Principal Game Designer

Gram Games; Greater London; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Private medical

Company bonus

Relocation assistance

Onsite chef

Life insurance

Pension scheme

Healthcare plan

Tech & consoles

Job summary

Gram Games in London is seeking a Lead Game Designer to champion the 0-to-1 development of an exciting new Merge 2 title. You will own the game's creative vision, architecting its core loop, progression, and economy from scratch while guiding a new team.

As the project matures, you will steer the team into soft launch and live operations, balancing the economy, planning events, and implementing monetization features to drive long-term retention.

Qualifications

• Own and drive the game's vision, aligning it with product goals and communicating it clearly to the team and stakeholders.
• Lead ideation and translate player motivations into user experience stories, wireframes, and optimal feature design.
• Mentor and grow a team of designers, fostering a collaborative environment with clear goals.
• Partner with product, engineering, and art to guide features from concept through implementation.
• Improve design tools and processes to streamline the pipeline and boost productivity.
• Use live feedback and analytics to refine systems and balance the game economy.

Responsibilities

• Own and drive the game's vision, aligning it with product goals and communicating it clearly to the team and stakeholders to build shared commitment.
• Lead ideation and brainstorming, and translate player motivations and behavior into user experience stories, wireframes, and optimal feature design.
• Mentor and grow a team of designers, fostering a collaborative, creative environment with clear goals and strong execution standards.
• Partner with product, engineering, and art to guide features from concept through implementation, reviewing and approving final designs.
• Improve design tools and processes to streamline the pipeline and boost team efficiency and productivity.
• Use live feedback and analytics to refine systems, maintain a balanced game economy, and champion design best practices across the studio.

Skills

Vision & design leadership

Live service design

Economy balancing

Team mentorship

Communication skills

Tools

Wireframing tools

Design tools (Figma)

Job description

Who We Are

Gram Games is the studio behind popular titles like 1010!, Six!, Merge Dragons!, and Merge Magic!, with more exciting projects in the pipeline. We are proudly part of the Zynga & Take-Two Interactive family. We do things differently here: we work in small self-managing teams, giving you an incredible amount of ownership, autonomy, and impact.

Gram Games is the studio behind popular titles like 1010!, Six!, Merge Dragons!, and Merge Magic!, with more exciting projects in the pipeline. We are proudly part of the Zynga & Take-Two Interactive family. We do things differently here: we work in small self-managing teams, giving you an incredible amount of ownership, autonomy, and impact.

At Gram, everyone is expected to have a razor-sharp focus on creating a tangible impact on their team, their work environment, and on the overall company strategy. If you are motivated by autonomy, constant improvement, collaboration, and a sense of belonging, this is the place for you.

Position Overview

As the Lead Game Designer for a brand-new game team, you will initially champion the "0-to-1" development of an exciting new Merge 2 title. You will own the game’s creative vision, architecting its core loop, progression systems, and meta-game from scratch. As the project matures, you will transition the team into soft launch and live operations, overseeing the day-to-day economy balance, event pipelines, and monetization features designed to drive long-term player retention.

What You’ll Do

• Own and drive the game's vision, aligning it with product goals and communicating it clearly to the team and stakeholders to build shared commitment.
• Lead ideation and brainstorming, and translate player motivations and behavior into user experience stories, wireframes, and optimal feature design.
• Mentor and grow a team of designers, fostering a collaborative, creative environment with clear goals and strong execution standards.
• Partner with product, engineering, and art to guide features from concept through implementation, reviewing and approving final designs.
• Improve design tools and processes to streamline the pipeline and boost team efficiency and productivity.
• Use live feedback and analytics to refine systems, maintain a balanced game economy, and champion design best practices across the studio.

What are we looking for?

• Effective communicator with outstanding verbal, written, interpersonal, and presentation skills.
• Highly proficient with mathematical concepts and formula creation in a game environment
• Proven history of designing systems that influence player behaviors and achieve key product performance indicators.
• Expert in crafting features, systems, core game loops, economies, and meta-designs to foster and enhance positive player behaviors.
• Excels in a live service game environment, adept at making adjustments based on feedback from an active community.
• Solid experience in the gaming industry in a design role, contributing meaningfully to multiple released titles
• Extensive experience leading a diverse and skilled design team
• Proven track record of successfully shipping games

What We Offer You

• Highly competitive salary
• Private medical care
• Company bonus scheme
• Relocation assistance for those moving to the UK
• Awesome onsite chef serving breakfast, lunch, and lots of treats (naughty and nice)
• Life insurance and a favorable pension scheme
• Healthcare cash plan including dental and optical coverage
• Amazing tech to work with and consoles to play and relax with everywhere you look!

We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer, which means we are committed to creating and celebrating diverse thoughts, cultures, and backgrounds throughout our organization. Employment with us is based on substantive ability, objective qualifications, and work ethic – not an individual’s race, creed, color, religion, sex or gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin or ancestry, alienage or citizenship status, physical or mental disability, pregnancy, age, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, status as a victim of domestic violence or sex offenses, reproductive health decision, or any other characteristics protected by applicable law.

As an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to providing the necessary support and accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities, health conditions, or impairments (subject to any local qualifying requirements) to ensure their full participation in the job application or interview process. Please contact us at [e-mail] to request any accommodations or for support related to your application for an open position.

Please be aware that Zynga does not conduct job interviews or make job offers over third-party messaging apps such as Telegram, WhatsApp, or others. Zynga also does not engage in any financial exchanges during the recruitment or onboarding process, and will never ask a candidate for their personal or financial information over an app or other unofficial chat channel. Any attempt to do so may be the result of a scam or phishing attack, and you should not engage. Zynga’s in-house recruitment team will only contact individuals through their official Company email addresses (i.e., via a zynga.com, take2games.com, naturalmotion.com, smallgiantgames.com, themavens.com, gram.gs email domain).