Games Workshop has announced a rare opportunity for someone new to set the vision and drive the team making one of its largest games. The Nottingham, UK-based miniature maker has a new job opening for the Head of the Warhammer Age of Sigmar Studio, taking overall authority over the Mortal Realms IP and miniature range.
This is a lofty post, reporting directly to the Operational IP and Product Director Max Bottrill. Whoever gets the role will be “responsible for the direction, performance and continual improvement of the Age of Sigmar Studio”, putting them in charge of about one third of the entire Warhammer design studio: the designers, sculptors, illustrators, rules writers, and more working on Age of Sigmar armies and products.
The Head of Studio is a strategic post. The description on the Warhammer careers website says they’ll “define long-term plans, oversee major release schedules, champion our intellectual property and continually improve how the studio operates”. If we want to use a Warhammer metaphor, they’re more like Sigmar himself than a General of the Free Cities, overseeing the Mortal Realms from his divine seat in Azyr.
Although the new post holder is going to have a huge impact on the game, they’ll do it in the very broadest terms, setting the mission that the rest of the creative team executes on. Games Workshop is asking for someone with “excellent commercial judgement, experience bringing exceptional products to market” who will “understand our customers, our business model, and what it takes to balance creativity with commercial success”.
As usual, Games Workshop doesn’t list a salary for the role. Applicants will need to work from Games Workshop’s HQ in Nottingham, UK. The listing apparently went up on LinkedIn on August 5, but I only spotted it during a regular check of the Warhammer Careers website on Thursday – so if you want to try your luck, you’ve only got until Sunday, August 23 to apply.
Will this change anything for the game? Probably. A new Head of Studio can drive tonal shifts in the model range, mandate big overhauls to the rules to target specific customer segments, and shake up how the game is delivered as a product. But other people will have to do the work, and the job description asks for someone who can develop the team for long-term success – turning a big ship is a slow process.
What do you think needs to happen to AoS? Is there anyone in the Warhammer studio you’d like to see get total control over Age of Sigmar? Or a designer in another company who could do the role justice? Let us know in the Wargamer Discord community.
Source: Wargamer
