Game Designer, Casual F2P

About the role

We need a game designer who actually plays casual F2P mobile games, not someone who tolerates them, but someone who genuinely loves them. You'll design new mechanics and improve existing ones for Good Pizza, Great Pizza (300M+ downloads) and latest title Good Coffee, Great Coffee. You'll work on game economy, progression balance, and feature design while keeping two things in constant tension: what's best for our players and what's sustainable for our business.

Responsibilities

• Design New Game Mechanics & Features
  • Concept, prototype, and iterate on new gameplay mechanics for Good Pizza, Great Pizza and Good Coffee, Great Coffee with an emphasis on casual, cozy, and narrative-driven experiences.
  • Create wireframes, design documents, and prototypes that communicate your intent clearly to engineering and art.
• Game Economy & Balance
  • Design and maintain in-game economies (currencies, pricing, upgrade costs, cooldowns, sink/source balance) with a long-term, sustainable mindset.
  • Model the downstream effects of economy decisions.
  • Improve Existing Designs Without Alienating Players
• Research & Player Empathy
  • Play and deeply analyze casual games across genres, Match-3, Time Management, Simulation, Indie, Cozy, Narrative on an ongoing basis.
  • Develop a strong mental model of TapBlaze's player base: who they are, what they value, what frustrates them, and what makes them engaged with our games.
  • Conduct market research and competitive analysis, translating insights into actionable feature recommendations.

Requirements

2+ years of experience designing casual F2P mobile games. Casual mobile specifically. At least one shipped casual mobile game currently live on the App Store or Google Play. Big plus if you had significant design ownership over. You actively play casual F2P mobile games in your personal time. You can talk at length about what's working and what's broken in games like Merge Mansion, Royal Match, Hay Day, Stardew Valley mobile, and similar titles. Do not apply if you don't regularly play casual F2P games.

Proven experience with game economy design. Sink/source modeling, currency systems, upgrade cost curves, cooldown tuning, and understanding how all of those interact over a player's lifetime.

Strong player empathy. You can articulate how a design decision will feel from the player's perspective, not just how it looks on a spreadsheet.

You understand the psychology of casual, cozy, and narrative-driven game players.

Long-term systems thinking. You consider the 6-month and 12-month consequences of your designs, especially around monetization headroom and economy sustainability.

Clear design documentation skills. Wireframes, GDDs, flowcharts, economy models that other team members can execute from.

Bachelor's degree in Game Design, Mathematics, Economics, Psychology, or related field (Master's preferred)

Great attention to details - you read the full job description.

Strong Pluses:

• Experience with UI/UX design or strong opinions about how interface design affects player behavior and comprehension.
• Experience with data analytics tools; you can look at retention curves, conversion funnels, and ARPDAU data and know what it means for your designs.
• Coding or prototyping experience - (Unity, Claude, spreadsheets with formulas, scripting) enough to model and test your own ideas before handing off to engineering.
• Experience designing for narrative-driven or cozy game genres specifically.
• Familiarity with A/B testing and LiveOps in a live mobile game environment.

Who You Are

Location & Work Environment

Los Angeles, CA: Reliably commute or planning to relocate before starting work;

Prolonged period of time sitting at a desk and computer.

Compensation

The salary range for this role is $65,000 to $95,000 per year depending on experience.

Commitment to Diversity

As an equal opportunity employer committed to meeting the needs of a multigenerational and multicultural workforce TAPBLAZE recognizes that a diverse staff, reflective of our community, is an integral and welcome part of a successful and ethical business. We hire local talent at all levels regardless of race, color, religion, age, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability, and actively foster inclusion in all forms both within our company and across interactions with vendors and partners.