Senior Game Designer

Liquidnitro; Hyderabad; On-site; INR 4,000,000 - 6,500,000; Full time

Job summary

Liquidnitro Games in Hyderabad is seeking a Senior Game Designer (IC) to own major gameplay systems for a new mobile roguelike. This role emphasizes individual contribution, strong design craft, and close collaboration with data, product, engineering, art, and QA.

You will translate the vision into systems, prototype in Unity, balance progression, rewards, and monetization, and mentor other designers without direct people management.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional game design experience.
• Credit on multiple shipped games with hands-on ownership of major gameplay systems or live features.
• Experience on mobile, free-to-play, action/RPG/roguelike games.
• Deep understanding of progression, rewards, balancing, and long-term engagement.
• Strong roguelike/roguelite design knowledge including run-based progression.

Responsibilities

• Own the design and execution of major gameplay systems, progression, economy, and player experience areas.
• Translate the game vision into clear systems, loops, and playable experiences with the Lead Designer.
• Design and iterate core loop, combat mechanics, progression pacing, and rewards.
• Lead feature development from concept through implementation, tuning, and polishing.
• Create design docs, briefs, flow diagrams, tuning sheets, and specs.

Skills

Game design

Roguelike design

Mobile F2P

Unity prototyping

Data-driven design

Cross-functional collaboration

Documentation

Mentorship (non-manager)

Tools

Unity

Job description

Liquidnitro Games is a game development company built to create, launch, and scale ambitious games for a global audience.

Founded by industry veterans with deep experience across free-to-play, live services, and large-scale game production agnostic of platforms, we bring together product thinking, design craft, engineering depth, art execution, data, and live operations under one roof.

We build games from the ground up, take new ideas from 0 to 1, and work with select partners to strengthen, scale, and operate high-quality game experiences. Our teams combine creative ownership with production discipline, helping projects move from early prototypes to validated products, and from launch to long-term growth.

At Liquidnitro, we are building the next generation of game teams, products, and tools from India for the global games industry.

The Role

We are looking for aSenior Game Designer — ICto help define, build, and refine a new0→1 mobile, free-to-play roguelike game.

This role is at the same grade as a Lead Game Designer, but with a stronger focus on individual contribution, subject matter expertise, and hands-on design ownership rather than people management.

You will own major gameplay systems and feature areas, working closely with the Lead Game Designer, Product, Engineering, Art, Production, QA, UX, and Data teams to shape the core loop, run structure, progression, rewards, economy, content, and long-term engagement.

The right person brings deep design craft, strong product judgement, and the ability to turn complex design problems into clear, playable, testable systems.

Responsibilities

• Own the design and execution of major gameplay systems, progression systems, meta systems, rewards, economy, content structures, or player experience areas.
• Work with the Lead Game Designer to translate the game vision into clear systems, features, loops, and playable experiences.
• Design and iterate on the core loop, run structure, combat/gameplay mechanics, upgrade choices, difficulty curves, player builds, rewards, and progression pacing.
• Lead feature development from concept through implementation, tuning, iteration, and final polish.
• Create clear design documentation, feature briefs, flow diagrams, tuning sheets, balancing frameworks, and implementation-ready specs.
• Prototype gameplay ideas in Unity where required, and work closely with Engineering to ensure systems are feasible, scalable, and implemented with the intended player experience.
• Review builds and provide precise feedback on gameplay feel, clarity, pacing, balance, progression, usability, and player motivation.
• Support rapid prototyping, playtesting, and iteration to validate fun before scaling production.
• Use player feedback, gameplay data, design judgement, and market references to improve retention, engagement, replayability, and monetization.
• Collaborate with Product and Data teams to define design KPIs, evaluate player behavior, and identify improvement opportunities.
• Work with Art, UX, QA, and Production to ensure features are clearly scoped, well-prioritized, tested, and aligned with milestone goals.
• Contribute to economy tuning, reward balancing, content cadence, events, and live design planning where relevant.
• Act as a subject matter expert within the design team and help raise the quality of design thinking, documentation, and execution.
• Mentor other designers through feedback, reviews, examples, and craft guidance, without being responsible for direct people management.

Required Skills

• 8+ years of professional game design experience.
• Credit on multiple shipped games, with hands-on ownership of major gameplay systems, progression systems, economy systems, or live game features.
• Experience working on mobile, free-to-play, action, RPG, roguelike, roguelite, shooter, survival, or progression-heavy games.
• Deep understanding of gameplay systems, player motivation, progression, rewards, balancing, difficulty, pacing, usability, and long-term engagement.
• Strong understanding of roguelike or roguelite design, including run-based gameplay, build variety, upgrade choices, replayability, challenge, and progression across runs.
• Strong understanding of mobile F2P design, retention, monetization, economy, live iteration, and player behavior.
• Ability to create detailed, clear, and implementation-ready design specs.
• Comfortable prototyping gameplay in Unity and working closely with engineers during implementation.
• Strong analytical and product thinking, with the ability to use data and player feedback without losing creative judgment.
• Excellent communication, documentation, presentation, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
• Ability to influence design direction through craft, clarity, reasoning, and execution quality.

Preferred Skills

• Experience taking a game or major feature from concept through launch.
• Experience working on 0→1 game development, early prototyping, or new IP development.
• Experience with live operations, events, battle passes, content cadence, economy tuning, and post-launch feature iteration.
• Experience with technical design, scripting, visual scripting, or hands-on prototyping.
• Strong understanding of analytics, A/B testing, cohort behavior, funnels, and design KPIs.
• Experience designing enemies, abilities, weapons, upgrades, combat systems, progression systems, or build-crafting mechanics.
• Familiarity with AI-assisted workflows for ideation, prototyping, tuning, documentation, or content development.

What We’re Looking For

We are looking for a senior design craftsperson who can go deep into systems and gameplay.

You should be able to take a broad design problem, break it down clearly, build strong solutions, test them in-game, and iterate until they work. You should be comfortable operating in ambiguity, especially in early-stage development where the team is still finding the fun.

This role is ideal for someone who wants senior-level ownership and influence without moving fully into people management. You will be expected to lead through expertise, quality of thinking, strong execution, and the ability to make the game better every day.

Location

This is an on-site role based in Hyderabad.