Novaquark Montréal is seeking a reliable and resourceful Office Manager to take care of our brand new studio. Working directly with the studio management team, you will be in charge of the workplace, health, security, safety, and environment to ensure our studio is the “best place to work for”. At the same time, you will be responsible to provide all the necessary logistic to support the studio operations. Finally, you will coordinate partnerships with various local stakeholders.

The ideal candidate is highly organized, self-motivated, and capable of managing multiple tasks at the same time while maintaining positive relationship with key stakeholders in an agile and creative manner.

Responsibilities:

• Build and implement a strategy to make our studio a “best place to work for”.
• Manage the workplace, ensuring that operations adhere to policies and regulations, including the cleaning and security teams.
• Roll out appropriate processes to facilitate day-to-day operations and office management tools to efficiently monitor and report issues and progress.
• Plan and implement workplace improvement projects.
• Assist in the preparation of the annual budget and monitor costs on a regular basis.
• Coordinate local partnerships with government, public organizations, etc.
• Provide the “best in class” support of the studio’s needs (logistics, events, travels, visitors, etc)
• Provide insights on emerging trends on workplace and facilities management, opportunities and risks affecting the studio.
• Take charge of Health, Safety, Security and Environment related programs.
• Ensure the smooth and adequate flow of information within the company to facilitate other business operations
• Manage vendor relationships to ensure quality services are delivered in building maintenance, facilities maintenance, purchasing and supply management, business travel, catering, food services, mail services, safety & security, movers, relocation services etc.

Requirements:

• 5+ years of experience in an administration management role.
• In-depth understanding of office management procedures and departmental and legal policies
• Strong organizational, project management and problem-solving skills with an analytical mind.
• Strong interpersonal, communication and presentation skills and the ability to deal effectively and courteously with multi tasks.
• Proactive and positive in adapting to changing environment and dealing with ambiguity.
• A team player with leadership skills
• Game, digital entertainment, or IT (software) industry background preferred
• Gamer is a plus

Responsabilities:

• Create high quality game ready models, organic environments (trees, grass...) and textures (ground, rocks...) in a photorealistic style using PBR workflow.
• Optimisation of assets to meet our technical requirements.
• Cooperate closely with development team and gampleplay designers.
• Make tasteful presentations of assets for marketing.

Requirements:

• 3 years xp as a environment artist.
• Excellent skills in 3ds Max, Substance Painter and Photoshop are mandatory.
• Expert in modeling (hardsurface, vegetation), UVing and texturing.
• Knowledge of speed tree.
• Capable of rigging, skinning and animating hardsurface models.
• Creative and great eye for details.
• Technically savy and organised.
• Good English & communication skills.

We are looking for a talented Gameplay Developer to join our team in Montréal, Canada. If you have several years of experience(s) and love developing, implementing and improving new dawning gameplays in endless open worlds, then we would love to talk with you!

Responsabilities:

• You want to work on a groundbreaking project with a strong R&D and gaming environment
• You want to work on very different aspects of the game development
• You want to expand new high quality development tools
• You want to work on an outgoing gameplay, full of possibilities ( from managing your own economy to territory administration, but also your character self progression or even battle for planet and ecosystem conquests.)
• You want to provide players with an enriching and everlasting gameplay vision
• You want to be part of an outstanding project with emergent mechanisms (Voxel crafting technology, Customization of your own AI, Shaping, Building...)
• You want to participate to the creation of new authentic features
• You want to develop and implement game mechanics along with the Game Designers.

Requirements:

• Expert proficiency in C++ programming
• Good maths and physics knowledge
• At least 3 years of experience in video games
• Shipped at least one AAA as a gameplay programmer
• Works well in a team environment
• Good level of English
• Experience of a variety of game engines (Unity, Unreal, Cry Engine ...)
• Knowledge of a physics or animation engine
• UI experience
• Shader programming
• MMORPG culture

We are looking for a test professional, an analytical advocate of quality, who has the passion and drive to contribute through generating test documentation, providing early feedback to shape the product, and executing test cases. Your critical thinking skills and passion for improving our processes will directly aid in our quest to create a new label of quality.

