Game Designer

Twinkl Limited; Remote; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading educational resource provider in the UK is seeking a 2D Game Designer & Illustrator to create engaging educational games. The candidate will focus on visual design and user interface for web and mobile platforms. Responsibilities include designing game-ready visuals and contributing to gameplay design. Ideal candidates have strong 2D illustration skills, a degree in a relevant field, and experience in creating educational games. The role offers a supportive culture and benefits such as 33 annual leave days and flexible working arrangements.

Benefits

33 annual leave days per year

Flexible working policy

Cycle-to-work scheme

Company sick pay after 3 months

Life insurance

Qualifications

• Desired ability to design characters, environments, and user interfaces for children's games.
• 2+ years of experience in educational games or interactive learning experiences.
• Proficiency in tools like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.

Responsibilities

• Create game-ready visuals including characters and UI elements.
• Own and define the visual style for educational games.
• Design interaction patterns to enhance player engagement.

Skills

2D illustration skills

User experience understanding

Collaboration

Adobe Illustrator proficiency

Adobe Photoshop proficiency

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Game Design, Illustration, or Computer Arts

Tools

Unity

Godot

Job description

The following content displays a map of the jobs location - Remote - UK

Hours: 37.5 hours (Core hours 10:00am - 2:00pm Monday - Friday)

We're here to help those who teach. It's what brings us to work every day. At Twinkl, we’ve been providing educators across the world with high quality, trusted teaching and learning resources for over a decade now. They’re all written and checked by our wonderful team of experienced educators, and there are hundreds of thousands of resources to download, with new ones added daily.

About the Role

Our games are small in scope and designed to be delivered quickly, but there’s no shortage of challenges to make them more engaging, polished, and playful.

We’re looking for a 2D Game Designer & Illustrator to help bring our educational games to life. Your primary focus will be on visual design and asset creation—illustrating characters, scenes, and user interfaces for fun, curriculum‑aligned games developed for web and mobile platforms.

You’ll also contribute to game design, helping to shape rewarding, age‑appropriate experiences with intuitive game mechanics that enhance engagement and support learning outcomes.

If you're someone who enjoys designing meaningful, visually rich, fun experiences—and you love seeing your work go live regularly—this could be a great fit.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Create game-ready visuals — Design and illustrate 2D assets including characters, backgrounds, UI elements, and basic game animations/prototypes.
• Own the visual side of game projects — Work across multiple small games, collaborating with developers and educators to define and deliver the right visual style paired with the right educational setup.
• Contribute to and own gameplay design — Design rewarding interaction patterns and feedback loops that enhance learning and engagement through intuitive game mechanics.
• Adapt to existing styles — Work within brand and curriculum‑aligned illustration guidelines, or define light visual identities for new game types.
• Support a fast‑paced production team— Create efficient, production‑ready art suited to lightweight delivery on web and mobile.

What We're Looking For

• Strong 2D illustration skills— Able to design and draw characters, environments, and UI suitable for children.
• Experience designing for games— You’ve contributed with visuals to shipped games.
• Basic understanding of user experience in games — You know how to design interactions that support clarity, accessibility, flow, and player engagement.
• Practical understanding of game‑ready assets — You know how to prepare and export visuals that are optimised for small 2D games (correct sizes, formats, compression), and won’t overload the build—preferably for both web and mobile.
• User‑centric — Have a deep empathy for young users and a strong commitment to creating visuals and experiences that are intuitive, accessible, and fun.
• Collaborative mindset — Comfortable working with developers, educators, and other artists in a cross‑functional team.
• Proficiency in standard illustration tools — Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, or similar.

Ideal but optional

• Familiarity with 2D game engines like Unity or Godot; animation experience; or light scripting knowledge.

We're interested in people that have

• Bachelor’s degree in Game Design, Illustration, Computer Arts, or a related field.
• 2+ years of experience designing games with a focus on educational games, serious games, or interactive learning experiences. Having worked across web and mobile platforms is a plus.
• Strong understanding of game design theory, player engagement strategies, and UX principles.
• Strong illustration skills and flexibility across multiple styles.
• A portfolio showcasing game design work, including concept development, game mechanics, and user testing insights.
• Familiarity with game design tools such as Unity, Godot, or similar platforms is a plus.
• Proficiency in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
• Knowledge of accessibility standards and inclusive game design practices.

If you require a reasonable adjustment to the application/selection process to enable you to demonstrate your ability to perform the job requirements please include this at the foot of your covering letter. This will help us to understand any modifications we may need to make to support you throughout our selection process.

In return for everything you can bring, we can offer you an exciting role in a fast‑growing and dynamic business, with plenty of career opportunities.

A friendly, welcoming and supportive culture. We believe work should be fun and always put people before the process

Diversity, inclusion and belonging - our Employee Network Program includes working groups for LGBTQ+, People of Colour, Disabilities (visible and invisible), Women in Tech and Working Parents.

From day 1 - Westfield Health, 33 annual leave days per year (pro‑rata) inclusive bank holidays, a "Me" day each year, a charity day each year, flexible working policy with opportunities to work from home and Twinkl subscriptions.

Quarterly company awards programme

Seasonal events

Cervical and Prostate screening

Company sick pay after 3 months of service

After probation - cycle‑to‑work scheme

Long‑term service reward - Life insurance, enhanced pension contribution, enhanced maternity pay, enhanced adoption pay and enhanced paternity pay, long service award, long service annual leave