Some Minor Activity at Rockstar Toronto

In one of my previous posts, I had mentioned that Rockstar Toronto would most likely be the team doing the Red Dead Redemption PC Port.

Well, there's been some minor activity there.. finally. They've closed off their IT Manager position offer, and have opened up a new position: User Interface Designer.

Here are the current positions that they're hiring for:

1. Character Artist
2. Game Programmer
3. Gameplay Scripter
4. Graphics Programmer
5. User Interface Designer

The artist/game designer positions haven't changed in years mind you.

On the Rockstar Toronto homepage, the IT Manager text was quietly swapped out with UI Designer. And the new position was posted on Monster a couple days ago, and on Craigslist just yesterday.

There has been some concern from the employees at Rockstar Toronto because of Take-Two/Rockstar's many lay-offs and uncertain future. Whether the UI Designer position is because of attrition or because of a new project - it's still a good sign.

The reason that this is a good sign is because RDR requires a new user interface for Windows (the current UI isn't designed for keyboard/mouse interaction). All of the voice, music, and graphics content and assets have been created already. In order for a PC Port to be created, the development team will need a couple designers, a few scripters, a project lead, and a lot of programmers. Maybe a level designer and a few artists too if they intend to add extra content to the RDR PC version. Rockstar Toronto already has the required team members, except that they were missing a UI Developer. =]

Also, Jerome Lacote was the User Interface Artist at Rockstar Games (San Diego) who did all of the UI design and artwork for Red Dead Redemption. He left the company just last month (July 2010), and they're looking to hire someone with the same qualifications in Toronto. Here's a link to his resume if you're interested.

We should know more by the first week of December 2010 (when Take-Two makes their official announcements), unless there's an early leak from the next Quarterly shareholders meeting.

* UPDATE (08/27/2010)

They've just updated their website again (www.rockstartoronto.com), and have removed the "Gameplay Scripter" position. This is probably the most activity the webpage has seen in several years.. =]