Who is PlaySide Studios?

PlaySide Studios is a dynamic and innovative company that employs individuals across Australia, New Zealand and the UAE. As Australia's largest publicly listed independent video game developer, PlaySide is committed to delivering cutting-edge interactive experiences across mobile, VR, AR, and PC platforms. With a diverse portfolio of more than 60 titles and collaborations with industry giants like Netflix and Activision Blizzard, working at PlaySide is not just a job but an opportunity to be part of an innovating the gaming industry.

Position Overview:

Our Community Manager is embedded in the development team as the voice of the player inside the team, and the voice of the team to players. You track community sentiment, issues and feature requests and make sure the team has clear access to them. You own player-facing communications, run playtests and community activities, and close the loop with players on what's changing and why.

You get ahead of issues so players don't find them first, and you communicate honestly and consistently on behalf of PlaySide.

Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities:

- Advocate for the player experience by participating in daily dev routines and surfacing major pain points, bugs, and quality-of-life requests.
- Own and write transparent player-facing communications, including patch notes, roadmaps, dev updates, and known issues.
- Communicate all news, including delays or design shifts, with clear, honest messaging free of corporate spin.
- Maintain a live, ranked report of community sentiment and feature requests, providing the dev team with actionable recommendations.
- Engage directly and consistently with players across channels like Discord, Steam, and Reddit in collaboration with the Marketing team.
- Close the feedback loop publicly by clearly explaining the development team's decisions and reasoning to the community.
- Organize and manage playtests, betas, and surveys,



translating the results into clear, valuable insights for the team.
- Manage incident and crisis communications with fast responses while assessing messaging for risks and cultural sensitivities.
- Oversee community guidelines and manage the moderation team to ensure all player spaces remain secure and welcoming.
- Drive the overall community strategy alongside Marketing, planning engagement events and establishing studio-wide community standards.

What You Bring to the Table:

- Proven community management experience in video games, ideally working closely with a development team.
- Avid gamer with a genuine, active presence in gaming communities (Steam, Reddit, X). You post, comment and take part. You're not a lurker.
- Strong preference for deep knowledge of RTS and/or strategy games.
- Strong writer across patch notes, dev updates and player responses, in a clear, honest tone without corporate spin.
- Has delivered bad news publicly and handled community incidents or crises.
- Experience running playtests, betas or surveys.
- Able to turn quantitative and qualitative data into clear recommendations for the game team.
- Familiarity with Jira or similar issue-tracking tools.
- Ownership mentality, highly organised, and comfortable in a fast-paced environment.
- Strong communication and relationship skills across all levels of the organisation.

What We Offer Here at PlaySide:

- PlayDays - an additional 5 paid days off per year to do something you love.
- Incredible studio based in Docklands with great end-of-trip facilities, and close to multiple public transports options.
- Industry-leading Parental Leave benefits.
- Employee Assistance Program to support mental well-being.
- Mentoring opportunities to help you grow in your role.
- Half-price gym right around the corner just for PlaySiders.
- Social events including Games night, Karaoke nights, Movie Nights (We hire out the cinema!), group activities, and food trucks! Just as some examples!

📌 Community Manager (Melbourne)
🏢 PlaySide Studios
📍 Melbourne