Founding Engineer (Web)

Magic Circle
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Posted
January 6, 2023
Full Time
San Francisco, CA
On-site

Do you care about relationships + games?

Hey there! I’m Avi, founder of Magic Circle Studio. I started this company to pioneer a new generation of more intimate games. Games that help us nurture the relationships that matter in our lives.

This is a "let’s find the magic together" kind of role. To me, games are magic when they bring us closer to people we care about — by helping us express ourselves, laugh out loud, and spend time together well.

As we build towards this new category of games, we’ll jam, iterate, prototype, and polish. If that sounds like your kind of fun, read on!

We’ll count on you to

  • Build web-based games across the full product lifecycle, from one-off prototypes to scalable production code
  • Architect and build features end-to-end, across client and server
  • Wrangle tools to make our lives easier and help us automate stuff
  • Contribute ideas across all aspects of our game designs and production

Your impact

Within 1 month, you'll...

  • Ship major features for our in-development game, which is built as a mobile-first website (React + Vite + WebSockets)

Within 3 months, you'll...

  • Iterate on features, bugs, and code based on playtest feedback from players
  • Productionize and SHIP ("ship" is spelled with a capital "🚀") the game to real users.

Within 6 months, you'll...

  • Begin developing our next game, leveraging everything you’ve learned so far. We have some early ideas in the pipeline and we’re excited to brainstorm & build with you.
  • Supply critical data about how players actually use our games with instrumentation and logging
  • Contribute ideas across all aspects of our games’ design and production. (If you think something isn’t quite right, tell us, even if it’s not “your department”.)

Within 3 years, you'll...

  • Evolve our product from a set of individual games into a cohesive product (likely a native mobile app), allowing users to find the right game and play with their friends quickly
  • Design and implement systems not only within, but across our games to solve common engineering needs. For example: matchmaking via room codes, on-the-fly balancing/tuning, storing and serving user-generated-content, etc.
  • Shape our studio’s culture, leaving your mark not only on our games but how we make them

Skills you’ll need

  • Ability to build fun, intuitive, highly interactive websites and games using modern web technologies, including React and TypeScript, from prototype to production.
  • Strong CSS skills to bend the DOM into the shape of games
  • Ability to work in-person in the San Francisco Bay Area (our office is in Oakland, a few minutes from BART).
  • Ability to architect multiplayer features end-to-end, from client to server
  • Strong debugging skills
  • Ability to thrive in a fast-moving startup and an in-person working environment
  • Kindness in giving and receiving feedback

Even better if you’re

  • Located in the San Francisco Bay Area or willing to relocate
  • Experienced with making interactive websites and games
  • Experienced with native mobile app development
  • Experienced with graphics programming, including WebGL/Canvas/shaders
  • Really into board games (sorry, monopoly doesn’t count don’t @ me)
  • Excited to share your process with the world, on TikTok/YouTube/Twitter

What we offer

  • Competitive salary
  • Stock options
  • Paid vacation, holidays, and sick days

Magic Circle Studio, Inc. is committed to equal employment opportunities regardless of race, color, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, or membership in any other legally protected category.

If you need reasonable accommodation at any point in the application or interview process, please let us know.

Also, we welcome notes in your application about your pronouns, e.g., she/her/hers, he/him/his, they/them/theirs.

Oh, and one more thing:

You don’t need to match every single listed expectation to apply. We know that innovation comes from diverse perspectives, and are committed to building a team that encompasses a variety of backgrounds, experiences, and skills.

Thanks for reading!

— Avi (CEO & Founder)

About 
Magic Circle

Magic Circle is pioneering a new generation of games that nourish relationships. To us, the magic of games is their ability to bring us closer to the people we care about.

We are creating games that help people bond through cooperation, creativity, and silliness, where each player can let their personality and sense of humor shine. These games are spaces that help us express ourselves, laugh out loud, and spend time well by playing together.

 

Careers

Magic Circle is a new venture-backed game studio on a mission to create more intimate games that nourish relationships. We believe the set of people who value those experiences is much broader than just people who already play video games today.

To reach these new audiences, we’re starting by building for the device most people already have, gamers or not — phones. Eventually, we want to help people play together in all the social contexts and mediums that can support the flourishing of relationships. But phones are a good place to start.

Relationships are precious, and we take our mission to nourish them seriously. We’re assembling a talented, inclusive, and collaborative team that reflects our deep belief that games are for everyone.

If you are an ambitious and kind self-starter with strong empathy for your teammates and players alike, we want to talk to you.

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Truffle Hogs is a free-to-play, mobile multiplayer game where you can hang out and play with friends. Search for buried truffles—or steal them from other players! Decorate your treehouse, unlock cool hats, or just run around emoting. Join 220k people following @trufflehogs on TikTok.

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