Location: ToastieLabs Gateshead Office
Part-time: 2 positions available
Pay: National Living Wage (£12.71 per hour)
Hours: 10-15h per week, primarily evenings and weekends, with some flexibility required
About ToastieLabs
ToastieLabs is an independent game development studio based in Gateshead. Alongside developing and supporting our own PC and console games, we are expanding our premises to include a public-facing shop, escape room and gaming space.
We are looking for two part-time team members to help run this side of the business while also supporting our game development team with QA and testing work.
This is a varied role and would suit someone who enjoys games, working with people and having something different to do from one shift to the next.
The Role
Your responsibilities will include:
- Welcoming customers and helping to create a friendly, relaxed atmosphere.
- Running our shop, including serving customers, operating the till, restocking and keeping displays tidy.
- Hosting our escape room, including welcoming groups, explaining the rules, monitoring games, providing hints when needed and resetting the room between bookings.
- Managing our gaming tables and public gaming space.
- Helping customers with bookings, questions and general enquiries.
- Keeping the public areas clean, organised and ready for customers.
- Helping with stock deliveries, pricing and stock checks.
- Testing ToastieLabs games and upcoming content as part of our QA process.
- Identifying, reproducing and clearly reporting bugs and other issues.
- Checking new game content, updates and DLC before release.
- Providing useful feedback on usability, gameplay and the overall player experience.
- Helping with occasional events, promotions and other activities taking place at the venue.
- Carrying out other reasonable tasks involved in the day-to-day running of a small independent business.
You won't be expected to already know how to do everything. Training will be provided for our systems, escape room and QA processes.
What We're Looking For
You don't need years of experience or a specific qualification. We are primarily looking for reliable people with a good attitude who are comfortable taking responsibility.
Applicants should ideally have some experience in one or more of the following areas:
- Retail or customer service.
- Hospitality, leisure or visitor attractions.
- Escape rooms or similar entertainment venues.
- Board games, tabletop gaming, card games or wargaming.
- Video games.
- Games testing or software QA.
- Working with the public.
Experience across all of these areas is not required.
Essential Requirements
You should:
- Be friendly, approachable and confident speaking to customers.
- Be reliable and able to work without constant supervision.
- Be comfortable taking responsibility for the venue during a shift.
- Have good attention to detail.
- Be able to follow procedures and instructions.
- Be able to communicate problems clearly.
- Be comfortable using computers and learning new software.
- Be willing to carry out practical jobs such as cleaning, restocking and resetting rooms as part of the role.
- Be available for regular evening and weekend work.
- Be comfortable working both independently and as part of a small team.
- Be aged 18 and above.
- Have the legal right to work in the UK.
For QA work, you don't need previous professional testing experience, but you will need the patience to repeatedly test things, notice when something isn't working correctly and explain exactly what happened.
Desirable
Any of the following would be useful, but none are essential:
- Previous retail or customer-service experience.
- Previous games QA or software-testing experience.
- Knowledge of PC or console gaming.
- An interest in indie games.
- Knowledge of Warhammer, tabletop games, board games or trading card games.
- Experience running events or activities.
- Experience working in an escape room or other leisure venue.
- Cash-handling or till experience.
- An interest in game development.
Who This Role Would Suit
This role would be particularly suitable for someone who likes variety.
One shift might involve serving customers and helping people choose something from the shop. Another might involve hosting several escape-room bookings. Another could involve setting up gaming tables and spending part of the shift testing an upcoming game update.
Because we are a small team, we're looking for people who are happy to get involved rather than having a very narrowly defined job.
An interest in games is obviously useful, but being dependable, friendly and willing to learn is more important than knowing everything about gaming already.
Hours
These are part-time positions.
The roles are intended primarily to help us operate outside our normal office hours, so applicants should expect to work evenings and weekends, including regular weekend shifts.
Specific working patterns will be agreed with successful applicants.
Pay: £6,609.20-£9,913.80 per year
Ability to commute/relocate:
- Gateshead NE8 2AN: reliably commute or plan to relocate before starting work (required)
Language:
Work authorisation:
- United Kingdom (required)
Work Location: In person
