[UPDATE: After some insightful feedback, we've decided that this specific role doesn't truly require someone to live in St Louis. We'd still prefer it, but will not be requiring it.]
WHOA! That's right, honkytonk. We're growing the Butterscotch family!
As we've put out more and more games, we've run into a conundrum. And it has to do with being constantly faced with this decision: do we update and expand our existing games, or do we develop new ones? Both of these things are important, but with our limited human bandwidth, we can only do one of those things at a time.
If we wanted to update Quadropus Rampage and bring it to Steam, for example, we'd have to postpone working on the next game by a few months. If we wanted to add more features to BscotchID in our older games or add more cross-game perks, that's a few weeks (or more) we'd have to postpone the next game. And so forth. So it's time to get another set of hands and brains on deck!
THEREFORE... We will soon be opening up applications for a role we are calling:
![]()
It will be the responsibility of the Game Mechanic to extend the lives of our existing games and find ways to breathe new life into them. That means content patches, bug fixes, balance updates, new cross-game perks, bringing the games onto new platforms and stores, etc... Essentially, the Game Mechanic will be a game programmer whose domain is all of our existing games.
However, this is not a pure programming role. You won't be "behind the scenes" -- this job will entail a lot of talking with players, writing patch notes, writing blog posts detailing news announcements and updates to games, etc... It might even involve giving talks at events. In other words, you need to enjoy talking with people, you need to be a good communicator, and you need to be a true believer in our studio.
But that's enough regular human words! Let's whip out the CORPORATE BULLET POINTS!
Job Description: Game Mechanic
(This is all subject to change, but is definitely close to the final description.)
Expected Personality Traits
Start Date: July 1, 2016
Location: Living in St Louis is preferred, but not required.
Salary: $40,000/year for first 3 months (training period), then bumped up to $60,000/year.
Benefits: 401k and Personal Growth fund (Will be explained further upon offer)
Who should apply, and how?
We embrace diversity and believe that it makes our lives better and leads to better solutions to creative problems. What matters for our evaluation of your application is that you are an amicable person who will go all-in on the Butterscotch vision, and that you satisfy a few legal (e.g. are hire-able), practical (e.g. will be able to commute to work), and ability (will be able to learn how to do the job both well and quickly) requirements. Ideally you would bring some new life perspectives into the company. We will do everything we can to ensure that Butterscotch is a safe space for people of any background.
We do not require any specific formal education nor prior experience in the field (all of us came from well outside the games industry). Those won't hurt, of course. We'll rely most heavily on the answers you provide and skills you demonstrate during the application process.
You should also understand that we work in an unpredictable industry, and are just beginning to turn our company into something with long-term financial stability. Being one of the first to join such a company will be super rewarding (if you like to work hard and wear many hats) but also carries inherent risk (namely, the company could run out of money after a few unsuccessful projects). We will make every effort to run Butterscotch responsibly to maximize its chances of long-term success. We will only hire people when conservative estimates show that we can afford to, and will be open with you about the risks (as best we can estimate them) if and when we extend an offer.
Applications will open SOON (within a few weeks). We are working on the application process now, but you can get signed up to get an alert the moment the full applications are live. To do so, go to jobs.bscotch.net. If you want to discuss this career, or have any particular questions, we've made a space in our forums.
WHOA! That's right, honkytonk. We're growing the Butterscotch family!
As we've put out more and more games, we've run into a conundrum. And it has to do with being constantly faced with this decision: do we update and expand our existing games, or do we develop new ones? Both of these things are important, but with our limited human bandwidth, we can only do one of those things at a time.
If we wanted to update Quadropus Rampage and bring it to Steam, for example, we'd have to postpone working on the next game by a few months. If we wanted to add more features to BscotchID in our older games or add more cross-game perks, that's a few weeks (or more) we'd have to postpone the next game. And so forth. So it's time to get another set of hands and brains on deck!
THEREFORE... We will soon be opening up applications for a role we are calling:
Game Mechanic
It will be the responsibility of the Game Mechanic to extend the lives of our existing games and find ways to breathe new life into them. That means content patches, bug fixes, balance updates, new cross-game perks, bringing the games onto new platforms and stores, etc... Essentially, the Game Mechanic will be a game programmer whose domain is all of our existing games.
However, this is not a pure programming role. You won't be "behind the scenes" -- this job will entail a lot of talking with players, writing patch notes, writing blog posts detailing news announcements and updates to games, etc... It might even involve giving talks at events. In other words, you need to enjoy talking with people, you need to be a good communicator, and you need to be a true believer in our studio.
