Your efforts and loyalty will not go without recognition, however. Firefall is currently developing a mobile version of the game and all of Firefall’s founders and players will be rewarded greatly in the new game. We will be sure to provide everyone with more updates as we have them.

Thank you for your support and enthusiasm throughout the years; we will see you at the next battle.

You love making games smart by delighting and surprising players with challenging combat, well-rounded characters, and immersive situations. Because we are creating an open world, team based action shooter; you have access to the tremendous server-side computing power needed to do things no one’s accomplished before in game AI. You drive entire worlds and campaigns with your code, and your AI provides designers the best tools possible to create encounters, epic stories, and memorable in-game moments. Every challenge you create pushes the boundaries of online computer gaming up another notch.

A Typical Day

You have been working for the past few days on a new creature behavior. While most of it involves the use of a high-level behavioral language created internally, you also had to conceive and implement a new AI subsystem in C++ to support a new feature. It was not trivial as it involved communication with other processes and some multithreading issues, but you are very satisfied with the results. You have been testing the behavior in a few virtual environments and you notice that something is not quite right when running on the Linux servers. After investigating, and with the help from your peers, you fix the nagging issues. Now your efforts are ready to be pushed to QA.

You fire up your new NPC and watch as it uses its senses to see, hear, and feel its surroundings. A couple of Tribe members start playing with your new virtual creature, only to be taken out in record time. You smile, knowing that to be fun this creature will have to be toned down. You expose a few behavioral parameters to the designers so that they can experiment and fine tune the AI. Your goal was to create an entertaining new behavior, and by watching the grins on the designers’ faces, you can be very happy of your new accomplishment.

Who You Work With

As an AI programmer, you conspire mainly with designers in defining and developing entertaining and logical behaviors for NPCs. As you discover the existing infrastructure, you have a lot of interaction with other programmers as well.

Qualifications

• 3+ years previous experience implementing AI for AAA games
• An ability to translate AI theory into practical, optimized code
• Experience with parallel programming
• Experience with networked games
• Fluent in C++
• Unyielding passion for games

Pluses

• Comfortable developing in both Windows and Linux environments
• Interest in leading AI techniques and research

You live in two worlds: storytelling and game design. Understanding the story and lore in games has always been a fascination for you. Designing playable content to convey story is your passion. Starting with a story, you imagine how that can translate into playable experiences. You marry story presentation with in-game mechanics to provide players with an overall experience that is not only fun to play, but furthers their understanding of the game world, its story, and the player’s role within it.

A Typical Day

Your morning begins with a standup between the story writers, you, and members of your feature team. Discussing the back-story for the game, a new character emerges and it is your task to bring it to life in the open world. You discuss with some of the concept artists and modelers/animators to determine the characters functionality while keeping the underlying story intact. You discuss how to best implement the character into some of the events/missions that you have designed while keeping true to the overall arc of the storyline. Once the overall design has been agreed upon, you work closely with other team members to ensure that the gameplay implementation delivers the story effectively to the players. After the playtests produce the fun scores that you’re looking for, you move onto the next piece of challenging content.

Qualifications

• 3-5 years of success in a game development team designing missions and events in an action-oriented environment.
• Shipped at least two titles of AAA quality and able to demonstrate your contribution to their success
• Solid team player with an unlimited imagination and ability to present your ideas in a team environment while accepting criticism as a tool for improvement
• Excellent verbal written and communication skills

Pluses

• Shooter experience and/or action game experience

When you were younger you were always bending video games to your will in order to find their limits. Your love of cryptography and the need to understand how computers work led you into engineering where you were able to explore your passion and forge it into a career. Security issues are your lifeblood and you enjoy the responsibility and ownership necessary to ensure the security of an AAA game enjoyed by millions around the world. Working hand in hand with the developers at Red 5, you seek to achieve our overall security objectives, including security assessments and audits of both the software and the infrastructure. As part of that process, you’ll assist in the overall architectural design of the infrastructure and develop documentation as required to support continued development and production maintenance. You enjoy mentoring others, so training the developers and operations staff is second nature to you in your area of expertise. Researching emerging technologies and remaining abreast of current security trends is a life long passion of yours.

