A newly discovered job posting for a senior designer position at Maxis has revealed the nature of a "new, unannounced" project in the works at the Electronic Arts-owned studio. From the sound of it, this "unique, emerging IP" will have a major multiplayer component and may draw on games with sandbox elements like Minecraft, LittleBigPlanet, and Project Spark.
Among the aspects of the game that the new senior designer will work on are "creativity editors … extensive multiplayer gameplay mechanics, in-game economies, technology trees, HD, PC, and mobile and tablet companion application integration." The posting later refers to "content creation tools and editors" intended for use by both the game's developers and players.
Prospective candidates need experience working with "deeply social multiplayer games such as MMOs," as well as an understanding of "crafting trees" and "character RPG-style leveling design and mathematical loot progression modeling."
The most direct hint about the nature of this new game comes from the requirement for an "understanding [of] other games in the creativity space, including LittleBigPlanet, Minecraft and its popular mods, Roblox, Disney Infinity, Project Spark, and other upcoming efforts."
Whatever the game is, it's likely to be free-to-play in some capacity. The new hire needs to be able to "design monetization that players respect and feel adds a great deal of value for their money." EA has had some issues with this in the past, in particular with this year's mobile Dungeon Keeper game.
