What you’ll do

You’ll dig into prototypes, map out their systems, and help designers keep the game sharp, fair, and fun across players, factions, and playstyles.

• Analyze core loops, economies, scoring systems, and pacing for friction or exploits.
• Identify snowball effects, kingmaking risks, dead turns, and non-choices.
• Build and refine simple models or spreadsheets to sanity-check probabilities and economies.
• Propose focused balance changes (tuning values, tightening reward curves, simplifying states).
• Help designers frame A/B tests or variant rules to validate changes at the table.
• Interpret playtest data and reports to separate one-off noise from real systemic issues.
• Consider different player counts and skill levels when recommending adjustments.
• Provide clear notes and rationales so designers understand the trade-offs behind each suggestion.

What you bring

• Experience designing, balancing, or deeply analyzing systems in games (tabletop, digital, or both).
• Strong intuitive sense for pacing, tension, and fairness in multiplayer experiences.
• Comfort working with numbers: basic probability, spreadsheets, and target ranges for key stats.
• Familiarity with modern board games and common genres (euros, co-ops, hybrids, etc.).
• Ability to communicate clearly in writing: you can explain “why this feels off” in concrete terms.
• Reliability around deadlines and responsiveness in async collaboration.

Nice to have

• Prior work on published or late-stage tabletop prototypes.
• Experience balancing asymmetric factions, scenarios, or campaigns.
• Familiarity with telemetry or playtest metrics and how to turn them into design decisions.
• Comfort collaborating with rules editors, TTS builders, and playtest moderators.
• Any background in math, economics, systems design, or UX research is a plus, not a requirement.

Compensation

• Freelance, remote role.
• Per-project or hourly, depending on the size and complexity of the game/system.
• Please include your preferred rate range and estimated monthly capacity.

How to apply

Submit the following via the application form:

• 1–2 samples that show your systems/balance thinking (design docs, breakdowns, postmortems, or similar).
• A brief note (150–250 words) on how you approach balancing fairness with excitement in multiplayer games.
• A short list of 3–5 games whose systems you admire, and one sentence on why for each.
• Your time zone, typical availability, and the tools you’re comfortable using (Sheets/Excel, TTS, etc.).

If you haven’t worked on a published game yet, focus on your systems thinking, analysis work, and any concrete examples where you’ve tuned or critiqued a game’s balance.