A Typical Day

You start your morning by looking into some suspicious network alerts and meeting with the systems engineers regarding the latest Firefall build. You conclude that the risk assessment is looking good so give the go ahead. Some new development is also coming down the path and some modifications to the authentication system require your attention to assure their validity. Later in the day you review compliance issues that arose from last week and submit any modifications to the Director of Operations.

Responsibilities

• Work together with software development teams to achieve security objectives
• Conduct security assessments and audits
• Assist in overall architecture and infrastructure design
• Proactively manage and implement network security and keep abreast of current security best practices
• Develop documentation and other materials to support ongoing development, change control, and production maintenances
• Provide training to developers and operations staff, while keeping abreast of emerging technologies

Qualifications

• Expert knowledge of security management, auditing methodology, and technology risk assessment
• Strong knowledge of Linux or Linux-like systems, Windows, and Mac OSX
• Experience with networking, cryptography, PKI, authentication systems, and logging infrastructure
• Experience with PCI DSS and SOX compliance efforts
• Experience in designing an all-encompassing security infrastructure
• Experience with commercial and Open Source vulnerability assessment tools
• Expert knowledge of the methods used to create malware and game hacks
• Experience programming and writing administrative scripts (C/C++, Python, Ruby, or Shell)
• Excellent oral and written communications skills
• Unyielding passion for gaming

Pluses

• Online gaming or MMO security management experience
• Programming background in any applicable language
• Experience working with systems deployed on AWS infrastructure

You are a hardcore gamer. When you play games you push them to their limits trying to break and exploit them. You can easily communicate and explain complex issues clearly and simply; your succinctness is legendary. You look at a series of problems and investigate until you see one core issue. You’re detail oriented and nothing gets by you.

A Typical Day

When you sit down at your desk, the first thing you do is check what your bug queue looks like while you grab the most recent build. You load up the game and begin to check the build for any major bugs. When you find game breaking issues you alert the team and follow-up until the bug is resolved. After you finish your sweep of the game you report what you tested and send it to the Tribe. Time to start completing some test cases! This is your bread and butter. You go through the game verifying everything is working as intended, writing up bugs along the way when you find them. You’ll often have Tribe members that need help testing; you love this because it allows you to learn so much about the various disciplines.

Who You Work With

You work a lot with the rest of the QA team but a great part of being a member of QA at Red 5 is you work with everyone and touch all disciplines. You constantly help people test their work and provide feedback when they need it. When someone wants to know what the status of build looks like they go to you.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience testing in a game development environment
• Team player – working day-to-day with the game dev team
• College degree

Pluses

• Educational background in CS or game development
• Previous experience working with an outsourced QA group

You love competing in online games where twitch skills can make all the difference in your quest to dominate your opponents. When twitch isn’t enough you also thoroughly enjoy out-thinking your competition, by spotting flanking routes or other benefits of the environment that can be used to gain a tactical advantage. Creatively using all of the mechanics that are available to you as a player gets your juices going! You’re equally passionate about applying that knowledge to craft team vs. team spaces that are designed to make full use of the gameplay mechanics while at the same time stimulating the minds of your audience.

A Typical Day

You’re a member of a small feature team that consists of you, a Technical Designer, a Programmer, and a World Artist. Your team’s goal is to deliver an eSports focused map within the timeframe of the current milestone at an acceptable fun score. You’ve created your initial block out and after a brief morning standup meeting with your team to discuss your current goals you realize that a Programmer’s help is going to be necessary to add the desired encounter actions to our in-house LUA based encounter editor. Luckily for you, your team comes stacked with a Programmer for just these sorts of needs. After extending the encounter system and updating your encounter, you run numerous playtests with fellow coworkers, looking for any methods that you can to improve the overall experience of the map. After iterating and making improvements to your map based on feedback, your scores are finally up to the level required in order to take the level to the next step graphically. The next level however is going to require the help of a World Artist who can take your play tested block out to new heights visually. After making the map look pretty you’re ready for the next step and release your latest creation onto the plethora of hungry beta testers who can’t wait to give you all sorts of feedback on how to improve your map. You eagerly read all of the information posted by the community on the forums and make the necessary changes to take the map to its highest possible fun level! Once your map is complete, you can’t wait to watch highly skilled teams do battle against one another in shout-casted competitions, delivering the highest peak of competitive play.

