Senior Roblox Game Designer

Sawhorse Productions is a Los Angeles based, Award winning full-service creative studio turning ideas into unforgettable experiences through captivating branded content, viral social moments, and groundbreaking interactive experiences. We partner with industry-leading brands, artists, and studios such as Walmart, Google, NBCUniversal, Fanatics, Toyota, Pepsi and Alo to deliver industry-leading, innovative multi-platform content. At Sawhorse, we believe in fostering a culture of collaboration, creativity, and relentless excellence while shaping the future of digital storytelling.

Our releases include: [Roblox, Fortnite, Rec Room, ZEPETO]

• Roblox: Walmart Discovered - 2024 ADDY Winner
• Roblox: Fenty - 2024 Webby winner
• Roblox: Alo Sanctuary
• Roblox: Beetlejuice Escape the Afterlife
• Roblox: Lamborghini Lanzador Lab - 2024 Telly Winner
• Roblox: Elton John’s 'Beyond The Yellow Brick Road'
• Roblox: Olivia Rodrigo 
• Roblox: Fashion Klossette
• Gen AI applet: Coca - Cola Cappy
• And numerous digital fashion releases on UGC Gaming platforms - Sawhorse Productions

Sawhorse Interactive is searching for a driven and experienced Senior Roblox Game Designer to help us build best-in-class UGC games and interactive experiences. This role is central to defining creative vision, creating gameplay systems, designing monetization strategies, and streamlining workflows — with the ultimate goal of producing top 100 monetizing games on platforms like Roblox.

You’ll take ownership of game design from concept through live ops, building systems that maximize retention, engagement, and revenue. You'll collaborate cross-functionally across development, art, production, and strategy, and play a critical leadership role in mentoring a growing team.

This is a freelance role to start (6 months), with potential for longer-term or full-time opportunities.

• Creative Vision Leadership: Define and champion game creative visions, core loops, and features to deliver compelling, rewarding, and highly monetizable player experiences.
• Gameplay Systems Design: Build replayable gameplay systems with a focus on player engagement, mastery, live events, and progression.
• Monetization Systems Design: Design, build, and optimize monetization systems (gacha mechanics, cosmetic-driven economies, battle passes, etc.) focused on maximizing LTV while maintaining player trust and satisfaction.
• Live Ops Development: Architect live ops systems including timed events, regular content drops, and player-driven progression mechanics to maximize engagement and revenue over time.
• Documentation and Planning: Translate high-level creative concepts into clear, detailed design documentation and pipelines that support scalable execution.
• Workflow and Process Building: Create internal workflows, templates, and processes to standardize and streamline game design and live ops planning across projects.
• Player Behavior Expertise: Apply deep understanding of player psychology to design experiences that foster retention, emotional investment, and monetization without diminishing gameplay enjoyment.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with art, engineering, production, and strategy teams to ensure cohesive, successful execution of the design vision.
• Leadership and Mentorship: Guide and mentor a small but growing design team, with the ability to scale workflows as the department expands.
• Analytics-Driven Iteration: Collaborate with analytics and strategy teams to tune gameplay and monetization systems based on data insights and player feedback.

Qualifications

A strong candidate for this position should have the following qualities:

• Full-Cycle Game Design Experience: 5+ years designing games from concept through live operations, ideally in UGC, mobile, or cross-platform environments.
• Gameplay and Monetization Expertise: Deep expertise in gameplay system design, economy design, and monetization strategy with a portfolio demonstrating successful projects.
• Live Ops Mastery: Proven experience building, operating, and optimizing live service games that maintain and grow player bases over time.
• Player Behavior Insight: Expertise in player segmentation, motivation frameworks, and behavioral design principles to craft sticky, satisfying player journeys.
• Leadership and Workflow Development: Ability to define team workflows, set up scalable processes, and mentor junior or mid-level designers.
• Top-Performing Games Experience: Prior experience working on or contributing to games that ranked among the top 100 in monetization is highly preferred.
• Roblox Platform Knowledge: Strong working knowledge of Roblox development pipelines and monetization systems is a major plus.
• Mobile Crossover Knowledge: Experience designing for mobile games, including gacha, progression, and live event systems is highly desirable.
• Self-Starter Mentality: Highly proactive, organized, detail-oriented, and driven to push projects forward with minimal supervision.

Nice to Have's

• Roblox Tower Defense Expertise: Direct experience designing, tuning, or operating tower defense games on Roblox.
• Gacha System Specialization: Deep familiarity with designing and monetizing dress-up, collection, and cosmetic-driven economies.
• Cross-Platform Development: Experience building UGC content that spans across Roblox, Fortnite Creative, or mobile platforms.
• Mentorship and Team Leadership: Prior experience mentoring associate or junior designers in a scaling studio environment.

$60 – $70 per hour (Equivalent to full time salary of $130,000 - $145,000)