Lead Game Designer

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., * 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.

• 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.

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., 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.