Responsibilities:

• Responsible for a few specific areas of the game and create Test-Plans and Test-Cases based on provided production expectations containing accurate verification points, including edge case test scenarios and potential knock-on issues over other areas that could be impacted by specific integrations.
• Execute test, document results, and measure impacts.
• Report on the user experience and test results, escalating when necessary.
• Analyze the information provided by the Development and Production Teams and be able to identify risk areas.
• Partner with development, providing solid communication and collaboration.
• Ensure all test tool data is high quality and updated daily.
• Document and maintain all necessary testware.
• Participate in test closure activities; e.g. testware evaluation, knowledge transfer.
• Champion the customer experience, always.

Requirements:

• A minimum of 3 years’ experience in software testing.
• Able to develop and foster strong working relationships with development partners, customers, support teams, and management.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including accurate and timely reporting.
• Excellent organization and time management skills.
• Passion for software quality and keen eye for detail.
• Able to analyze and interpret data / workflows, recognize critical issues, and raise concerns.
• Previous experience with issue tracking databases (JIRA, Hansoft, DevTrack, Mantis etc.).
• Good troubleshooting skills.

Pluses:

• Gray Box and white box testing experience.
• Certified ISTQB advanced test analyst or equivalent.
• Experience with application lifecycle and test case management tools.
• Previous Quality Assurance experience with an online title.

We are looking for a Senior network and server developer to reinforce our online team. We developed our own server technology to handle up to millions of players simultaneously connected in the same universe, without any sharding. We still have interesting technical challenges for smart developers to solve !

You will be responsible for a variety of missions related to our server cluster with a great level of autonomy including :

• Develop new game features on the server
• Maintain and improve our architecture to guarantee proper load balancing and scalability
• Ensure a worldwide quality of service (latency, availability, ....)
• Automate servers provisioning and deployment
• Write and run massive load tests on the whole system

Requirements :

• Very good level in modern C++
• Network programming, distributed applications
• Database (SQL and NoSQL)
• Excellent teamwork and communication skills
• Autonomy, solution-driven, and ability to adapt to changes quickly
• Good level of English

Bonus - Actor based programming - Python - Solid background in GNU/Linux systems - Video games development experience

In this position, you will play a key role in developing the online community of our ambitious Sci-Fi MMO, Dual Universe. Though in early development stages, the game already has a dedicated and passionate community, and we need you to help us grow that community beyond the current audience.

You will mainly use social media channels to reach out to gamers, influencers, bloggers and youtubers, and engage them with Dual Universe; you will also connect with our future players wherever they are, be it on Reddit, external forums, offline events or any other relevant destination.

As a great team player, you will work closely with our team of Community Managers and, whenever needed, help them nurture our existing community to drive traffic, engagement and brand loyalty, and influence our users to become ambassadors. This is an exciting position in which you will be at the heart of spreading the word about a true gaming revolution!

Responsibilities:

• Grow the game’s community, as measured in particular by the size and level of engagement of our social media channels, and by our traffic.
• Connect with influencers and potential players by establishing an ongoing dialogue and creating lasting interest for Dual Universe.
• Develop and execute innovative plans, programs and strategies to increase the online and offline reach of the game’s audience.
• Create and publish content on our official social media channels with a high level of quality and timeliness.
• Dive and monitor conversation on all social media platforms and relevant external online destinations (Reddit, external forums…).
• Report hurdles, issues and risks preventing the growth of the game’s community, and propose actionable ideas to circumvent them.
• Manage and analyze performance/progression of our official communication platforms.
• Collaborate with partners (fan-sites, influencer and other relevant parties) to promote our communication efforts.
• Work closely with Community Managers to synchronize plans, and provide them editorial guidance and coaching when needed.
• Deliver regular community updates to the company, informing of community sentiment and reactions.
• Other community related responsibilities, as assigned.

