AR Game Designer — Mobile & WebAR

ABOUT THE PROJECT

We are developing an augmented reality entertainment experience that transforms physical family-friendly, Horror-themed tombstones into interactive monster encounters. The product combines physical retail merchandise with two levels of digital experience: Phase One — WebAR: A frictionless 10–15 second cinematic experience triggered by scanning a QR code. The monster appears to emerge directly from the physical tombstone. Phase Two — Mobile Game: A native iOS and Android experience where players confront monsters in their own environment using a supernatural “Van Helsing-inspired” weapon system, capture them, and return them to their graves. We are looking for an AR Game Designer to own the gameplay design and help turn the creative concept into simple, compelling, highly repeatable interactions.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Define the core gameplay loop for short-form AR monster encounters.
• Design intuitive mechanics that work naturally with a smartphone camera and physical tombstone.
• Develop the interaction between the player, monster, environment, and virtual weapon.
• Design a supernatural weapon mechanic capable of firing plasma or fantastical energy, weakening/capturing monsters, and dragging them back into their graves.
• Determine how each monster (3) behaves during encounters and where character-specific mechanics add meaningful value.
• Design encounters that are immediately understandable and satisfying within approximately 15–30 seconds while supporting longer play sessions.
• Establish progression, scoring, replayability, difficulty, rewards, and player feedback systems.
• Explore how leaderboard and competitive mechanics can extend engagement.
• Help determine whether multiplayer/social gameplay belongs in the initial product or future roadmap.
• Design onboarding that requires minimal instruction and gets users into the experience quickly.
• Work closely with AR engineers to design around real-world tracking, mobile hardware, performance, safety, and environmental constraints.
• Collaborate with animation, VFX, audio, character art, and engineering so gameplay mechanics feel integrated rather than layered onto the experience.
• Prototype, playtest, evaluate, and rapidly iterate mechanics based on client and user feedback.
• Help establish systems that can expand beyond Halloween into additional characters, seasonal variants, collectibles, and future experiences.

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

• Professional experience as a Game Designer, AR Game Designer, Systems Designer, or Gameplay Designer.
• Experience designing mobile, AR, VR/XR, location-based, or other interactive real-time experiences.
• Strong understanding of short-form gameplay loops and immediate player feedback.
• Ability to translate a broad creative idea into clearly defined mechanics, rules, states, and interactions.
• Strong understanding of player motivation, progression, reward, difficulty, and replayability.
• Experience designing gameplay around physical movement, camera-based interaction, or spatial environments.
• Ability to communicate mechanics clearly through design documentation, diagrams, prototypes, and direct collaboration with developers.
• Comfortable working in a fast-moving prototype environment where gameplay is continuously tested and refined.
• A portfolio of work is mandatory.

NICE TO HAVE

• Hands-on Unity experience.
• Experience with AR Foundation, ARKit, ARCore, 8th Wall, or comparable AR platforms.
• Experience designing combat, capture, projectile, aiming, or physics-based mechanics.
• Experience with physical products, toys-to-life, location-based entertainment, or connected collectibles.
• Familiarity with multiplayer and leaderboard systems.
• Experience designing family-friendly horror entertainment.

THE DESIGN CHALLENGE

The gameplay should be family friendly and simple enough to understand immediately but satisfying enough that players want to do it again. This is not intended to become a complicated combat game. The “magic” comes from seeing a physical object come alive, confronting the creature in your own environment, and having an interaction that feels responsive, theatrical, and fun. The physical tombstone, AR character, weapon, VFX, animation, spatial audio, and gameplay should feel like one experience and not separate features.