About the role
Give the underlying rules of an adventure a coherent shape. Consider how materials, equipment, companions and preparation affect one another, and how a new layer can be introduced without overwhelming the player. Your work should explain why one option suits a particular journey and what a player gives up by choosing it. Partner with encounter designers, developers and user research to test those relationships. This role concentrates on progression and balance across a journey, with assumptions and trade-offs made visible.
What you will do
- Define crafting, equipment and progression rules with clear inputs, outcomes and understandable trade-offs.
- Build spreadsheet models and small simulations to compare progression paths and expose unstable assumptions.
- Create balancing data with documented units, limits and version history so changes can be reviewed and reproduced.
- Investigate dominant strategies, stalled progression and confusing feedback through focused playtests and representative scenarios.
- Work with interface and gameplay teams to communicate system state and consequences at the moment a decision is made.
What you will bring
- Examples of progression, economy or balancing work that explain both the model and the experience it supports.
- Strong spreadsheet skills and comfort reasoning about probabilities, rates and interacting constraints.
- Experience testing edge cases and revising a model when real behaviour differs from its assumptions.
- The ability to explain numerical decisions in plain language and collaborate with designers who approach problems differently.
What to include in your portfolio
Present one system with a small balancing model, its assumptions and a comparison of two player paths. Describe a failure case you found and how your revision improved the experience. A compact, well-explained example is more useful than a large unexplained data dump.