Sifteo, a venture-backed start-up creating a next-generation game system (Sifteo Cubes), is seeking a user experience and visual designer. Work will begin on a contract basis, and may transition to full-time.

As the sole designer in our tight knit team, you will lead the design of many user touch points (web, desktop software, and marketing communications). Your design approach will be guided by customer understanding, a high level of aesthetic polish, a desire to create ease of use, all while elevating the Sifteo brand. We’re off to a great start in defining a compelling brand look and feel and creating engaging interactive experiences. We need you to take us to the next level. We truly pride ourselves on aesthetics and user experience – you’ll have fun here.

We are creating Sifteo cubes, wireless blocks with full color screens that interact with each other and respond to motion to unleash a whole new world of play. (We’ve been described as combining the best of the iPhone, Nintendo Wii, and Legos.) The technology has been spun out of the MIT Media Lab and has been featured on the Science and Discovery channels, presented at the TED conference, and has been showcased by The New York Times (David Pogue review), Time Magazine, CNN, Wired, Engadget and more. Adults love us! And kids love us, big time!

Sifteo has received numerous design awards, including “Best in Show” at the IxDA Interaction Awards, IDEA International Design Excellence Award, and “The Year’s Best in Interface Design” from Fast Company. Designers loves us too.

For more information about our product, see http://sifteo.com

Yes, this is a position in a startup!

We’re well funded, and we can pay you. But if the two main priorities in your life are inherent security and the ability to rely on things planned months ahead, please stop reading this now and do something else. If curiosity, ability to suffer, resilience and clear sense of individual responsibility get you going, please continue reading. You’ll find and we expect a sense of truthfulness (towards oneself, each other and reality, learned the hard way), being demanding (is this the best you can do?) as well as extensiveness (have fun really grasping things in their entirety).*

This is a contract position that may transition to full-time, located at Sifteo headquarters in the Dogpatch district in San Francisco. This position reports to the Director of Marketing, and works collaboratively with the marketing team, game studio, and product team.

Responsibilities

• Summary: User Interface and graphic design for the Sifteo website, desktop software, and marketing materials
• Interaction & Visual Design
  • Create wireframes, graphics, and pixel-perfect mock-ups for all web and software updates
  • Develop user flows and experience maps that cover multiple touch points
  • Work collaboratively with the Director of Marketing to define requirements, the marketing team copywriter to develop content, and the web developer to implement and QA.
  • Drive projects forward and ensure your features go live and are well polished
• Marketing Communications
  • Showcase our games and product in the best way possible
  • Provide design direction and visual assets for social media content, online advertising and other marketing campaigns
  • Design and manage vendors to create marketing materials for special events (flyers, posters, banners, t-shirts, etc
• Pitch in above and beyond your job requirements to help out the marketing team and Sifteo at large, as needed (we all wear many hats, most of which are very stylish)

Requirements

• 3+ years related experience (consumer facing interactive design and graphic design for marketing campaigns)
• Polished design style with the ability to follow established visual identities and improve them
• College degree
• Expert in interactive design
• Wizard level Photoshop, Illustrator skills
• Can design for a variety of mediums: websites, software, online banners, print, and more.
• Online portfolio showcasing stunning elegant consumer experiences
• Self-starter, quick paced, versatile, smart, and organized
• Ability to manage ambiguity, work autonomously and multi-task in an agile environment.
• Seeks out and positively responds to feedback
• Collaborative – enjoys working with others to identify solutions and learn
• Excited about Sifteo cubes, and ready to work hard with us

Bonus points for:

• Front-end coding skills: including JS, CSS, HTML (we would LOVE to see you showcase skills here)
• Flash
• Experience in marketing communications/advertising design
• Video editing (Final Cut Pro, etc.)
• Experience working on multi-device projects
• Pixel art
• Copywriting
• User research

Compensation:

• Hourly or project-based pay
• Full-time compensation includes salary and benefits: Medical, Dental, Vision, and 401k

Please send resumes in PDF format only to jobs at sifteo dot com with subject “User Experience Designer”

Sifteo, a venture-backed start-up creating a next-generation play system, is seeking an Office Manager to help keep our company running smoothly and contribute to the company culture. We are looking for candidates who are organized, friendly, pro-active and flexible. Big jobs don’t scare you and small jobs don’t bore you.

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We have AWESOME stuff in store for 2012. Come join us!

