Game Designer – Japan & Global Game Development

Company Description ■ About Keywords Studios Keywords Studios is a global provider of creative and technical services to the video games industry, with over 13,000 professionals across 70+ studios in 25+ countries. We support clients across the entire game lifecycle through three core Service Lines: Create — Game development, art production, and audio Globalize — Localization, localization QA, functional testing Engage — Marketing, LiveOps, community, and player support In Japan, Keywords Studios delivers its full range of services across Create, Globalize, and Engage, supporting leading publishers and developers through both local and international production teams.

Our presence includes the Tokyo-based development studio Wizcorp, alongside established localization, QA, player support, and marketing capabilities serving some of the most influential companies in the Japanese games and entertainment industry. Keywords Studios is increasingly trusted by Japanese partners to support productions that span multiple regions—combining Japanese creative leadership with global delivery capacity across Asia-Pacific and beyond.

These engagements require not only strong production execution, but creative sensibility and cultural understanding to align vision and delivery across teams. As one of the world’s most influential and production-intensive markets, Japan represents a strategic growth area for Keywords Studios. This role plays a key part in strengthening client partnerships, driving business opportunities, and ensuring high-quality delivery across projects.

Job Description ■ Position Overview We are seeking a collaborative team player Junior to Mid-level Game Designer to contribute to game projects of varying scope, from small-scale productions up through AAA titles. Working under the guidance of the Principal Game Designer, you will define, implement, test, and refine gameplay mechanics, systems, and content. This is a hands-on individual contributor role for a designer who wants to develop broad design craft while making practical contributions.

You will collaborate closely with cross-disciplinary teams across regions, turning creative direction into clear, playable results. Driven by a strong creative curiosity, you possess a keen eye for originality and innovation, constantly seeking proactive ways to raise the bar for player experience. We value how you work with others as much as the experience you already have. The right person communicates openly, receives direction and feedback professionally, raises ideas or concerns constructively, and supports the team's decision once a direction has been set.

  ■ Key Responsibilities Game Design & Implementation Feature Design: Design and refine gameplay mechanics, systems, rules, and content under the guidance of the Principal Game Designer. Design Documentation: Translate direction and design intent into clear, concise documentation that other disciplines can act on. Hands-on Implementation: Build and tune features directly in-engine using available tools, data, and scripting workflows.

Iteration & Balancing: Use playtesting, feedback, and data to identify issues and improve usability, balance, clarity, game feel and other aspects. Prototyping & Creative Development Concept Contribution: Participate actively in ideation, offering relevant ideas and alternatives while working within the project's creative direction. Collaborative Prototyping: Work with programmers, artists, and other team members to create playable prototypes that test ideas and reduce uncertainty.

Player Perspective: Evaluate features from the player's point of view and communicate findings clearly to the team. Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration Team Partnership: Work closely with programming, art, QA, and other disciplines to bring designs to life. Design Alignment & Risk Mitigation: Articulate design intent, align on project goals, and surface potential technical or scope risks early.

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