Overview

☀️ Solarpunk 4X Strategy Game

🏡 Small Indie Game Studio

🕑 20 hours / week

💰 Contract Position

🌎 Remote

🎮 Experience Level: Mid to Senior

Project

We are building a turn-based, Solarpunk-inspired 4X strategy game with a fresh take on the traditional formula, including the incorporation of city-building gameplay, built on Unreal Engine 5.

This is a game about defining bold, bright futures for humanity on a new world after forced exodus from Earth. This comes in the wake of man-made environmental cataclysm, born from humanity's failure to create a sustainable and just society on our home world.

Themes of environmentalism and social / economic justice (particularly race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, and political agency) are the foundation for the game's narrative and mechanics. We're challenging the genre's historically celebrated themes of colonization and exploitation with a story-rich experience aimed at the PC/Steam/Epic Games ecosystem.

Position

We’re seeking four Narrative Writers to fulfill 6-month contracts where you’ll help shape our world, characters, and story.

We want to collaborate with you to further develop our bespoke solarpunk world and society. You’ll create stories about exploring a new world, encountering alien lifeforms, and building a better future for humankind. Writers will be involved in mapping out the story for our game, blocking out scenes, and writing scripts according to company style and voice, as well as deep involvement in crafting memorable characters for the game and developing their unique voices.

In this company, it is critical to have knowledge about the many ways axes of oppression function systemically. This is important both in interacting with the team and player community, and in interfacing with the game's content and structure. We cultivate an environment where every member of the team, regardless of position, is held accountable to demonstrate and do the ongoing work necessary in treating each other’s diverse identities with awareness and respect.

For these roles we are exclusively seeking writers with specific and accurate knowledge or lived experiences about one of the following cultural and social identities:

• Familiarity with Dalit experience and history (especially as it intersects with Tamil or other South Indian cultures), Indian trans experiences (including hijra), and South Indian culture and politics.
• Familiarity with Lokono background and culture or specific indigenous experience and history in the Americas (especially cultures originating in South America and the Caribbean), American Indigenous social and political issues, historical context and modern-day effects of colonial invasion of the Americas.
• Familiarity with the Black American experience and history, social issues and contexts reaching from history to present day, the intersection of military participation and experience and the Black American identity, and philosophies of democratic socialism.

These roles report directly to Jes Negrón, our Narrative Lead.

Compensation

🕑 Part Time Contract We’ll work with you to craft a deliverables schedule that meets your needs, and are seeking a commitment of 20 hours / week for a 6-month contract.

💰 Competitive Pay Range: $25 - $65 USD per hour. Pay will be commensurate with experience, skill level, and hours.

🌍 Remote Work from anywhere, as long as you can be available during the company’s core co-working hours.

📆 Company’s Core Co-Working Hours: Monday - Friday: 12pm - 3pm PST // 17:00 - 20:00 UTC

What You'll Do

• Attend a weekly writing workshop where we’ll brainstorm ideas, develop game narrative, and pass out writing assignments for the week.
• Write copy according to company style and voice, within the boundaries of the assignment. Deliverables include:
  • Scene/Script writing
  • character development and voice work
  • Shortform fiction pieces
  • Voice barks
  • flavor text
  • and more!
• Deliver clean, well-written copy and iterate quickly in accordance with editor feedback
• Lean on your subject matter expertise to deliver feedback on story and character elements

Qualifications

Tools Experience

• Word processing software like Google Docs and Notion
• Spreadsheet software like Excel or Notion

Skills

• Unique, flavorful writing that is clean of errors and compelling
• The ability to adapt to different voices and styles in your writing
• Good at accepting and applying editor feedback and quick at iteration
• Able to meet deadlines

Knowledge

We are exclusively seeking writers with specific and accurate knowledge or lived experiences about one of the following cultural and social identities:

• Familiarity with Dalit experience and history (especially as it intersects with Tamil or other South Indian cultures), Indian trans experiences (including hijra), and South Indian culture and politics.
• Familiarity with Lokono background and culture or specific indigenous experience and history in the Americas (especially cultures originating in South America and the Caribbean), American Indigenous social and political issues, historical context and modern-day effects of colonial invasion of the Americas.
• Familiarity with the Black American experience and history, social issues and contexts reaching from history to present day, the intersection of military participation and experience and the Black American identity, and philosophies of democratic socialism.

Character

• Self-Driven. Ability to consistently and regularly make progress on tasks without supervision, self-managing your schedule in coordination with the Narrative Lead and Production team.
• Proficiency in providing and accepting proactive, constructive feedback in order to support team development and keep the creation of the game world on track. To us, constructive feedback, creative solutions, and team collaboration are much more important than assigning blame for a failure.
• Well-developed knowledge of diversity, equity, and inclusion. This includes a commitment to dismantling systems of oppression including white supremacy and cis-heteropatriarchy; ability to work equitably with those of different backgrounds, contexts, beliefs, and identities.

Priority to Applicants with

• The specific cultural knowledge or lived experiences outlined above
• Narrative experience in any industry
• Gaming industry experience specifically
• Technical Narrative experience
• Prior experience working remote
• A readiness to experiment and innovate in your field as a writer
• Experience with collaboration and project management tools (such as Slack, Google Suite, Shortcut, Notion, Confluence, JIRA, Microsoft Teams, or similar)
• Familiarity with PC 4X Gaming Titles (such as Civilization, Age of Wonders: Planetfall, Stellaris, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, etc.) and/or with PC City Building titles (such as the SimCity series, Anno 1800, Cities: Skylines)
• A passion for telling real, diverse human stories through the lens of science fiction
• Excitement for alternate universe genres, such as steampunk and solarpunk

How to Apply

Use the Typeform below to apply for this contract position.

Hiring & Interview Process‍

We know looking for work can be challenging and it’s important for us as the hiring party to be transparent with our recruitment process and for you, the applicant, to feel respected and heard.

Here’s what you can expect in our process:

1. Submit Application. You submit your application to be considered as a candidate for this role via the Typeform.
2. Interview (60m). Should your application indicate that your writing and experience is a good match for our project, you’ll be invited to meet with June, our Narrative Director, Jes, our Narrative Lead, and Jessica, our Operations Lead in an interview to say hello, discuss the contract and our company, as well as your application, writing samples, and experience.
3. Final Decisions. If we decide you’re the right fit for the position, you'll be notified by Email and receive a Contract. If we decide to pass on you as a candidate, you’ll be notified by Email and, if you indicated this preference in your application, we’ll keep your information On File for potential future roles. To respect your time, we aim to notify everyone within 2 weeks of applying.