Game Designer Jobs in USA with Visa Sponsorship
Game designer roles are among the more visa-friendly positions in tech and entertainment. Studios regularly sponsor H-1B and O-1 visas for candidates with a qualifying degree in game design, computer science, or a related field, and the specialty occupation standard is well-established for this role. For detailed occupation requirements, see the O*NET profile.
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Get Access To All JobsLocation
Los Angeles Office
Employment Type
Full time
Location Type
On-site
Department
Game Design & Production
Overview
Application
We need a game designer who actually plays casual F2P mobile games, not someone who tolerates them, but someone who genuinely loves them. You'll design new mechanics and improve existing ones for Good Pizza, Great Pizza (300M+ downloads) and latest title Good Coffee, Great Coffee. You'll work on game economy, progression balance, and feature design while keeping two things in constant tension: what's best for our players and what's sustainable for our business. If you've ever rage-quit a casual game because an update nerfed something you loved, or stopped playing because the economy felt like a trap, that is good. We want someone who designs with players, not against them.
About TapBlaze
Our mission is to create memorable entertainment experiences for players around the world. Our vision is to become one of the world's leading entertainment companies. As a self-funded, independent studio, we only answer to our players - not investors, not publishers. Good Pizza, Great Pizza has been downloaded more than 300 million times, and we did it with a small, focused team.
Our core values drive everything we do:
- We are ambitious. We aim to build games that are remembered for decades.
- We are disciplined. We make deliberate, well-reasoned decisions.
- We are ownership-minded. If it's your area, you own it, the wins and the problems.
- We are results oriented. We measure success by what ships and what players experience.
- We are extra-ordinary. We hold ourselves to a higher standard than the industry expects of a studio our size.
We are seeking individuals that share these values and are looking to level up themselves, the games they work on, and the company they work for. Only with great attention to details can this be achieved. Please include the phrase "beauty is in the details" in your cover letter.
Design New Game Mechanics & Features
- Concept, prototype, and iterate on new gameplay mechanics for Good Pizza, Great Pizza and Good Coffee, Great Coffee with an emphasis on casual, cozy, and narrative-driven experiences.
- Design LiveOps events, seasonal content, and limited-time features that drive engagement without burning out our player base.
- Create wireframes, design documents, and prototypes that communicate your intent clearly to engineering and art.
Game Economy & Balance
- Design and maintain in-game economies (currencies, pricing, upgrade costs, cooldowns, sink/source balance) with a long-term, sustainable mindset.
- Model the downstream effects of economy decisions. If you make something free or cheap today, what does that mean for monetization six months from now?
- Set up progression curves, upgrade cost scaling, and cooldown systems that feel fair to players while preserving room for meaningful monetization.
- Regularly audit existing economy systems and propose rebalancing when something is off with a clear plan for how changes affect current players.
Improve Existing Designs Without Alienating Players
- When improving or rebalancing existing features, think carefully about what players are already accustomed to. Changes that take away things players rely on require extra care, communication framing, and often compensating value elsewhere.
- Use player feedback, reviews, community sentiment, and analytics data to understand how players actually experience your designs not just how you intended them to work.
- Identify design debt (overly generous rewards, unsustainable economies, features that don't scale) and create migration plans that respect the player relationship.
Research & Player Empathy
- Play and deeply analyze casual games across genres, Match-3, Time Management, Simulation, Indie, Cozy, Narrative on an ongoing basis.
- Develop a strong mental model of TapBlaze's player base: who they are, what they value, what frustrates them, and what makes them engaged with our games.
- Conduct market research and competitive analysis, translating insights into actionable feature recommendations.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams (engineering, art, QA, marketing) to ensure designs are player-centric and technically feasible.
Who You Are
- 3+ years of experience designing casual F2P mobile games. Casual mobile specifically.
- At least one shipped casual mobile game currently live on the App Store or Google Play that you had significant design ownership over.
