Game Design & Development Intern (Tactile Games)

About the Role

uDot is seeking a Game Design & Development Intern to transform their refreshable tactile display into an engaging gaming platform for blind and visually impaired children. This is a paid internship focused on creating accessible, fun, and educational games.

Key Responsibilities

• Conduct playtesting with blind children in school sessions to understand engagement and challenges.
• Rapidly prototype playable game versions using AI coding tools.
• Develop games across various genres, incorporating math and science concepts.
• Design immersive soundscapes, including effects, music cues, and voice feedback.
• Integrate self-teaching tutorials within each game, operable through touch and sound.
• Design the game ecosystem, including elements like levels, streaks, badges, unlockables, leaderboards, and a browsable launcher.
• Build reusable game components to streamline future development.
• Playtest, analyze player behavior, and iterate on game designs for improvement.

Requirements & Tech Stack

• Game design sense: Ability to articulate game fun factors (rules, core loop, feedback, difficulty, rewards).
• Experience with games you've built, both digital and physical (e.g., game jam entries, web/mobile games, board/card games, puzzles, mods).
• Sound design skills: Ability to create, find, and edit sound effects; experience with or willingness to learn tools like Audacity, Reaper, FMOD, the Web Audio API, and AI audio generators.
• Strong coding proficiency, particularly with AI coding tools; ability to read, debug, and fix AI-generated code.
• Design empathy and comfortable interaction with children.
• Ownership mindset and ability to work independently within a small team.
• On-site availability for 3–6 months.
• Familiarity with audio or accessible games, or screen readers such as TalkBack or NVDA is a plus.
• Experience with Unity or Godot is a plus.
• Experience with game jams (e.g., Global Game Jam, GMTK, Ludum Dare) is a plus.
• Experience with educational game design or gamification is a plus.
• Fluency in Kannada, Hindi, or another Indian language is a plus.

Qualifications

• Open to final-year students and recent graduates from any discipline (CS, design, game design, music, audio tech).
• Full-time, on-site availability for 3–6 months, starting December 2026 or January 2027. Final-semester students can intern until their semester ends.

Application Process

• An application challenge is required (approximately 2–3 hours, no code needed).
• Respond to prompts about game design for a blind 10-year-old, including player experience, self-teaching mechanics, replayability, and initial testing plans.
• A bonus is a rough playable prototype simulating the tactile display with sound.
• Submit CV, links to built games, challenge response, and available dates via email.