Requirements:

• Hands-on, proven experience in developing social media channels and communities at a fast pace.
• A social media native with an in-depth understanding of all social platforms, their audiences and their differences.
• A passionate gamer with a strong knowledge of MMO games.
• Constantly in tune with social media and video game/entertainment trends.
• Exceptional writing skills in English and practical experience in writing/editing spotless articles/posts for the web.
• Ability to adapt writing and tone based on context, channels and audience.
• Excellent verbal communication and interpersonal skills to interact with external partners and the community.
• Good analytical and reporting skills, with a good attention to details.
• Self-motivated and having the ability to develop new initiatives as well as manage multiple tasks with limited supervision.

Responsabilities

You will be responsible for the project's technical feasibility, lead times and performance. In this capacity, you will help and challenge the production team's various units to architecture the project, find solutions to optimally implement game mechanics, and define and maintain a production pipeline.

You will work in close collaboration with the Producer and the various Leads to define the technical specifications of games in development, assess the difficulty of tasks at hand, and bring team members together around a strong ambition.

• Act as the team's technical consultant by demonstrating genuine expertise on key issues and supervising their operational aspects: optimizing the code's architecture and quality, reviewing the implementation of features, offering advice on the requisite tools, etc.
• Define the team's requirements and technical constraints with a view to realizing the creative vision.
• Guarantee that the game is delivered on time with the expected level of quality and craftsmanship on all the target platforms.
• Help to schedule the work together with the Producer in line with the scope of each task in order to strike a balance between the quality required and the delivery capability (lead times, costs, resources, etc.).
• Define the budgets (CPU/GPU) on the target platforms for each feature, and review their implementation to anticipate difficulties and guarantee performance.
• Actively participate in project debugging and polishing up to reach the highest standards expected by our players.
• Constantly stay informed of the industry's best practices and be on the alert for the latest technologies.
• Get involved in the technical teams' development, by sourcing and recruiting the best talents, and supporting the development of existing programmers.

Requirements

• You have at least 6 years' experience as a programmer in the video games sphere, and have already had a chance to ship a mobile, PC or console project.
• You are familiar with issues relating to optimization and architecture, and benefit from knowledge of multiple engines.
• You have a fondness for video games, especially MMO games.
• You are meticulous and teamwork-oriented.

Responsabilities

The UI Programmer will be focused on integrating UI in the game client environment

The main and routine tasks of the UI Programmer are to :

• Read the game design documents to understand the intended player experience.
• Help define the features and ergonomics of the menus in an effort to support the graphic designer.
• Design and implement menu and interface systems for specific users on each platform, preserving the uniformity of the visual and logistical aspects.
• In collaboration with design and programming teams, quickly prototype interaction concepts for the game.
• In collaboration with the graphic designer, integrate designs and animation (timeline or code).
• Understand the implementations and recognize technical limits.
• Oversee the programming of the modules that underlie the user interface.
• Interact and collaborate with different departments.*

Requirements:

• In-depth knowledge of the core JavaScript language and experience building object-oriented JavaScript.
• Solid knowledge of programming design patterns and recognition of programming standards..
• Understanding of JavaScript Vanilla is required.
• Extensive experience with HTML ,CSS, LESS, and cross-browser development.
• Good knowledge of GIT, SVN.
• Excellent problem-solving, verbal and written communication, design, development, and debugging skills.
• Ability to work independently and in groups to effectively participate in the software development life cycle.

The UI Artist will work closely with the Design, Art and Programming teams to design, prototype and create the in game graphical user interfaces such as HUDs and menus.

Responsibilities:

• Help create a UI style that fits the art direction of the game.
• Create highly polished motion graphics and final assets that go beyond the industry standard.
• Solve user-experience problems by working closely with the design team through mock ups and iterations.
• Create flexible designs that can be improved upon and developed even further.
• To be able to communicate ideas and needs with different departments.
• Work with the programming team to ensure the implement assets function as designed.
• Additional responsibilities may be assigned as needed.

