Senior Game Designer Jobs in USA with Visa Sponsorship
Senior Game Designer roles attract H-1B and O-1 visa sponsorship from major studios and publishers across the U.S. The specialty occupation requirement is well-established for this title, and experienced candidates with a portfolio of shipped titles are strong sponsorship candidates. 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 Senior Game Designer
Lead with shipped titles, not job duties
Sponsorship decisions hinge on your production track record. List every commercially released game you contributed to, your specific design ownership, and team size. Studios need evidence of real-world impact to justify the visa petition.
Quantify your design contributions
Vague credits won't move the needle. Specify the systems you owned, player engagement metrics you influenced, and how your design decisions shaped the final product. Concrete outcomes make the LCA and petition far stronger.
Target studios with active H-1B filing history
Not every studio sponsors visas with equal frequency. Focus on publishers and mid-to-large studios with a documented pattern of H-1B filings, which signals an established immigration infrastructure and legal team ready to process petitions.
Prepare your degree equivalency documentation early
Game design degrees are relatively recent. If your degree is in a adjacent field like computer science or fine arts, prepare a credential evaluation and a detailed course-by-course analysis before applications begin to avoid delays.
Portfolio and petition should tell the same story
The specialty occupation argument for your H-1B relies on your portfolio matching the job description. Ensure your design portfolio directly reflects the systems and genres listed in the role to avoid inconsistencies USCIS may flag.
Consider O-1A if you have industry recognition
Award nominations, GDC speaking credits, published design postmortems, or press coverage of your work can support an O-1A petition. This bypasses the H-1B lottery entirely and is worth exploring with an immigration attorney beforehand.
Senior Game Designer jobs are hiring across the US. Find yours.
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Get Access To All JobsFrequently Asked Questions
Is Senior Game Designer a qualifying specialty occupation for H-1B sponsorship?
Yes, Senior Game Designer generally qualifies as a specialty occupation because the role requires at minimum a bachelor's degree in game design, computer science, interactive media, or a closely related field. USCIS evaluates whether the specific duties require theoretical and practical application of specialized knowledge. Senior-level roles with clear design system ownership and degree requirements in the job posting are well-positioned, though a well-documented petition is still essential.
What degree do I need for a sponsored Senior Game Designer role?
Most sponsoring studios require a bachelor's degree in game design, interactive media, computer science, or fine arts with a concentration in digital media. If your degree is in an adjacent field, USCIS allows three years of qualifying work experience to substitute for each year of missing education. A credential evaluation is recommended if your degree was earned outside the United States, particularly for three-year international programs.
How competitive is the H-1B lottery for game design professionals?
The H-1B lottery selects roughly 25 percent of registrations in a given year, so odds are not favorable regardless of field. Studios that have petitioned for game designers before are more likely to file promptly and correctly, which matters if you're selected. Candidates with an advanced U.S. master's degree enter a separate allocation with better odds. The O-1A visa is a meaningful alternative if your credits include awards, media coverage, or conference presentations.
Do studios typically sponsor Senior Game Designers for green cards?
Larger publishers and well-funded studios do sponsor green cards for senior design talent, typically through the EB-2 or EB-3 employment-based categories via PERM labor certification. The timeline from H-1B approval to green card varies significantly based on your country of birth, with Indian and Chinese nationals facing multi-year backlogs. Smaller indie studios are less likely to offer this, so it's worth asking directly before accepting an offer.
Where can I find Senior Game Designer jobs that offer visa sponsorship?
Migrate Mate is built specifically for this search. Unlike general job boards, Migrate Mate filters for roles where employers have confirmed sponsorship willingness, so you're not cold-applying to postings that quietly exclude visa candidates. Browse Senior Game Designer listings on Migrate Mate to identify studios actively hiring internationally and filter by the visa types relevant to your situation.
What is the prevailing wage requirement for sponsored Senior 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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