Who You Work With

You live in the world of art, design, and programming. The artists on the team bring your map designs to reality while the programmers help code the core features and mechanics that make the space both playable and fun. The audio designers also add elements to enhance the environments while the Lead Designer ensures that your map plays well and delivers the overall experience that the team hopes to achieve. In reality you work with everyone in the company as we all will give you feedback on your work to help make it the best that it possibly can be.

Responsibilities

• Map blockouts designed to allow for early and rapid iteration
• Playtesting blockouts with the team and iterating on the map based on feedback
• Iterate map design with QA
• Iterate map design with external beta testers
• Share the design with the world in publicized eSports events
• Complete editing and polishing tasks

Qualifications

• 3+ years experience as a PVP map designer with a shooter title
• Competitive gameplay experience and knowledge of the eSports Community
• Demonstrated skills in communication and collaborative processes within a highly creative environment
• Unyielding passion for games

Pluses

• Previous experience building eSports focused maps
• Competitive gameplay experience at professional gaming level

Firefall is one of the most eagerly anticipated games of 2012. The European Headquarters will initially provide customer support, community management and localization for Firefall which, currently in exclusive beta, is due to be fully rolled out in 2012.

Welcoming the investment, IDA Ireland CEO Barry O’Leary, said, “I very much welcome Red 5 Studios’ decision to locate its European Headquarters in Cork and the jobs announced today. The program for Government highlights the digital game industry as a particular priority area for growth and the decision by Red 5 Studios, a fast growing company with such huge potential, will help enhance our status as a centre for the games sector.”

Creating and designing the foundation for Firefall enables you to work directly with the game development team and the back-end platform group. Adding functionality to the platform with new core features is something that you thrive upon. The game is built upon web architecture, so you have the opportunity to not only fine tune your web skills but also to add core features working with the game designers. In addition, you will be able to build and design the APIs that the game will run on with core character progression, item crafting, and game server auto-scaling, along with exciting new APIs that you and the team help craft.

A Typical Day

Your day begins with a design team meeting discussing what high end concepts they would like to see included in the game. Focusing on what systems need to be built to support these new features, you start to prototype your API to get the job done. Working with game server developers and web developers you begin planning on integrating the new functionality into other systems. You conclude the day by meeting with the Operations team to discuss various systems issues and how these new features may address those concerns.

Who You Work With

You are in a unique position with the opportunity to interact on a day-to-day basis with the development team on the game creation side while also with the front-end web developers and the operations team on the back-end. Not only are you able to help craft creative features into the game but you also improve scalability and optimization. With our focus on collaboration when debugging system problems as well as planning the future of the infrastructure, Red 5′s “DevOps” culture offers a unique approach to game development and operations. You truly have your hands in all aspects of the platform and the in-game design features.

Responsibilities

• Own your code. Write it, test it, and push it to production via continuous deployment
• Design and construct scalable web service APIs to serve data needs of the platform
• Constantly improving the game and user experience on your own accord
• Writing unit and/or integration tests for your code
• Deciding what is the most appropriate technology to be used for any situation
• Monitoring the performance of your applications, and keeping them fast
• Debugging platform-based issues

Qualifications

• Proficient in Ruby or able to quickly adopt its usage
• 3+ years developing database-driven web applications
• 3+ years developing for Linux environments
• Previous experience working with or building web-based APIs
• Being able to think both short-term and long-term when programming
• Knowing when to crowd source the answer to a problem versus building something from scratch
• Experienced in operations tasks such as configuration management, deployment, and debugging live applications
• Shameless passion for video games

Pluses

• Experience building distributed systems in a cloud environment
• Experience with non-relational databases: Cassandra, Redis, etc.
• Previous experience writing automated tests for your code
• Interest in data mining and data analysis
• Active member on GitHub or other similar site
• General knowledge of Red 5 Studios and Firefall
• Previous experience in the video games industry

You love the written word. Not only in your native tongue, but you are so interested in languages that you have taken the time and effort to become proficient in a second language, understanding not only the language but the distinct cultural differences as well. Your knowledge and interest in the games industry has enabled you to experience successful games in multiple cultures and acknowledge the acute differences that occur in translation that enable their cross cultural successes. You are part of the exciting experience of carrying the flame of Firefall to Europe.

