About the role
Craft
Games Design & Production
Role Overview
You are a systems thinker and creative architect responsible for crafting features that connect the player experience: where progress feels meaningful, social interactions spark joy, and rewards motivate continued play. You will join the Gameplay team in Candy Crush Saga to shape the future of metagame features and systems in one of the most successful live games in the world. You will bring deep systems thinking to the features behind progression, competitive events, and social loops that touch millions of players daily.
Responsibilities
- Design and evolve metagame features and systems, such as progression, competitive events, and social loops, that deepen engagement and reflect a strong understanding of player behavior and motivation.
- Own metagame features, systems, and strategic bets end-to-end, from concept and specification through implementation, live release, and iteration.
- Use quantitative and qualitative data and player insights to inform, balance, and tune features and systems against key metrics.
- Translate strategic goals, KPIs, and player insights into clear, structured, and actionable design documentation, explaining the rationale behind specific values, triggers, and pacing.
- Partner with live ops teams to design and optimize features that maximize the impact of live events and player retention.
- Collaborate deeply with cross-functional teams (product, UX, engineering, data) to deliver high-quality, fun, and impactful experiences.
- Work with fellow designers to ensure metagame features and systems integrate cohesively with core gameplay and the wider game ecosystem.
- Stay informed on F2P trends in monetization and player engagement, and share relevant insights with the team.
- Bring fresh thinking and genre-leading ideas to the Candy Crush metagame, staying ahead of trends in casual F2P design.
Required Skills
- Proven Experience in Live F2P Metagame Design: Hands-on experience designing and running live metagame features and systems (such as progression, achievements, or social mechanics) for casual mobile free-to-play games. Understanding of live content rhythms, player motivation, and retention drivers.
- Feature Ownership & Strategic Delivery: Proven track record of owning or significantly contributing to metagame features or systems that drove long-term engagement in live casual games, from strategic framing through live release and iteration.
- Systems & Economy Thinking: Ability to design and balance interconnected features and systems, progression, rewards, pacing, and player motivation; capability to reason about how a change in one system ripples through the wider economy and player behavior.
- Data-Driven & Insight-Led: Comfortable diving into quantitative and qualitative player data, identifying patterns, and turning insights into meaningful design improvements.
- Player-Centric Mindset: Focused on designing for joy and motivation; excited to test, learn, and iterate based on real player feedback.
- Collaborative & Structured Communicator: Clear communicator who builds alignment across disciplines and helps teams rally behind ideas.
- Craft Leadership & Mentorship: Experience sharing learnings with other designers, mentoring less experienced colleagues, and raising the bar for metagame design across the team.
Bonus Qualifications
- Experience working on match-3, merge, or social mobile games with large, active live playerbases.
- Experience designing progression systems, achievements, seasonal structures, or social gameplay loops at scale.
- Familiarity with economy balancing, live ops systems, or content pipelines.
- Knowledge of match-3 puzzle mechanics and how core gameplay systems (levels, boosters, board mechanics) connect to metagame and live features.
About King
King is a leading interactive entertainment company for the mobile world, part of Microsoft, with more than 20 years of history. The company creates iconic games including the Candy Crush franchise, Farm Heroes Saga, Pet Rescue, and Bubble Witch. With over 200 million monthly active users, King employs people globally across locations including Stockholm, Malmö, London, Barcelona, Berlin, Dublin, San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, and Malta. The company culture is defined by a mission of Making the World Playful, an emphasis on teamwork, and a "Seriously Playful" approach to experimenting, learning, and adapting.