Music Game Design Lead

About Kluge

Kluge Interactive is an immersive game studio building the future of human connection through enhanced, interactive experiences. We’re best known for Synth Riders, one of the most popular rhythm games in VR—and we’re now expanding the franchise across VR, AR, and Nintendo Switch, with ambitions for even more platforms and devices.

The Role

We’re hiring a Lead Game Designer to lead game design for Synth Riders. You’ll collaborate closely with our Creative Director, who has historically led design on the title, to define, evolve, and ship features across multiple platforms, with a special focus on retention and progression systems.

You’ll work hands-on to conceptualize, prototype, tune, and document systems; partnering cross-functionally with producers, choreographers/mappers, engineers, and QA, who have all historically been a part of the game design process.

This role reports to the Synth Riders Producer, operates with a high degree of autonomy, works directly with executive leadership (CEO, COO, Creative Director), and is expected to mentor, and eventually manage, additional game designers as the team grows.

Minimum Requirements

• 5+ years of professional game design experience with shipped titles
• Must-have: hands-on experience designing music rhythm games
• Strength in systems design (progression, rewards/economies, difficulty curves, challenges, goals) and data-informed iteration
• Experience building multi-platform features (ideally including VR/AR and console/handheld) and adapting designs to different inputs, performance budgets, and comfort/accessibility needs
• Excellent communication and documentation skills; thrives in cross-disciplinary, remote collaboration
• High ownership and follow-through; able to lead through influence and ship quality features end-to-end

Desired Requirements

• Unity experience and awareness of performance constraints for VR and Switch-class hardware
• Strong prototyping ability (greyboxing, tuning, basic scripting) and comfort working directly in-engine
• Background with live-ops/GaaS (telemetry, KPIs, A/B tests, seasonal events)
• Familiarity collaborating with beat mappers/choreographers or music-reactive design
• Experience mentoring other designers and establishing team standards

Responsibilities

• Own game design for Synth Riders end-to-end: pillars, systems, specs, and balancing across VR, AR, Nintendo Switch, and future platforms
• Design retention & progression: meta loops, challenges, rewards, personalization, onboarding, and live-ops hooks
• Collaborate cross-functionally with Creative Director, choreographers/mappers, producers, engineers, QA, art, and audio to scope, build, and ship features
• Use data + playtests to validate hypotheses, define success metrics, and protect “feel” and musicality while optimizing engagement
• Document clearly (design specs, flows, tuning guides, content briefs) to unblock teams and scale delivery
• Champion accessibility & comfort best practices across all platforms
• Mentor peers now and manage junior designers as the team expands
• Potentially support other music rhythm projects at Kluge

Benefits

• Full-time role with competitive compensation based on experience
• Fully remote with flexible hours and strong autonomy
• A creative, supportive environment with a diverse, highly experienced team
• Clear growth path to build and lead a larger design team