Principal Game Designer | New Games in London

Overview

In this role, you shape the core puzzle experience for a new casual mobile puzzle game at King. You will design level mechanics, progression, and moment-to-moment interactions to deliver satisfying, scalable gameplay across thousands of levels. You’ll collaborate with cross-functional teams to align with the creative vision and game strategy, while tuning difficulty and engagement based on player data. You’ll contribute to a playful, ambitious design culture and help push the boundaries of puzzle experiences.

Responsibilities

• Design and iterate core puzzle gameplay, ensuring responsive, accessible moment-to-moment interactions
• Create and evolve blockers and level mechanics to introduce challenge and strategic depth
• Define overall gameplay feel, pacing, readability, and player feedback
• Collaborate with design leadership to integrate blockers and mechanics into level progression
• Partner with Product Managers and Data Scientists to analyse player behavior and tune difficulty and engagement
• Prototype and develop new gameplay mechanics to expand the design space
• Align gameplay systems with broader meta and economy, coordinating with economy designers as needed
• Document and communicate designs clearly to cross-disciplinary teams
• Identify design risks early and work with producers/engineers for smooth delivery
• Stay connected to market insights from puzzle and casual games to spot trends
• Contribute to the studio’s design craft community and share learnings

Key requirements

• Experience on mobile games, especially free-to-play titles
• Strong passion for casual mobile games and meta game design
• Proven experience designing meta systems, progression frameworks, or long-term engagement mechanics
• Understanding of player motivation, progression design, and long-term engagement loops
• Experience designing systems linking gameplay with progression, rewards, and unlocks
• Analytical mindset with ability to interpret player data to guide iteration
• Collaborative experience in multidisciplinary teams balancing creative, technical, and product perspectives
• Strong organizational skills to drive features from concept to delivery
• Clear and effective communication in verbal, visual, and written forms
• Comfort with fast-moving development environments with evolving systems
• Experience with Sorting / Match Pair / Match 3D mechanics (valuable)

• strong collaboration
• analytical thinking
• clear communication
• data-informed iteration
• prototype development
• level design