Lead Game Designer: Systems, Monetization & Live Ops

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

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.