- You actively play casual F2P mobile games in your personal time. You can talk at length about what's working and what's broken in games like Merge Mansion, Royal Match, Hay Day, Stardew Valley mobile, and similar titles. Do not apply if you don't regularly play casual F2P games.
- Proven experience with game economy design. Sink/source modeling, currency systems, upgrade cost curves, cooldown tuning, and understanding how all of those interact over a player's lifetime.
- Strong player empathy. You can articulate how a design decision will feel from the player's perspective, not just how it looks on a spreadsheet. You understand the psychology of casual, cozy, and narrative-driven game players.
- Long-term systems thinking. You consider the 6-month and 12-month consequences of your designs, especially around monetization headroom and economy sustainability.
- Clear design documentation skills. Wireframes, GDDs, flowcharts, economy models that other team members can execute from.
- Bachelor's degree in Game Design, Mathematics, Economics, Psychology, or related field (Master's preferred).
- Great attention to details - you read the full job description.
Strong Pluses:
- Experience with UI/UX design or strong opinions about how interface design affects player behavior and comprehension.
- Experience with data analytics tools; you can look at retention curves, conversion funnels, and ARPDAU data and know what it means for your designs.
- Coding or prototyping experience - (Unity, Claude, spreadsheets with formulas, scripting) enough to model and test your own ideas before handing off to engineering.
- Experience designing for narrative-driven or cozy game genres specifically.
- Familiarity with A/B testing and LiveOps in a live mobile game environment.
Location & Work Environment
- Los Angeles, CA: Reliably commute or planning to relocate before starting work;
- Prolonged period of time sitting at a desk and computer.
Compensation
The salary range for this role is $75,000 to $100,000 per year depending on experience.
Commitment to Diversity
As an equal opportunity employer committed to meeting the needs of a multigenerational and multicultural workforce TAPBLAZE recognizes that a diverse staff, reflective of our community, is an integral and welcome part of a successful and ethical business. We hire local talent at all levels regardless of race, color, religion, age, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability, and actively foster inclusion in all forms both within our company and across interactions with vendors and partners.
If this position caught your eye, send us your resume! For best consideration, include a cover letter in your application explaining why you would be a great fit.
Should you have any questions or encounter any fraudulent requests/emails/websites, please immediately contact careers@tapblaze.com. Our job applicant privacy policies are available here: California Privacy Notice
Location
Los Angeles Office
Employment Type
Full time
Location Type
On-site
Department
Game Design & Production
Overview
Application
We need a game designer who actually plays casual F2P mobile games, not someone who tolerates them, but someone who genuinely loves them. You'll design new mechanics and improve existing ones for Good Pizza, Great Pizza (300M+ downloads) and latest title Good Coffee, Great Coffee. You'll work on game economy, progression balance, and feature design while keeping two things in constant tension: what's best for our players and what's sustainable for our business. If you've ever rage-quit a casual game because an update nerfed something you loved, or stopped playing because the economy felt like a trap, that is good. We want someone who designs with players, not against them.
About TapBlaze
Our mission is to create memorable entertainment experiences for players around the world. Our vision is to become one of the world's leading entertainment companies. As a self-funded, independent studio, we only answer to our players - not investors, not publishers. Good Pizza, Great Pizza has been downloaded more than 300 million times, and we did it with a small, focused team.
Our core values drive everything we do:
- We are ambitious. We aim to build games that are remembered for decades.
- We are disciplined. We make deliberate, well-reasoned decisions.
- We are ownership-minded. If it's your area, you own it, the wins and the problems.
- We are results oriented. We measure success by what ships and what players experience.
- We are extra-ordinary. We hold ourselves to a higher standard than the industry expects of a studio our size.
We are seeking individuals that share these values and are looking to level up themselves, the games they work on, and the company they work for. Only with great attention to details can this be achieved. Please include the phrase "beauty is in the details" in your cover letter.
Design New Game Mechanics & Features
- Concept, prototype, and iterate on new gameplay mechanics for Good Pizza, Great Pizza and Good Coffee, Great Coffee with an emphasis on casual, cozy, and narrative-driven experiences.
