Senior UI / UX Designer

Astrid is a gaming studio that brings together accomplished world builders and game developers to create multiplayer creative experiences. Our first project is a cooperative open-world sim, designed to foster connection, problem-solving and shared discovery. Players embark on a profound social experience in a richly imagined world shaped by dynamic systems, immersive storytelling and community-driven play.

Our team spans the US, the UK and beyond. We are taking a fully remote approach, but have regular in-person meetups to synchronize, huddle and build our culture.
We are currently seeking a Senior UI/UX Designer to become a vital part of our team. A huge amount of this game lives in its UI - inventory, crafting, building, decorating and dialogue - alongside the tools and items players use to explore the world, solve problems and meet the creatures in it. You will own that player-facing experience end to end, working closely with a UI engineer and guiding outsourced graphic designers.

WHO YOU ARE

Above all, we’re looking for someone with solid gaming experience who cares about UX - not just how things look, but how they work and how they feel. The brief is broad appeal, but with layers of optional depth: a low floor and a high ceiling, where the floor stays low as the ceiling rises. It’s easy to allow the depth for advanced players to complicate things for everyone; we want the opposite, complexity players discover and opt into rather than have forced upon them. Simple shouldn’t mean sterile, though: we love the small animations and satisfying feedback that give a UI charm, the Nintendo-like sense of play that makes it a pleasure to use.

If you can make something rich for experts, welcoming to newcomers and a joy to use, you’re who we’re looking for.

In order of priority, the skills we're looking for are:

1. UX - Making the game simple to pick up but deep to master. This matters most, by a clear margin
2. Unreal (UMG) - Able to implement your own designs in-engine, working alongside a UI engineer
3. Graphic Design - A strong visual sense is a bonus rather than a requirement 

WHAT YOU WILL DO

• Own the UX across the game's core systems: flows, information architecture, interaction and layout
• Design the HUD, menus, screens and moment-to-moment input so they read clearly and feel great to use
• Produce wireframes, prototypes and mock-ups and take them through to final implementation
• Build and wire up your UI in Unreal (UMG), working alongside a UI engineer
• Define and maintain a UI design system that the team and external vendors can build to
• Direct outsourced graphic designers on iconography, colour and visual polish
• Run playtests and iterate quickly as the game evolves

• 5+ years designing UI/UX for games, with at least one shipped title or substantial in-development work
• A strong portfolio of UI/UX work on systems-rich games that shows your process and thinking
• Proven ability to make complex systems simple and intuitive without flattening their depth
• Demonstrable understanding of cosy / life-sim / management games and adventure games, since you'll be designing a hybrid of the two
• Hands-on experience building UI in Unreal (UMG). We'll consider an exceptional UX candidate with lighter Unreal, but some practical experience here is strongly expected
• Fluency with Figma and / or Adobe Suite