Contract 2D Game Artists Wanted

Sifteo is seeking contract 2D game artists at all levels of their career for several games in development. We are looking for trained digital artists who are eager to gain experience or expand upon their past experience working on commercial games, are passionate about games and game art, and are excited about building quality games for our innovative gaming platform. In short, you need to be able to create high-quality game art assets quickly and with an eye for polish.

Our team is fun, smart, and relentless. So are you. You’ll be working with a small team on a single game for our Sifteo cubes, and you will get an artist’s credit. There’s more art needs on the horizon so this could be just the beginning.

Sifteo cubes are wireless blocks with full color screens that interact with each other and respond to motion to unleash a whole new world of play and learning applications. The technology was spun out of the MIT Media Lab and has been featured on the Science and Discovery channels, presented at the TED conference, and showcased by The New York Times (David Pogue review), Time Magazine, CNN, Wired, Engadget and more. Adults love it! And kids love it, big time! For more information about our product, see https://sifteo.com/.

What we’re looking for:

• BFA or equivalent from a top art school
• excellent Photoshop skills
• strong portfolio of 2D and pixel art
• high standards for aesthetic and technical quality of game art
• excellent design skills, including effective use of color, form, shading, texture and composition
• proficient sprite animation skills, including effective use of timing and frame limitations
• ability to follow established visual identities
• strong understanding of UI design and usability
• playful and creative – we love visual puns and easter eggs
• seeks out and positively responds to feedback
• collaborative – enjoys working with others to identify solutions and learn
• pro-active, detailed, communicative and organized
• good taste, culturally savvy, loves games
• excited about Sifteo cubes, and ready to work hard with us
• Bay Area preferred, but remote is fine too
• 2-3+ month contracts per game
• about 50%-100% time on the game during your contract

Responsibilities:

• work with game designer/programmer to define the visual identity, spirit and narrative space of the game (for senior artists)
• work with the lead artist and producer to understand the requirements for the established visual identity, spirit and narrative of the game (for junior artists)
• understand asset requirements and specifications, and pro-actively call out missing items
• create art assets based on asset lists and specifications
• show drafts of work early and often
• art production and sprite animations for production-ready assets
• revise assets as needed based on player feedback and shifting game requirements
• create print-quality high-res versions of select game arts for marketing purposes (for senior artists)
• maintain an organized, shared directory of art assets and source files
• maintain organized, layered documents that can be easily shared with other artists

Bonus points for:

• aptitude for compression and other technical tricks to reduce asset size (we have some tricky limitations)
• strong character design skills
• art concepting abilities to help define the spirit and visual identity of a game
• game industry experience (mobile gaming is a plus)

Please send resumes in PDF only along with your hourly rate to jobs@sifteo.com with subject “contract 2D game artist.”

We have AWESOME stuff in store for 2012. Come join us!

Contract Content Designers Wanted

Sifteo is seeking contract content designers for several games in development. We are looking for someone who has proven expertise in understanding gameplay systems, has designed compelling maps and puzzles for commercial games, can write succinctly and with humor, works well with other game designers and programmers, is passionate about games, and is excited about building quality games for our innovative gaming platform. If you’ve admired what we do but aren’t looking to commit to a longterm position, this could be a perfect opportunity to be involved in crafting the future of gaming!

Our team is fun, smart, and relentless. So are you. You’ll be working with a small team on a single game for our Sifteo cubes, and you will get a design credit. There’s more content design needs on the horizon so this could be just the beginning.

Sifteo cubes are wireless blocks with full color screens that interact with each other and respond to motion to unleash a whole new world of play and learning applications. The technology was spun out of the MIT Media Lab and has been featured on the Science and Discovery channels, presented at the TED conference, and showcased by The New York Times (David Pogue review), Time Magazine, CNN, Wired, Engadget and more. Adults love it! And kids love it, big time! For more information about our product, see https://sifteo.com/.