- Design LiveOps events, seasonal content, and limited-time features that drive engagement without burning out our player base.
- Create wireframes, design documents, and prototypes that communicate your intent clearly to engineering and art.
Game Economy & Balance
- Design and maintain in-game economies (currencies, pricing, upgrade costs, cooldowns, sink/source balance) with a long-term, sustainable mindset.
- Model the downstream effects of economy decisions. If you make something free or cheap today, what does that mean for monetization six months from now?
- Set up progression curves, upgrade cost scaling, and cooldown systems that feel fair to players while preserving room for meaningful monetization.
- Regularly audit existing economy systems and propose rebalancing when something is off with a clear plan for how changes affect current players.
Improve Existing Designs Without Alienating Players
- When improving or rebalancing existing features, think carefully about what players are already accustomed to. Changes that take away things players rely on require extra care, communication framing, and often compensating value elsewhere.
- Use player feedback, reviews, community sentiment, and analytics data to understand how players actually experience your designs not just how you intended them to work.
- Identify design debt (overly generous rewards, unsustainable economies, features that don't scale) and create migration plans that respect the player relationship.
Research & Player Empathy
- Play and deeply analyze casual games across genres, Match-3, Time Management, Simulation, Indie, Cozy, Narrative on an ongoing basis.
- Develop a strong mental model of TapBlaze's player base: who they are, what they value, what frustrates them, and what makes them engaged with our games.
- Conduct market research and competitive analysis, translating insights into actionable feature recommendations.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams (engineering, art, QA, marketing) to ensure designs are player-centric and technically feasible.
Who You Are
- 3+ years of experience designing casual F2P mobile games. Casual mobile specifically.
- At least one shipped casual mobile game currently live on the App Store or Google Play that you had significant design ownership over.
- You actively play casual F2P mobile games in your personal time. You can talk at length about what's working and what's broken in games like Merge Mansion, Royal Match, Hay Day, Stardew Valley mobile, and similar titles. Do not apply if you don't regularly play casual F2P games.
- Proven experience with game economy design. Sink/source modeling, currency systems, upgrade cost curves, cooldown tuning, and understanding how all of those interact over a player's lifetime.
- Strong player empathy. You can articulate how a design decision will feel from the player's perspective, not just how it looks on a spreadsheet. You understand the psychology of casual, cozy, and narrative-driven game players.
- Long-term systems thinking. You consider the 6-month and 12-month consequences of your designs, especially around monetization headroom and economy sustainability.
- Clear design documentation skills. Wireframes, GDDs, flowcharts, economy models that other team members can execute from.
- Bachelor's degree in Game Design, Mathematics, Economics, Psychology, or related field (Master's preferred).
- Great attention to details - you read the full job description.
Strong Pluses:
- Experience with UI/UX design or strong opinions about how interface design affects player behavior and comprehension.
- Experience with data analytics tools; you can look at retention curves, conversion funnels, and ARPDAU data and know what it means for your designs.
- Coding or prototyping experience - (Unity, Claude, spreadsheets with formulas, scripting) enough to model and test your own ideas before handing off to engineering.
- Experience designing for narrative-driven or cozy game genres specifically.
- Familiarity with A/B testing and LiveOps in a live mobile game environment.
Location & Work Environment
- Los Angeles, CA: Reliably commute or planning to relocate before starting work;
- Prolonged period of time sitting at a desk and computer.
Compensation
The salary range for this role is $75,000 to $100,000 per year depending on experience.
Commitment to Diversity
As an equal opportunity employer committed to meeting the needs of a multigenerational and multicultural workforce TAPBLAZE recognizes that a diverse staff, reflective of our community, is an integral and welcome part of a successful and ethical business. We hire local talent at all levels regardless of race, color, religion, age, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability, and actively foster inclusion in all forms both within our company and across interactions with vendors and partners.
If this position caught your eye, send us your resume! For best consideration, include a cover letter in your application explaining why you would be a great fit.
