Principal Economy Designer | New Games

Xbox Media Solutions (Formerly Activision Blizzard Media); Barcelona; On-site; EUR 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

King is seeking a Principal Economy and System Designer for an unannounced Merge 2 game in Barcelona. You will own the economic foundations that connect core merging, progression, events, monetisation, and long-term engagement.

You will partner with leadership and a multidisciplinary team to build an economy that scales, remains intuitive, and aligns with product goals during development and live operation.

Qualifications

• Demonstrable, hands-on experience designing and balancing economies for merge games.
• Experience shaping economies in games in development or live operations.
• Strong ability to translate game vision into coherent systems and specs.

Responsibilities

• Own the design, modelling, balancing, and health of the game economy across lifecycle.
• Define the Merge 2 economy, including generators, energy loops, currencies, and progression.
• Design progression systems and pacing with clear short-, mid-, long-term goals.
• Build economy models, simulations, and tools to forecast currency flows and balancing.
• Establish sources/sinks for currencies; ensure understandability and resilience.
• Collaborate with Creative, Product, Data, Design, Art, Engineering, and UX.
• Design and balance meta, social, events, and monetisation systems.
• Use data and user feedback to identify opportunities and inform decisions.
• Lead economy reviews and communicate complex systems to stakeholders.

Skills

Merge economy design

Economy modelling

Balancing systems

Data analysis

Cross-functional leadership

Design documentation

Job description

Craft:

Games Design & Production

Job Description:

Principal Economy and System Designer

Unannounced Merge 2 Game

Join our team and help shape an unannounced Merge 2 game from the ground up. We are looking for a Principal Economy and System Designer who can turn a compelling merge fantasy into a clear, generous, and sustainable player journey. You will own the economic and systemic foundations that connect core merging, progression, events, monetisation, and long-term engagement.

This is a senior, hands-on design role for someone with proven economy design experience in successful merge games. You will partner with creative leadership and a multidisciplinary team to build an economy that feels intuitive to players, performs against product goals, and can evolve confidently through development and live operation.

Your rolewithin the Kingdom

You will be the principal owner and champion of economy design for the game, setting a high bar for systemic clarity, player value, and commercial sustainability. Specifically, you will:

• Own the design, modelling, balancing, and ongoing health of the game economy across the full player lifecycle, from first-session experience through long-term progression and live events.

• Define the Merge 2 economy: merge chains, generators, energy and action loops, currencies, rewards, inventories, orders, unlocks, progression gates, and the relationships between them.

• Design progression systems and content pacing that create clear short-, mid-, and long-term goals while preserving meaningful player choice and satisfying merge moments.

• Build and maintain economy models, simulations, and tools that forecast progression, currency flows, resource pressure, feature impact, and balancing changes.

• Establish healthy sources and sinks for currencies and resources, ensuring the economy is understandable, resilient, and appropriately tuned for both engaged and paying players.

• Partner with Creative, Product, Data, Design, Art, Engineering, and UX to translate the game vision into coherent systems, features, and player experiences.

• Design and balance meta, social, event, and monetisation systems that support retention, engagement, and revenue without compromising player trust or the core merge experience.

• Use quantitative analysis, player research, playtests, and qualitative feedback to identify opportunities, diagnose issues, and make clear, evidence-led recommendations.

• Lead economy reviews and communicate complex system behaviour, trade-offs, and decisions clearly to senior stakeholders and the wider game team.

• Set standards for economy craft, documentation, and review practices; mentor other designers and contribute to the broader design community.

Skills to create thrills

• Demonstrable, hands-on experience designing and balancing economies for merge games. Experience on Merge 2 titles is strongly preferred, with a clear understanding of generators, merge chains, board pressure, energy loops, order systems, and progression pacing.

• A record of owning or materially shaping economies on games in development and live operation, ideally in free-to-play mobile games with meaningful scale.

• Deep understanding of how merge-game economy decisions affect player motivation, retention, session frequency, monetisation, content cadence, and the perceived fairness of the game.

• Strong analytical capability and confidence building spreadsheet models, simulations, and practical tools to test assumptions and communicate outcomes.

• Experience using product data and experimentation to balance systems, assess feature performance, and improve player journeys.

• Excellent systems thinking: able to connect individual mechanics into a coherent whole, anticipate second-order effects, and simplify complexity for players and teammates.

• Strong design judgement, written communication, and presentation skills, with the ability to create clear specifications and align varied senior perspectives.

• A collaborative leadership style. You are comfortable working across disciplines, giving constructive feedback, and creating momentum in an evolving development environment.

• Genuine enthusiasm for free-to-play games, merge games, and the craft of building player-first economies.

Nice to Have

• Experience taking a merge game from concept or soft launch through live operation.

• Experience with economy telemetry, SQL, BI tools, or scripting used to investigate player behaviour and validate economy hypotheses.

• Experience designing live events, offers, segmentation strategies, or content frameworks for a merge title.

• Experience mentoring designers or leading economy design across multiple features or teams.

Why This Role

You will have the opportunity to establish the economic DNA of a new game and influence its direction at every level. This role is ideal for a principal designer who wants to combine deep merge-game expertise with creative leadership, rigorous analysis, and close collaboration to build an experience players will return to for years.

About King

With a mission of Making the World Playful, King is a leading interactive entertainment company for the mobile world with more than 20 years of history of delivering some of the world’s most iconic games in the mobile gaming industry, including the world-famous Candy Crush franchise, as well as other mobile titles such as Farm Heroes Saga. Around 200 million people play a King game every month. King, part of Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), has Kingsters in Stockholm, Malmö, London, Barcelona, Berlin, Dublin, San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles and Malta. More information can be found at King.com or by following us on LinkedIn and @lifeatking on Instagram.