Creative Lead, King
Monetisation, Candy Crush Soda Saga
1-4 days a week in office
Mobile games developer
Job no longer available
Mobile games developer
1001+ employees
Job no longer available
1-4 days a week in office
1001+ employees
Company mission
At King, we’re Making the World Playful. Heard of Candy Crush? We’re the creators behind it. But we aren’t just crushing it with candies, we’re also behind Farm Heroes, Bubble Witch, Pet Rescue and loads of other sweet games.
Role
Who you are
- Relevant experience in design leadership within the free-to-play gaming or similar products.
- Ability to communicate and translate creative vision into tooling for design teams, aligning those with the overall strategy and business goals.
- Ability to think strategically and make decisions that align with the overall design strategy and business objectives.
- Strong problem-solving and creative thinking abilities.
- Understanding and application of user-centered design principles and methodologies.
- Strong collaborative skills to work effectively with cross-disciplinary teams.
What the job involves
- Product:
- Together with Area Lead, develop, refine and deliver on area vision, strategy and support in prioritization of roadmap to ensure area meets players expectations
- Ensure a comprehensive and engaging player experience by elevating the team's solutions to monetisation mechanics and economy development by aligning creative decisions with player needs and business goals
- Be responsible for the design quality of the solutions produced in the area that differentiate Soda on the market, ensuring the seamless fit into holistic game experience
- Facilitate a broader game context and goals, connecting team efforts with a savvy grasp of the holistic approach to player experience and business objectives
- Support on design solutions and participate in the full feature development lifecycle
- Process:
- Drive the creative work for the team, providing all creative crafts with necessary input and involving them at the right times to ensure that their expertise is utilized effectively
- Establish and continuously improve product development processes for all creative crafts and elevate the team’s creative capabilities in problem and solution discovery
- Use best practices to shape and improve team’s understanding of our payers, ad watchers and players need, proactively bringing in market trends and exploring new research methods to strike a balance between creativity and business objectives
- Communicate creative rationale and its connection to the creative direction to the entire area, fostering a culture of collaboration, understanding, and stakeholder management
- Actively engage with all stakeholders for regular updates, confidently making high- impact creative decisions for features when the way forward is unclear
- People:
- Directly manage and coach all levels of creative individuals (game designers, UX designers, UI designers, UX researchers) to enhance their skills and assess performance
- Collaborate with other Creative leads to enforce a cohesive strategy for Soda defined by the Head of Creative
Our take
Gaming is one of the world’s fastest-growing industries, but many still view gaming as inconvenient, inaccessible, or niche. King solves that problem by designing mobile games with broad market appeal.
Since its launch, King has released more than 200 titles in 14 languages, including Candy Crush, Farm Heroes, Bubble Witch, Pet Rescue, and more. The company pioneered in-game spending, which allows it to monetize user interactions without charging them to buy the game. Titles such as Candy Crush are designed to be highly accessible to demographics that wouldn’t usually define themselves as “gamers”, including older users. King now boasts more than 200 million monthly active users, making it a clear market leader.
In 2016, King was bought by gaming giant Activision Blizzard, which has since been purchased by Microsoft. While the company still operates with a high degree of independence, it has greatly profited from the financial and marketing support of its parent corporation. This support has been instrumental in enabling King to maintain its competitiveness in the constantly evolving mobile gaming industry.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
15% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (2 rounds)
Sep 2005
$43m
SERIES A
Jun 2005
$41m
EARLY VC
Total funding: $84m
Company benefits
- ❤️ Reimbursements for both physical and mental health-related activities 🇺🇸
- 📚 Dedicated learning & development resources including LEAP and other leadership coaching 🇺🇸
- 🌴 Generous paid holidays and vacation time, paid sick time, and compassionate, bereavement and parental leaves 🇺🇸
- ⌚ A Team First, Hybrid Working approach allows working patterns to be based on the needs of the team 🇺🇸
- 🏥 401(k) Plan with company match, medical, dental, and vision coverage options, and more 🇺🇸
- 🏳️🌈 Four employee-led diversity-focused networks and other community groups that raise awareness 🇺🇸
- 🏅 Community Day, charity donation matching, free and discounted Activision Blizzard games, and our Royal Recognition Awards rewarding commitment of long-serving Kingsters 🇺🇸
- 📚 Voluntary benefits including tuition reimbursement, group discounts for legal services, ID protection, home and rental insurance, and others 🇺🇸
- 🏥 Private medical, dental, critical illness and pension plans 🇬🇧
- 🌴 Generous paid holidays, with additional time off close down between 25th December and the New Year 🇬🇧
- 🥯 Next-level offices that provide numerous creative spaces as well as free breakfast, snacks, and drinks 🇬🇧
- 🎒 Exclusive, free goodies 🇬🇧
- 🏳️🌈 Four employee-led diversity-focused networks and other community groups that raise awareness 🇬🇧
- ❤️ Reimbursements for both physical and mental health-related activities. Some offices also have their own onsite gyms. 🇬🇧
- 🏅 Community Day, charity donation matching, free and discounted Activision Blizzard games, and our Royal Recognition Awards rewarding commitment of long-serving Kingsters 🇬🇧
- 🏥 Private medical, dental, critical illness and pension plans 🇪🇺
- 🌴 Generous paid holidays, with additional time off close down between 25th December and the New Year 🇪🇺
- 🥯 Next-level offices that provide numerous creative spaces as well as free breakfast, snacks, and drinks 🇪🇺
- 🎒 Exclusive, free goodies 🇪🇺
- 🏳️🌈 Four employee-led diversity-focused networks and other community groups that raise awareness 🇪🇺
- ❤️ Reimbursements for both physical and mental health-related activities. Some offices also have their own onsite gyms. 🇪🇺
- 🏅 Community Day, charity donation matching, free and discounted Activision Blizzard games, and our Royal Recognition Awards rewarding commitment of long-serving Kingsters 🇪🇺
Company HQ
Soho, London, UK
Leadership
Tjodolf Sommestad
(President )President from February 2022. Previously served as King’s Chief Development Officer.
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