Game Designer / Senior Game Designer, Apple Arcade

About This Role

This individual contributor role on a small, focused team is an opportunity to shape the creative future of one of Apple Arcade's most celebrated franchises, Sneaky Sasquatch. The Game Designer will work directly alongside the original creators of the game, helping to expand the world players love while also laying the creative foundation for future game concepts. It suits a Game Designer who loves Sneaky Sasquatch deeply and is genuinely excited by the creative possibilities ahead.

Responsibilities

• Design systems-driven gameplay experiences, from interconnected mechanics and content frameworks to quests, activities, and world content, that create emergent stories and near-infinite replayability while capturing the humor, warmth, and charm that define Sneaky Sasquatch
• Independently develop original gameplay concepts from early ideation through paper design, rapid prototyping, and playtesting, bringing sharp creative thinking and the initiative to move ideas forward
• Collaborate as a trusted day-to-day creative partner with the third-party development studio, with international travel several times a year to work in person and build a close, ongoing creative relationship
• Champion creative quality and consistency across all projects, acting as a steward of the creative vision that defines Sneaky Sasquatch
• Prototype and test new gameplay ideas independently, from paper designs and in-engine experiments to standalone playable builds, validating concepts before committing to full development
• Contribute to the creative culture of a team that is building something new and ambitious at Apple

Requirements

• 7+ years of professional game design experience, with a portfolio that demonstrates creative ownership and exceptional design instincts across shipped titles
• A strong foundation in gameplay systems design, with an understanding of how activities, economies, and player progression work together to create a world that rewards curiosity and that players fall in love with
• Confidence working hands-on in a game engine, navigating the editor and testing ideas independently as a natural part of your design process

Nice to have:

• A love for games that are wholesome, charming, and endlessly surprising, and a genuine passion for the world of Sneaky Sasquatch, what it could become, and the hunger to help build its next chapter
• A background in shipping games within genres that align with the Sneaky Sasquatch universe, including open-world, life simulation, cozy sandbox, or games celebrated for deep systems and player-driven storytelling, paired with a genuine love and deep understanding of what makes these games special
• A passion for crafting activities, characters, and world moments that surprise and delight players, the kind of content that makes someone laugh, linger, and come back for more
• Hands-on technical prototyping skills, including experience building playable prototypes in Unity or a comparable game engine
• Strong opinions, loosely held and clearly articulated, about what makes games feel alive, surprising, and worth coming back to
• A self-directed working style with the initiative to move ideas forward independently
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, with experience working closely with creative partners across internal teams and external studios
• Comfortable working closely with external development partners or co-development studios, navigating creative alignment, providing constructive feedback, and maintaining a high quality bar and ensuring a consistent creative vision across teams
• A proven appetite for pre-production and original concept development, building something from the ground up rather than expanding an existing template
• Familiarity shipping on Apple platforms (iOS, tvOS, macOS, visionOS)

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical and dental coverage
• Retirement benefits
• A range of discounted products and free services
• Reimbursement for certain educational expenses, including tuition, for formal education related to advancing your career at Apple
• Discretionary bonuses or commission payments
• Relocation
• Opportunity to become an Apple shareholder through participation in Apple's discretionary employee stock programs
• Eligibility for discretionary restricted stock unit awards
• Option to purchase Apple stock at a discount if voluntarily participating in Apple's Employee Stock Purchase Plan

About the Company

Apple is building a team to carry Sneaky Sasquatch into its most ambitious and expansive chapter yet. Apple's newly formed first party games team works directly alongside the original creators of Sneaky Sasquatch.