Requirements:

• Passion for user interface, art, game design and games.
• Professional skills in graphic design and motion graphics.
• Be proficient with Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects and Flash.
• Able to communicate UI/UX principles clearly with other teams.
• Able to work with different art styles to reach desired aesthetic.
• Passion for games and strong game culture;
• Strong attention to detail;
• Ability and desire to work in creative and collaborative teams;
• Originality and proactivity when setting out solutions;
• Ability to receive feedback, implement any requested changes and clearly communicate ideas;

Novaquark is currently looking for a Tools Programmer Python and C++ (Male or Female).

As part of the Tools team, you will help design, and develop any production related tools or processes in order to increase the potential of the engine and improve the efficiency of the game production.

Responsabilities:

• Design, implement, and iterate on new and existing systems and tools
• You must be comfortable working in both Python and C++ on a regular basis
• Must be good at understanding requirements and clearly communicating in a cross functional team

Requirements:

A minimum of 3 relevant years of experience in software tools programming, ideally in the video game industry or equivalent and minimum a bachelor's degree in computer science/engineering or equivalent training.

Essential Skills:

• Experience working on game engines and/or tools
• Professional experience with coding clear and maintainable code in Python and C++
• Debugging and problem solving skills
• Ability to accurately predict task duration and understand dependencies
• Good interpersonal and communication skills
• Ability to work as part of a team
• Ability to communicate efficiently in English, both written and spoken
• Results-driven, service-oriented and proactive attitude

Secondary skills

• Relevant experience as a Tools Programmer on a AAA project is a big plus
• Good knowledge of Qt and C# is a plus
• Automated build/testing experience is a plus

As a Senior Game Designer, you will be responsible for the entire feature life cycle, from concept/prototype all the way through to release. You will be also responsible for the development of game systems, controls and interfaces in order to bring the vision of the Producer into a playable experience.

Responsabilities:

• Pitch, prototype, balance and playtest features, overseeing them from concept to final implementation, ensuring the highest level of quality in everything you own;
• Take ownership over a large, complex system and make plans for how to implement it within the game while balancing the needs of multiple stakeholders (Programming, Animation, Art and others) and driving development towards the vision laid out by the Producer;
• Create, standardize and maintain design documentation, including feature specification and implementation guidelines, considering the project stage;
• Create game systems that answer the needs of the Producer with regard to the targeted experience for the player, while observing the production directives of the game.

Requirements:

• 5+ years in a designer role in the video games industry with at least 2 shipped projects;
• An understanding of game flow and scripting, knowledge of prototyping software;
• Ability to mentor and transfer knowledge to other designers;
• Ability to work independently and produce excellent results despite technical limitations and time constraints;
• Experience in working in a team in a fast-paced, iterative and agile professional environment;
• Problem-solving and open-minded;
• Flexibility and ability to adapt to change;
• Strong leadership skills, autonomous and proactive attitude, result-oriented;
• Sense of initiative, attention to detail;
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, both written and spoken;
• Updating job knowledge proactively;

We are looking for an exceptionally talented Executive Producer who is ready for the challenge of producing Dual Universe.

The Executive Producer is responsible for their department’s resource, scheduling and completion of deliverables for the game. They will be involved in all stages of the project, from initial concept to the completion of the finished product and will need to excel in managing both the high level tasks (scheduling, resource planning) to the daily low level tasks such as dealing with ad-hoc issues and problem solving.

Responsibilities

• Point-person for any production queries relating to their departments.
• Schedule & Planning: Work with the leads to create and maintain your team’s realistic schedule & planning documentation.
• Milestone planning: Run your team’s planning meetings, publishing minutes from these meetings and assigning tasks.
• Completing Milestones Targets: Work closely with Leads to ensure milestone work is completed on time and to the required quality. Raising any issues with senior production.
• Dependencies: Clearly identify any cross-team dependencies and flag to Senior Production if any are likely to cause issues.
• Change Requests: Liaise with other disciplines to ensure feature change requests are achievable and communicated to those impacted, including people in other teams.
• Outsource: Manage outsource work in conjunction with the leads.
• Meetings and Communication: Make sure required meetings happen and the correct people are involved. All meeting decisions and tasks are then documented and distributed to the studio.
• Risk Management: Identifying areas of risk as early as possible and create solutions to manage these before they impact the project.
• QA Liaison: Work with QA Lead to ensure milestone test plans are scheduled effectively and results are delivered to your team in a timely manner.
• Man Management: Motivate your team daily to ensure they produce the best work possible within time constraints set and provide them general support including:
• Checking they the required hardware, software, tools
• Mentor new staff
• Find good training that allows them to continually develop in their craft
• Praise good performance and disciplining poor performance

