Game Economy Designer

Main challenge

Own the game economy and progression so that players always have something meaningful to work toward, without the game turning into a grind or a currency treadmill. Create a robust economy that can last for years, support live ops, and make room for product managers to create offers (if the model permits it).

What it means on a daily basis

• Be responsible for the in-game economy: currencies, resource flows, progression speed, content consumption, and related systems.
• Design economy systems, including specifications, edge cases, flow mockups, and expected success KPIs. Follow up on progress with each related department.
• Work with design to ensure economy systems are aligned with other systems, not just co-existing.
• Build and maintain progression models in Excel to predict how players evolve over time.
• Design testing setups and player profiles, then compare expected vs. actual progression.
• Identify where progression breaks down (too fast, too slow, irrelevant rewards, dead systems).
• Help define tracking needs so we can actually understand what players are doing.
• Analyze data and adjust balancing to improve retention and long-term engagement.
• Keep an eye on how other games solve similar problems—both inside Gameloft and outside.

What success will look like

• Players don’t just follow quests - they set their own short and mid-term goals
• The economy gives a reason to engage with multiple systems, not just one dominant loop
• Progression feels consistent and readable, without sudden walls or meaningless rewards
• New content (dragons, features, expansions) plugs into the economy without breaking it
• We avoid both extremes: players running out of things to do or feeling forced to grind

Who you would be working with

• Creative Director
• Game Designers
• Product Managers
• Product / Monetization stakeholders
• Data / Analytics
• UI/UX
• Production

Your recruitment journey

• First interview: discussion around experience and approach
• Test: progression / economy case
• Second interview: deep dive on your thinking and tradeoffs
• Final interview: alignment on how you approach player experience vs business needs

Where this role can take you

• Senior / Lead Economy Designer
• Ownership of progression and economy across a live product
• Strong influence on product and liveops decisions

What you need to succeed

• Experience as Game Economy Designer / Balancer
• Strong analytical thinking - able to break problems into variables and relationships
• Ability to model progression in Excel
• Understanding of different economy models (F2P, premium, hybrid)
• Ability to interpret data and turn it into concrete changes
• Experience working with tracking data

Who you are

• You think in player behavior and systems, not just numbers
• You’re comfortable saying “this will break the game economy” even if it’s unpopular
• You understand that progression design is often about tradeoffs, not perfect balance
• You can work in an environment where things change and assumptions get invalidated
• You don’t default to copying F2P patterns if they don’t fit the game