Lead Game Designer

Starform; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Starform, Seattle Studio, seeks a Lead Game Designer to own content systems, progression, economy, and monetization for Metalstorm. You’ll shape early-game progression and live-ops tuning, partnering with the Creative Director to steer strategy and execution.

You’ll ship gameplay content—from modes to aircraft and abilities—while guiding content creation, tuning economies, and driving features from concept to live operations.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of professional game-design experience, including at least 2 years in a lead role.
• Experience shipping and operating live-service games, preferably free-to-play.
• Deep experience in systems and monetization design, including progression, economy, live events, or competitive multiplayer.
• A strong understanding of player behavior, retention, monetization, and long‑term engagement.
• Excellent design judgment and the ability to find clear, practical solutions to complex player problems.
• Comfort making decisions with incomplete information, testing assumptions, and iterating quickly.
• Outstanding communication skills, including the ability to explain design decisions clearly across disciplines.
• A collaborative mindset and a desire to build the best possible game through teamwork—not simply to “own” individual features.
• Hands‑on experience building in Unity, Unreal, or an equivalent engine.
• Strong economy‑modeling skills in Excel or Google Sheets.
• Comfort working with analytics platforms such as Mixpanel, Looker, Tableau, or similar tools.

Responsibilities

• Design and ship features from concept through launch, iteration, balancing, and live-operations tuning.
• Own key systems across gameplay, progression, economy, customization, monetization, and live operations.
• Develop monetization strategies that feel rewarding and fair while maintaining trust.
• Balance depth, accessibility, competitiveness, and long‑term engagement.
• Write clear design documentation that aligns engineering, art, QA, production, analytics, community, and marketing.
• Work AI-native to prototype economies and test content variants and iterations.
• Use analytics and player feedback to guide decisions and iterate rapidly.

Skills

Game design

Live-service games

Systems design

Economy design

Player behavior

Decision making

Communication

Collaboration

Unity/Unreal experience

Economy modeling (Excel/Sheets)

Analytics tools (Mixpanel/Looker/Table

Tools

Unity/Unreal Engine

Excel/Google Sheets

Mixpanel

Looker

Tableau

Job description

Title: Lead Game Designer

Location: Seattle Studio

About Starform

Starform is a small, in-person studio on a mission to create those rare games with enough reach and depth to cross boundaries and become cultural phenomena. We stay small on purpose because we believe a focused team of the right people can outbuild a much larger one.

Our current title, Metalstorm, is a 5v5 real-time air-combat game with more than 17 million lifetime players.

About the Role

You’ll own the vision and execution behind the content and systems that shape customization, progression, economy, and monetization. This is one of the studio’s highest-leverage design surfaces: early-game progression and monetization are where much of our opportunity is won or lost. You’ll work closely with the Creative Director to define the strategy and turn it into a better game.

The role is systems-first, but not systems-only. You’ll also design gameplay content—including modes, aircraft, weapons, and abilities—while tuning economic systems and guiding content creation. You’ll take features from concept through launch and live-operations tuning, making decisions based on how players actually behave.

What You’ll Do

• Design and ship features from concept through launch, iteration, balancing, and live-operations tuning. You’ll own the outcome, not just the initial design.


• Own key systems across gameplay, progression, economy, customization, monetization, and live operations. Design, document, and ship the systems that drive our core KPIs while treating player trust as a highly valuable asset.


• Develop monetization strategies that feel rewarding and fair, giving players compelling reasons to invest in the game without compromising competitive integrity or long‑term trust.


• Balance depth, accessibility, competitiveness, and long‑term engagement. Build systems that create meaningful aspiration and status at the right moments.


• Write clear design documentation that aligns the entire team across engineering, art, QA, production, analytics, community, and marketing.


• Work AI‑native. Use AI tools to prototype economies, simulate balance, generate and test content variants, and run more design iterations than a human‑only process allows. We expect AI to multiply your output, not replace your judgment.


• Use analytics, community feedback, playtesting, and your own instincts to understand what is working and what is not. Iterate quickly based on real player behavior rather than assumptions.


• Ask difficult questions and challenge assumptions, regardless of where an idea originates.


• Make thoughtful tradeoffs that improve the overall game rather than optimizing individual features in isolation.


• Be a trusted creative partner to the Creative Director and collaborate closely with engineering, production, art, QA, community, analytics, and product.


• Raise the quality of design discussions through clear thinking, strong rationale, and a willingness to challenge ideas constructively.

What We’re Looking For

• 7+ years of professional game-design experience, including at least 2 years in a lead role.


• Experience shipping and operating live-service games, preferably free-to-play.


• Deep experience in systems and monetization design, including progression, economy, live events, or competitive multiplayer.


• A strong understanding of player behavior, retention, monetization, and long‑term engagement.


• Excellent design judgment and the ability to find clear, practical solutions to complex player problems.


• Comfort making decisions with incomplete information, testing assumptions, and iterating quickly.


• Outstanding communication skills, including the ability to explain design decisions clearly across disciplines.


• A collaborative mindset and a desire to build the best possible game through teamwork—not simply to “own” individual features.


• Hands‑on experience building in Unity, Unreal, or an equivalent engine.


• Strong economy‑modeling skills in Excel or Google Sheets.


• Comfort working with analytics platforms such as Mixpanel, Looker, Tableau, or similar tools.

Success in This Role

After your first year, you will have:

• Become one of the studio’s most trusted voices on design quality.


• Shaped the direction of Metalstorm through thoughtful, data‑informed decisions.


• Shipped meaningful improvements to the systems that drive player engagement, progression, and monetization.


• Built strong working partnerships across engineering, art, product, QA, analytics, community, and production.


• Consistently raised the quality of the game through both your own contributions and your influence on the broader team.

Equal Opportunity Statement

Starform is proud to provide equal opportunities in the workplace and to build a culture that is safe, respectful, fair and inclusive for all of our employees.