Principal Game Developer
TLDR
Shape innovative games at Exploding Kittens, making final development decisions and mentoring a team to elevate gameplay enjoyment and audience engagement.
Serve as gameplay authority - making final calls on mechanics, balance, and player experience.
Refine games to ensure strong audience fit across family, adult, and kids categories.
Lead playtesting process and analyze and synthesize playtest footage into clear development direction.
Creatively solve complex gameplay challenges, always keeping the player top of mind.
Evaluate inventor submissions and contribute to greenlight and portfolio decisions.
Write and/or refine instruction manuals to ensure clarity, accessibility, and brand/tone alignment.
Mentor designers and developers, implementing and raising product standards and best practices across the team.
Collaborate cross-functionally with the rest of Creative Operations, Production & Sourcing, and key stakeholders to bring outstanding, innovative, and disruptive games to shelf.
10+ years of tabletop game design/development experience or equivalent expertise.
Proven track record of developing successful and commercially viable mass retail party games.
Deep understanding of mass retail party games, game mechanics, player psychology, rules balance, and replayability.
Extensive experience running, observing, and analyzing playtests.
Strong ability to diagnose gameplay issues and implement effective solutions.
Excellent writing and editing skills, especially for rules, instruction manuals, and “how to play” videos.
Demonstrated ability to mentor and elevate other designers.
Exceptional taste, strong judgment, and a sustained focus on the audience experience.
Exploding Kittens is a game and entertainment company dedicated to creating engaging and humorous games that bring people together for unforgettable fun. It primarily caters to gamers looking for unique, laughter-filled experiences and has captured their attention with its massively popular card games and mobile apps. What sets Exploding Kittens apart is its ability to blend traditional gaming with innovative formats, including an animated Netflix series, making game night more entertaining than ever.