Are you an experienced Lead Narrative Designer with expertise in worldbuilding, multiplayer storytelling and building narrative teams from the ground up?
Join a remote‑first game development studio creating a new MMO, where you will define the narrative vision, shape player‑driven storytelling systems and build the narrative discipline from its early foundations. This is a high‑impact leadership role combining hands‑on narrative design with team growth and cross‑discipline collaboration.
About the role
You will take ownership of the game’s narrative direction, defining the world, tone and storytelling systems that bring the MMO to life. Working closely with the Game Director and cross‑functional teams, you’ll create scalable narrative structures that work in a persistent, multiplayer environment. In early production, you will help establish the lore, narrative pipelines and tooling while growing and leading the narrative team over time.
What you'll do
- Define and own the narrative vision, including world history, factions, characters and tone
- Build and maintain a coherent lore bible that supports long‑term content development
- Design narrative systems including main story arcs, zone storytelling, side content and exploration narratives
- Write and edit dialogue, quest content, item descriptions and in‑world text
- Establish and maintain narrative style guides for consistency across all content
- Design storytelling approaches suited to MMO scale, including non‑linear and shared player experiences
- Collaborate with art and level design on environmental storytelling
- Work with game design to align narrative with gameplay systems and progression
- Define narrative pipelines, tools and workflows with engineering teams
- Contribute to playtesting and iterate based on player feedback
- Manage and develop narrative team members, including hiring and performance management
- Represent narrative in cross‑discipline planning and leadership discussions
What we're looking for
Experience
- 7+ years of experience in game narrative design or writing
- At least one shipped title in a narrative role
- 2+ years of people management experience
- Experience designing narrative for multiplayer or online games
- Proven experience collaborating across disciplines to deliver integrated content
Skills
- Strong worldbuilding and narrative design expertise
- Ability to create scalable storytelling systems for large‑scale games
- Excellent writing skills across dialogue, quests and environmental storytelling
- Strong documentation skills including lore bibles, style guides and design specs
- Ability to translate narrative vision into implementable systems
- Excellent communication and leadership skills
Nice to have
- Experience working on MMOs or live‑service games
- Familiarity with narrative tools such as Ink, articy:draft or similar
- Experience with Unreal Engine implementation
- Knowledge of localisation and voice production workflows
- Experience designing narrative for live‑service updates and seasonal content
Working style/behaviours
- Player‑focused storyteller who prioritises experience over lore for its own sake
- Strong leader with a focus on mentoring and team development
- Comfortable working in early‑stage, evolving environments
- Collaborative across design, art and engineering teams
- Balances creative ambition with production realities
- Autonomous and proactive in a remote‑first setup
Why join
- Opportunity to define the narrative foundation of a new MMO
- Build and lead a growing narrative team from an early stage
- Fully remote role with global collaboration
- High creative ownership and long‑term influence on the project
- Work on a large‑scale, persistent live‑service world
Location: Remote
Employment type: Full‑time
If you’re a narrative leader who thrives in shaping worlds, systems and teams in a collaborative, early‑stage environment, we’d love to hear from you. Apply now or email Ryan Templeman - rt@skillsearch.com
