ designer:

  • Deep knowledge of zombies, zombie lore, zombie history, and zombie mechanics
  • Professional experience as an MMO designer
  • Ability to think and design in terms of systems, rather than just mechanics and features
  • Ability to communicate not only information, but passion and conviction as well
  • Low ego factor — you will be both contributing design, and implementing design ideas from others
  • An affinity for teamwork, and a natural tendency to solicit and build on other people’s ideas
  • Great writing skills
  • Proficiency with office tools (Excel, Word), databases, wikis, and scripting languages

This is a full-time position at the Undead Labs studio in Seattle. If you think you are the perfect candidate for the job, send a letter explaining why and your resume to 20d5@jobs.undeadlabs.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

11.22.09 Jobs

Producer

Undead Labs is structured a bit differently than a traditional game studio. Triple-A MMOs are massive, resource intensive projects that demand a ton of investment capital and large teams. In fact, the unquenchable demand for content in the next generation of MMOs is pushing team sizes into the hundreds. But these huge teams bring significant tradeoffs, such as inefficient communication, forced specialization (okay, you’re modeling all the eyelashes for the native dendari insect-men for the next four years), and, worst of all, the loss of passionate studio culture. Undead Labs is built around a culture of strong product management, which will allow us to build a small, elite team and take advantage of the high-caliber art and technology resources available around the world.

But that takes a crew of skilled, knowledgeable producers, and that’s where you come in.

We’re looking for producers to help us build a global production pipeline, document and refine processes, facilitate communication, and generally empower our artists, designers, and programmers to paint, design, and code without distraction. If you’re an organization freak, can explain the difference between a CMS and a DAM, explain the pros and cons of a Sprint, and love to see a complicated process distilled down to its core essence, you have a home with us.

Love of games and zombies is, of course, required.

Here are some other things we’d like to see:

  • A few years of experience in product management
  • A formal educational background in an accredited four-year program
  • Experience with and passion for tools, including spreadsheets, wikis, CMSs, blogs, and project-management tools
  • An attitude of service, but also a willingness to lead strongly
  • A self-starter who is happy to be in the driver’s seat, rather than the passenger’s seat
  • A passionate, pleasant, fun demeanor

This is a full-time onsite position in the Undead Labs Seattle studio. If you are interested in applying for this position, send your resume and a cover letter explaining why you are the perfect candidate to e5b8@jobs.undeadlabs.com.

11.22.09 Jobs

Programmer

Want to do something completely different? We are heading into uncharted territory with this built-for-console MMOZ, and we need a few hardcore programmers to help us get there.

We’re not going to reinvent wheels at Undead Labs. We want to focus our thought and resources on creating game mechanics and features. There’s no need to reinvent physics systems, occlusion culling systems, graphics engines, sound engines, animation systems, or the libraries and content toolsets that support them. There are great solutions for these core technologies out there that can be licensed or purchased. On the other hand, there is a strong need to invent latency-tolerant combat engines, rapid world generation and authoring technologies, zombie behavior AI, global economy systems, scalable persistent object systems, etc. In other words, all of the cool technology specific to an MMOZ.

This is complicated stuff, and requires an elite team of programmers who really know what they are doing. Are you an elite programmer? Among the best? If so, we want talk to you.

Here is what we look for in a programmer. Remember that this is not a checklist of “must haves,” but rather a guideline we use to find great candidates.

  • A degree in Computer Science or equivalent from an accredited four-year program
  • A few years of professional experience as a programmer
  • A true passion for the craft of writing clean, efficient, well-structured code
  • The ability to think quickly and communicate thoughts effectively
  • A customer-oriented mindset and development philosophy
  • Solid math skills
  • Proficiency in C and C++
  • Knowledge of C# and higher-level languages such as Lua, Python, and Ruby a plus
  • Experience in console development a big plus
  • As with all our positions, a love of gaming and zombies is a must

This position is for full-time employment at the Undead Labs studio in Seattle.

If you think you have what it takes, send your resume and code samples in C/C++ to dec7@jobs.undeadlabs.com. Make sure your code sample shows us something meaningful. We like to see real solutions to real problems, as opposed to class wrappers or “thin” API layers. Your code sample is your portfolio, so put your best foot forward and blow us away! We won’t compile your code, so please don’t send entire projects; just the highlights. Also rest assured that any code you send will be used solely to evaluate your candidacy, and will be held in the strictest confidence.

11.22.09 Jobs

Concept Artist

We’re looking for a few excellent character and environment concept artists to help us bring our post-apocalyptic zombie world to life. We like to see portfolio pieces that show not only technical mastery, but also a willingness to take risks and push traditional boundaries. We want to see a good sense of humor, and a willingness to create beauty as well as horror.

While our first priority is to find artists with strong vision and excellent style, mastery of modern digital tools, such as the Adobe suite, is a strong plus.

Here are some other things we would like to see:

  • A few years of game-industry experience
  • A portfolio that shows proficiency in a wide range of styles and mediums
  • A formal art background from an accredited college or art school
  • Deep knowledge of zombies, zombie lore, zombie history, and zombie mechanics
  • Strong communication skills
  • Lack of ego, a desire to be a team player, and a fun, easy-going nature

This is a full-time position in our Seattle, Washington studio. You can apply by sending your resume and portfolio link to 8243@jobs.undeadlabs.com.