What we’re looking for:

• 2+ years of professional experience designing levels, MAPS, puzzles and copy for games
• systems thinker – ability to quickly understand a game’s overall design and how content fits in
• general understanding of the game tech pipeline
• as comfortable designing within XML as designing with robust editing tools
• critical thinker – constantly suggest ways to improve a game’s content design approach
• collaborative – able to work within a multi-discipline team, offer constructive criticism as necessary, and feel comfortable commenting on areas of the game beyond your own immediate domain (if you need a yeti to design the  best possible puzzle in Map 3, you ask for it)
• sense of humor
• storytelling and copy writing skills – you’re brief, captivating and funny
• commitment to to an iterative design-test-refine cycle
• comfortable working in a fast paced, start-up environment in a small team
• pro-active, detailed, communicative and organized – you take pride in your work
• good taste, culturally savvy, loves games
• excited about Sifteo cubes, and ready to work hard with us
• Bay Area preferred, but remote is fine too – you’ll probably be about 50%-100% time on the game during your contract (usually 2-3 months per game), depending on factors like your own speed, scope, and project calendar

Responsibilities:

• work with producer and game designer/programmer to set up content design environment and understand game design vision as well as specific content design goals
• design a series of maps for a high-profile game
• write quests and dialog based on general guidelines defined by the lead designer
• regularly test your own work for appropriate sense of progression and challenge
• support playtests with content sets and questions as well as openness to resulting feedback

Bonus points for:

• boardgame geekery
• impressive gamer status
• math, film and/or architectural background
• previous design credits on a game we love

Please send resumes in PDF only to jobs@sifteo.com with subject “contract content designer.”

Hi All,

If you are or you know a smart, relentless coder with C# / C++ gameplay experience, Sifteo wants to hear from you!

Please send resumes in PDF only to jobs@sifteo.com with subject “contract game programmer”, and see below for more info.

We have AWESOME stuff in store for 2012. Come join us!

Contract Gameplay Programmers Wanted for Q1-Q2 2012

Sifteo is seeking contract gameplay programmers for Q1-Q2 of 2012 (possibly beyond). We are looking for someone who has proven expertise in building gameplay systems and tools, works well with designers and artists, is passionate about games, and is excited about building quality games for our innovative gaming platform. If you’ve admired what we do but aren’t looking to commit to a longterm position, this could be a perfect opportunity to be involved in crafting building the future of gaming!

Our team is fun, smart, and relentless. So are you.

You’ll be working with a small team on a single game for our Sifteo cubes (wireless blocks with full color screens that interact with each other and respond to motion to unleash a whole new world of play and learning applications). The technology was spun out of the MIT Media Lab and has been featured on the Science and Discovery channels, presented at the TED conference, and showcased by The New York Times (David Pogue review), Time Magazine, CNN, Wired, Engadget and more. Adults love it! And kids love it, big time! For more information about our product, see https://sifteo.com/.

What we’re looking for:

• 3+ years of professional experience as a gameplay programmer
• BS or equivalent in computer science or a related field
• mastery of multiple programming languages, including: C/C++, C#, Python, Java, etc. (C/C++ especially)
• comfortable working in a fast paced, start-up environment in a small team
• pro-active, detailed, communicative and organized – you take pride in your work
• good taste, culturally savvy, loves games
• can tell when a mechanic isn’t quite right, a color is off, a response time is weird: and you get in there and fix it
• excited about Sifteo cubes, and ready to work hard with us
• Bay Area preferred, but remote is fine too – you’ll probably be about 50%-100% time on the game during your contract, depending on factors like your own speed, scope, and project calendar

Responsibilities:

• implement games based on direction from game designers
• pro-actively identify broken mechanics and suggest improvements to overall game design
• collaborate as needed with product development team and staff gameplay programmers to expand the SDK and tools
• ensure quality in your game by building unit and system tests
• debug patiently, document efficiently, refactor smartly, and iterate, iterate, iterate

Bonus points for:

• experience with web development
• experience with embedded systems programming

Sifteo, a venture-backed start-up creating a next-generation play system, is seeking gameplay programmers to help create a new generation of interactive games on a super interesting, super compelling new platform. We humbly think it’s an amazing product that is going to positively change how we play.

We are looking for someone who has proven expertise in building gameplay systems and tools, works well with designers and artists, is passionate about games, and is excited about jumping into a start up environment.

You’ll be working with a small team and will be responsible for the development of a wide range of games. In short, you need to be able to build high-quality games quickly and robustly.

Continued »

Hi All,

A lot of people have been asking us – is Sifteo interested in interns?

Answer: YES!

Find below some opportunities, complete with an introductory paragraph. Know someone who might be interested? Send them a link to this post. Thanks!

Continued »

We’re looking for smart, driven, multi-talented people to join our team. You should fall into one or more of the following categories:

• Electrical Engineers
• Firmware Developers
• Game Developers
• Web Developers
• Desktop Developers
• Game Designers

If interested, please check out our detailed job descriptions, then send your resume to .