Technical Requirements

• Experience of bug tracking systems such as Jira
• An awareness of the technologies and techniques used by the teams that you manage such that you can make more informed decisions with them
• Experience working with QA and the different techniques they use in testing

Skills Required:

• Demonstrable experience working on AAA projects including examples where you have:
• Been responsible for a large group of developers and taken a project from concept to shipment
• Dealt with an area of a project that wasn’t working and explain how you turned it around
• Creating a culture of excellence within your teams with a higher quality bar than existed before you were in-charge
• Been part of the long term planning such that you avoided issues from happening but also show that you can deal with a situation when things go wrong
• Rewarded good performance and disciplined staff for poor performance such that your team understands what is expected of them
• Ability to work under pressure and handle multiple requests from different people while working towards a deadline
• Passion for gaming, with excellent design insights across genres

The Senior Graphics Programmer is responsible for developing all the solutions related to the rendering of the game engine, from the lighting to visual effects.

Responsibilities

• Improve and maintain the rendering modules of the game engine
• Develop shaders and quality effects to support the Art direction
• Optimize the rendering code to get the best performance.
• Write clear, maintainable, portable C++ code
• Write and maintain custom shaders across a range of hardware
• Test and document code you write

Requirements

• Strong knowledge of C++ (11, 14)
• Strong knowledge of rendering algorithms
• Good knowledge of multi-core architecture related issues
• Experience with DirectX 11 level shaders and HLSL
• Experience writing systems balancing performance and maintainability
• Experience profiling and optimizing both CPU and GPU utilization
• Strong communication and organizational skills
• Excellent analytical and mathematical skills
• Development experience on PC
• Good MMORPG culture

We are looking for a Senior network and server developer to reinforce our online team. We developed our own server technology to handle up to millions of players simultaneously connected in the same universe, without any sharding. We still have interesting technical challenges for smart developers to solve !

You will be responsible for a variety of missions related to our server cluster with a great level of autonomy including :

• Develop new game features on the server
• Maintain and improve our architecture to guarantee proper load balancing and scalability
• Ensure a worldwide quality of service (latency, availability, ....)
• Automate servers provisioning and deployment
• Write and run massive load tests on the whole system

Requirements :

• Very good level in modern C++
• Network programming, distributed applications
• Database (SQL and NoSQL)
• Excellent teamwork and communication skills
• Autonomy, solution-driven, and ability to adapt to changes quickly
• Good level of English

Bonus - Actor based programming - Python - Solid background in GNU/Linux systems - Video games development experience

Novaquark is currently looking for a Tools Programmer Python and C++ (Male or Female).

As part of the Tools team, you will help design, and develop any production related tools or processes in order to increase the potential of the engine and improve the efficiency of the game production.

Responsabilities:

• Design, implement, and iterate on new and existing systems and tools
• You must be comfortable working in both Python and C++ on a regular basis
• Must be good at understanding requirements and clearly communicating in a cross functional team

Requirements:

A minimum of 3 relevant years of experience in software tools programming, ideally in the video game industry or equivalent and minimum a bachelor's degree in computer science/engineering or equivalent training.

Essential Skills:

• Experience working on game engines and/or tools
• Professional experience with coding clear and maintainable code in Python and C++
• Debugging and problem solving skills
• Ability to accurately predict task duration and understand dependencies
• Good interpersonal and communication skills
• Ability to work as part of a team
• Ability to communicate efficiently in English, both written and spoken
• Results-driven, service-oriented and proactive attitude

Secondary skills

• Relevant experience as a Tools Programmer on a AAA project is a big plus
• Good knowledge of Qt and C# is a plus
• Automated build/testing experience is a plus