Game Designer, Casual F2P

TapBlaze•Los Angeles, CA

2d•Onsite

About The Position

We are seeking a Game Designer who genuinely loves and plays casual F2P mobile games. This role involves designing new mechanics and improving existing ones for our successful titles, Good Pizza, Great Pizza (over 300 million downloads) and our latest game, Good Coffee, Great Coffee. You will focus on game economy, progression balance, and feature design, balancing the needs of our players with the sustainability of our business. The ideal candidate has a strong player empathy and understands the psychology of casual, cozy, and narrative-driven game players. You will also conduct market research, competitive analysis, and collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure designs are player-centric and technically feasible.

Requirements

2+ years of experience designing casual F2P mobile games.
At least one shipped casual mobile game currently live on the App Store or Google Play.
Actively play casual F2P mobile games in personal time.
Proven experience with game economy design (sink/source modeling, currency systems, upgrade cost curves, cooldown tuning).
Strong player empathy and understanding of the psychology of casual, cozy, and narrative-driven game players.
Long-term systems thinking, considering 6-month and 12-month consequences of designs.
Clear design documentation skills (wireframes, GDDs, flowcharts, economy models).
Bachelor's degree in Game Design, Mathematics, Economics, Psychology, or related field.
Great attention to detail.

Nice To Haves

Significant design ownership over a shipped casual mobile game.
Experience with UI/UX design.
Experience with data analytics tools (retention curves, conversion funnels, ARPDAU data).
Coding or prototyping experience (Unity, Claude, spreadsheets with formulas, scripting).
Experience designing for narrative-driven or cozy game genres specifically.
Familiarity with A/B testing and LiveOps in a live mobile game environment.
Master's degree preferred.

Responsibilities

Design new gameplay mechanics and features for Good Pizza, Great Pizza and Good Coffee, Great Coffee, focusing on casual, cozy, and narrative-driven experiences.
Design LiveOps events, seasonal content, and limited-time features to drive engagement without player burnout.
Create wireframes, design documents, and prototypes to clearly communicate design intent to engineering and art teams.
Design and maintain in-game economies, including currencies, pricing, upgrade costs, cooldowns, and sink/source balance, with a long-term, sustainable mindset.
Model the downstream effects of economy decisions on monetization.
Set up progression curves, upgrade cost scaling, and cooldown systems that feel fair to players while allowing for meaningful monetization.
Regularly audit existing economy systems and propose rebalancing with clear plans for how changes affect current players.
Improve or rebalance existing features by carefully considering player expectations and providing compensating value when necessary.
Use player feedback, reviews, community sentiment, and analytics data to understand player experiences.
Identify design debt and create migration plans that respect the player relationship.
Play and deeply analyze casual games across various genres on an ongoing basis.
Develop a strong understanding of TapBlaze's player base.
Conduct market research and competitive analysis, translating insights into actionable feature recommendations.
Collaborate with cross-functional teams (engineering, art, QA, marketing).