A Typical Day

You begin your day by reviewing the new content for Firefall and begin to translate assets associated to the game. Coordinating with the US team, you check with the onsite Localization Manager for new content and meet with the Community Team for any reported bugs on the forum. You find some voice scripts in your inbox needing review and translation, making sure to keep the original context of the dialog. Your day concludes with a team call with the Director of Global Integration assuring the success of the translations, both in terms of language and cultural fit.

Who You Work With

Your Localization Team will be a vital part of creating the European Firefall experience. You will work closely with the Localization Editor to ensure accuracy and consistency of translations is being maintained while the local Community Team will work hand-in-hand with you to make sure that any feedback on the European forums is translated and sent to the developers.

Responsibilities

• Implement English to French or German translation, ensuring quality and consistency
• Localize in-game text, voice scripts, video content, website content, and collateral materials
• Review and edit text, audio files, and other localized assets for accuracy and quality
• Work on locale-specific language requirements and culturally relevant feedback
• Define and maintain a consistent translation style
• Complete editing and polishing tasks

Qualifications

• Native speaker in German or French and fluent in English
• Advanced translation and proof-reading competencies
• Impeccable organizational and interpersonal skills
• Shameless passion for video games

Pluses

• General knowledge of Red 5 Studios and Firefall
• Previous experience in the video games industry

Your unbelievable attention to detail and organizational skills has enabled you time and time again to successfully transition complex entertainment/software products from one culture to another. Language, tone, and consistency of the original text is key when translating into another language/culture so that it works well and is received with the original intent clearly intact. Moving from English to French or English to German and back, your skills in both cultures and languages help you to strive for the highest level of quality and player experience. You are responsible for controlling this quality and set the ownership for the experience in the European market. You make the product feel as though it was written in the translated language and that it enhances the gamers’ experience. In addition, your knowledge of the European cultures and gaming laws ensures that the game meets the standards set forth by various countries in the translation/localization process.

A Typical Day

Your morning begins by reviewing the overall workload for the day. Meeting with the Localization Manager, you discuss the priorities of new changes that need to be made in-game. Making a phone call, you speak with the US development team to get a better feel for their intent, setting the expectations on when the changes can be made for Europe. Meeting with your team, you assure everyone that not only can the text strings be translated to keep their meaning, but can also look good within the game’s pre-defined UI. Meeting with the Localization Translators, you review some of their previous work and set the tone for the new patches as you have a good understanding of the US development team’s intent. Your day ends with a call to the Director of Global Integration to discuss the strategy going forward for Europe and how to make it even better.

Who You Work With

You’re proud of the team you work with, from the Localization Translators to the US-based development team. The Localization Manager works with you to establish the tone and the quality of the localized assets while the Community Team keeps you abreast of the topics that are foremost on the minds of the community and how the team can best address those issues with changes in the new patches. You are the center of European Localization effort and have relationships with most, if not all internal groups.

Responsibilities

• Review and edit text, audio files, and other localized assets for accuracy and quality
• Create and update glossary, style guides, and technical writing for projects
• Efficiently manage small scale projects, including test plan creation, effective checklist creation, resource allocation, and execution
• Review and evaluate functional and linguistic content, identify substandard quality, and constructively challenge its implementation
• Be conscious of regional/cultural standards and offer suggestions on any necessary changes
• Work closely with and maintain communication channels with development, support, QA, and community teams
• Participate in and engage players in the regional community forums to solicit feedback and keep in tune with the pulse of the community
• Identify and track issues that need additional research and follow their lifecycle
• Provide linguistic consulting for teams to assure the quality of content
• Maintain the consistency and quality of assets across the entire project

Qualifications

• 2+ years related experience in a professional writing, editing, and translation role
• Native speaker in German or French and fluent in English
• Ability to produce high quality results on a consistent basis
• Strong familiarity with online gaming
• Excellent grammar, spelling, editing, and proofreading skills
• Impeccable organizational and interpersonal skills
• Ability to communicate editorial changes constructively and professionally
• Able to work independently, as well as to work cooperatively with others
• Shameless passion for video games

Pluses

• General knowledge of Red 5 Studios and Firefall
• Previous experience in the video games industry