About the Role
· 5+ years of relevant product development or design experience in the games industry.
· Successfully designed or developed kids and family games for Mass Market, Hobby or Specialty in previous positions.
Knowledge/Skills/Abilities
· Excellent project management skills, including the ability to take ownership for accomplishing assigned tasks in time. Able to set priorities and keep to projected schedules.
· Strong passion for games, with the ability to develop outstanding games with high replay value in the preschool, children’s, family games categories.
· Consumer oriented, creative, motivated, and entrepreneurial thinking.
· Knowledge of consumer product marketing, with in-depth knowledge of the board games industry.
· Solid negotiation skills. Ability to maximize company dollars.
· Team player with excellent communication skills both external and internal.
· Ability to function independently with a high level of integrity and professionalism.
· Interest and willingness to work in a global team that develops products for both national and international target groups.
· Computer Skills: Comfortable and effective working in Microsoft Office, including Word, Excel, Teams, Outlook and PowerPoint.
Requirements
As a Game Development Manager you are responsible for developing high-quality kids and family games that are in line with the category’s product strategy. You will manage inventor relationships, brief and source promising product ideas, and develop products in time, at cost and at the quality level required for successful commercialization. You might also design games identified by product management.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following. Other duties may be assigned
1. Responsible for content development, e.g. mechanics, rules, copy & editing. Packaging and component needs are defined in collaboration with product manager, marketing manager and art director.
2. Build and iterate on games while working with game designers, product and marketing managers, art directors and production, from ideation to development, launch, and post launch review.
3. Manage inventor relations, negotiate contracts, give timely feedback on concepts, evaluate and improve prototypes, run focus groups and playtesting sessions.
4. Assist the licensing team to communicate product intentions to licensing partners.
5. In collaboration with product management, define consumer needs and market opportunities by conducting consumer research, focus groups, online & retail store checks.
6. Travel to retail fair and consumer shows primarily in the US to promote latest product launches and meet with inventors; potentially attend product planning meetings in Germany.