But that's enough regular human words! Let's whip out the CORPORATE BULLET POINTS!
Job Description: Game Mechanic
(This is all subject to change, but is definitely close to the final description.)
Expected Personality Traits
- Attitude: friendly, honest, humble, open-minded, good-humored, and personable
- Takes pride in and enjoys doing great work
- Extremely detail-oriented
- Thrives on problem-solving
- Can emotionally detach self from ideas, caring about what is right instead of who is right
- A Hacker Mindset: prefer simple, fast solutions that get the job done using the tools at hand
- Comfortable speaking in public (at events or online)
- Self-Directed
- You will be expected to always have a long list of things to do to help Butterscotch, much of which will be self-generated, and you'll have to prioritize that stuff appropriately
- You will need to maintain powerful motivation without hard deadlines and while working on long-term projects
- You will need to be able to recognize when you've fallen down a rabbit hole so you can climb back out
- You will need to be able to cut your losses and start over/pivot/move on when appropriate
- You will need extreme Grit -- the ability to push through obstacles, no matter how large
- Self-Teaching
- Most problems you face will be things you have to solve yourself -- you should know how to find your own answers
- We are a tiny company, and you may frequently be asked, or you may decide on your own, to do something outside your skillset and job description. You'll need the desire and will to figure that stuff out
- Develop in Gamemaker Studio (prior expertise not required, but will need to learn quickly)
- Use other scripting languages (e.g. Python, Perl) to automate tasks
- Understand and refactor super-ugly organic code written by self-taught programmers (good luck!)
- Determine, prioritize, and implement needed bugfixes according to own QA work along with player feedback
- Interpret player feedback and decide whether/how to implement relevant changes
- Document and version-control all changes and workflows
- Port old and in-progress games to new stores/platforms
- Learn new SDKs and APIs
- Learn new programming languages
- Learn and use a multitude of operating systems and hardware
- Professionally work with support personnel from other companies
- Keep secrets secret -- no spilling the beans on dev kits and closed betas
- Stay current with upcoming OS/API/etc updates and make sure that games are prepared for those updates
- Assist with QA and beta testing of
- Add content & features to published games
- Design and implement new control schemes
- Design and implement cross-promotional programmatic content, between our games or between ours and others’ games
- Design and implement programmatic content and features that would be the most impactful to the life of existing games
- Convert player feedback into actional content/feature lists
- Run beta tests for new content and bugfixes
- Professionally work with representatives of game storefronts
- Keep the playerbase in the loop
- Write entertaining blog posts and patch notes, record videos, and give talks detailing information about new/changed games. Requires great writing and speaking skills (if you cannot speak well and write well, it’s a non-starter for us!)
- Professionally handle negativity from players
- Socially engagement with players -- and enjoy doing it!
- Be socially aware -- always think of how the things you do/say could be used for evil, and work on ways to prevent that
- Have a positive outlook on life and games -- negativity is self-breeding and doesn't belong in our studio or community
Start Date: July 1, 2016
Location: Living in St Louis is preferred, but not required.
Salary: $40,000/year for first 3 months (training period), then bumped up to $60,000/year.
Benefits: 401k and Personal Growth fund (Will be explained further upon offer)
Who should apply, and how?
We embrace diversity and believe that it makes our lives better and leads to better solutions to creative problems. What matters for our evaluation of your application is that you are an amicable person who will go all-in on the Butterscotch vision, and that you satisfy a few legal (e.g. are hire-able), practical (e.g. will be able to commute to work), and ability (will be able to learn how to do the job both well and quickly) requirements. Ideally you would bring some new life perspectives into the company. We will do everything we can to ensure that Butterscotch is a safe space for people of any background.
We do not require any specific formal education nor prior experience in the field (all of us came from well outside the games industry). Those won't hurt, of course. We'll rely most heavily on the answers you provide and skills you demonstrate during the application process.
You should also understand that we work in an unpredictable industry, and are just beginning to turn our company into something with long-term financial stability. Being one of the first to join such a company will be super rewarding (if you like to work hard and wear many hats) but also carries inherent risk (namely, the company could run out of money after a few unsuccessful projects). We will make every effort to run Butterscotch responsibly to maximize its chances of long-term success. We will only hire people when conservative estimates show that we can afford to, and will be open with you about the risks (as best we can estimate them) if and when we extend an offer.
Applications will open SOON (within a few weeks). We are working on the application process now, but you can get signed up to get an alert the moment the full applications are live. To do so, go to jobs.bscotch.net. If you want to discuss this career, or have any particular questions, we've made a space in our forums.