Game Director for Survival Game (Unreal Engine)

⚠️ Important: This is currently a revenue-share and/or equity-based position while we finalize funding. This is a core leadership opportunity for someone who understands the risks of early-stage development and wants meaningful ownership of the project.

Axiosys is developing Mawforged, a first-person dark-fantasy survival RPG built in Unreal Engine 5.

Players take the role of a dwarven delver exploring the layered depths of the Maw. They will fight dangerous creatures, gather resources, study forgotten knowledge, craft equipment and runes, build a refuge, and prepare for increasingly difficult expeditions.

We’re looking for an experienced Game Director who can take ownership of the creative direction and make sure every department is building the same game.

This is not a position for someone who only brings ideas. We need someone who can make decisions, challenge weak concepts, control scope, review playable builds, and turn the vision into a focused player experience.

What you’ll lead

• Define and protect the core vision, gameplay pillars, tone, and player experience

• Align game design, programming, art, animation, narrative, audio, and production

• Work with the Game Design Lead to turn direction into clear and testable systems

• Work with the Producer to establish realistic milestones and priorities

• Review builds and playtests, identify weaknesses, and give actionable feedback

• Make final creative decisions when departments or ideas conflict

• Control feature creep and decide what should be improved, delayed, or removed

• Set the quality bar for prototypes, vertical slices, trailers, and public builds

• Represent the creative direction during publisher, investor, grant, and partner discussions

What we’re looking for

• Professional experience as a Game Director, Creative Director, Design Director, or Lead Game Designer

• Experience on a shipped game, Early Access title, vertical slice, or serious late-stage production

• Strong understanding of gameplay systems, production pipelines, and cross-discipline dependencies

• Experience directing actual gameplay, not only lore or narrative

• Good understanding of survival games, action RPGs, exploration, progression, crafting, and building systems

• Strong Unreal Engine literacy

• Confidence making difficult creative and scope decisions

• Ability to lead a remote multidisciplinary team and communicate direction clearly

Bonus points

• Experience with survival RPGs, immersive sims, action games, or exploration-focused titles

• Experience delivering publisher-facing vertical slices

• Knowledge of crafting, runecrafting, base building, creature design, and knowledge-based progression

• Experience working in an indie or AA studio with limited resources

🌐 mawforged.com

• 🛒 store.steampowered.com/app/3373310/Mawforged/