Should you have any questions or encounter any fraudulent requests/emails/websites, please immediately contact careers@tapblaze.com. Our job applicant privacy policies are available here: California Privacy Notice
How to Get Visa Sponsorship as a Game Designer
Lead with your portfolio, not your resume
Immigration attorneys advise that strong portfolios significantly support H-1B specialty occupation arguments. Ship titles, shipped prototypes, or published work demonstrate professional-level design judgment that a resume alone cannot convey to a hiring team or USCIS officer.
Target mid-size and large studios first
Studios with established HR and legal infrastructure sponsor visas far more consistently than indie teams. Companies that have filed LCAs before have the process down and are far less likely to withdraw an offer when sponsorship paperwork becomes real.
Understand how your degree maps to the role
H-1B approval for game designers hinges on demonstrating specialty occupation. A degree in game design, computer science, or interactive media aligns most cleanly. Unrelated degrees require stronger evidence tying your education to the specific design disciplines the job demands.
Consider the O-1A if your work is recognized
Game designers with shipped AAA titles, industry awards, conference speaking credits, or published design work may qualify for the O-1A extraordinary ability visa. It bypasses the lottery entirely and has no annual cap, making it worth exploring with an attorney.
Clarify sponsorship early in the interview process
Bring up visa requirements before the offer stage. Studios that have never sponsored before are not necessarily unwilling, but they need lead time. Surfacing it early prevents offers from collapsing at the final step when legal and HR are caught off guard.
Use Migrate Mate to find studios actively sponsoring
Not every game studio lists sponsorship willingness publicly. Migrate Mate filters job listings specifically for roles open to visa sponsorship, saving significant research time when you are narrowing down which studios are worth approaching with your application.
Game Designer jobs are hiring across the US. Find yours.
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Get Access To All JobsFrequently Asked Questions
Does game designer qualify as a specialty occupation for the H-1B?
Yes, game designer generally qualifies as a specialty occupation when the role requires a bachelor's degree or higher in game design, computer science, interactive media, or a closely related field. USCIS looks at whether the position theoretically and practically requires that specific degree. Roles involving systems design, level design, or narrative design with clear degree-to-job alignment have a strong foundation for approval.
What degree do I need to get sponsored as a game designer?
A bachelor's degree in game design, computer science, digital arts, or interactive media is the most straightforward path. Degrees in unrelated fields can still work if you can demonstrate through coursework, certifications, or progressive work experience that your education directly prepared you for the design role. Three years of relevant work experience can substitute for one year of formal education under USCIS equivalency rules.
Which visa types do game studios typically use to sponsor designers?
The H-1B is the most common route for game designers at established studios. The O-1A is increasingly used for senior designers with verifiable industry recognition, such as shipped titles with significant commercial or critical reception, awards, or conference presentations. Some Canadian and Australian designers also have access to the TN or E-3 visas respectively, which are faster and simpler alternatives to the H-1B.
How competitive is H-1B sponsorship for game designers compared to software engineers?
Game designers face the same 85,000-slot annual cap and lottery as software engineers, but the specialty occupation argument can require more documentation because the degree requirement is less uniformly established than in pure software roles. Strong portfolios and clear degree-to-role alignment improve petition strength. Designers at cap-exempt employers, such as certain university-affiliated studios or nonprofits, avoid the lottery entirely.
Where can I find game design jobs that offer visa sponsorship?
Most general job boards do not filter by sponsorship availability, which makes the search inefficient. Migrate Mate is built specifically for candidates who need sponsorship, with listings filtered to show roles at studios open to visa support. Browsing by role on Migrate Mate saves time compared to applying broadly and discovering sponsorship limitations late in the process.
What is the prevailing wage requirement for sponsored Game Designer jobs?
U.S. employers sponsoring a visa must pay at least the prevailing wage, which is what workers in the same role, area, and experience level typically earn. The Department of Labor sets this rate to make sure companies aren't hiring foreign workers simply because they'd accept lower pay than a U.S. worker. It varies by job title, location, and experience. You can look up current prevailing wage rates for any occupation and location using the OFLC Wage Search page.
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