Resume template · Updated October 2026
Game designer resume template
Short answer
Daniel suits a game designer: skills print before experience in a three-column grid, so design specialties and engine tools show first, and its grey heading pills give a softer look than a page of rules. The fictional sample designs progression, economy and weapon balance for a free-to-play multiplayer shooter, after nearly three years scripting levels for a story-driven puzzle game, with a portfolio link and shipped titles.
Download the game designer sample
Ava is a fictional game designer. Replace every detail with your own before you send it.
The files are made in your browser by Resumity's own exporters, from this sample. The builder opens it as your own resume: click any line to replace it. Free plan, no watermark.
Why Daniel suits a game designer resume
Daniel prints skills ahead of work experience in an unlabelled three-column grid: design specialties in the first column, engines and tuning tools in the second, collaboration strengths in the third. The rounded grey heading pills make the page feel designed without colour, which suits a role where the reader is judging your taste as well as your history.
Second choice: Catalyst. Catalyst opens on your current studio with no summary; choose it once your shipped titles and studio names are the strongest part of the application.
What goes in each section, in Daniel's order
Daniel prints its sections in a fixed order, the same in the PDF and the Word file. Here is that order for this sample, and what to put in each section.
- Professional Summary. Your design specialty (systems, economy, combat, level, narrative, UX), the genres and business models you know (premium, free-to-play, live service) and one result with a player number behind it.
- Skills. First column: what you design (economy, combat tuning, level blockouts, quests). Second: engines and tools you work in yourself (Unreal Blueprints, Unity, spreadsheets, Machinations). Third: how you work with others (playtest facilitation, writing specs).
- Work Experience. For each feature you owned: the goal, your design, how you tested it and what changed in player behaviour (retention, pick rates, completion, session length). Say whether you wrote the spec, scripted it yourself or both.
- Education. Degree and year; game design, computer science and psychology are all common. A capstone game deserves a line.
- Shipped titles. A "Shipped titles" list with your role on each: designer, level designer, systems designer. Mods and published board or card games count if they had real players.
The sample resume as text
The same content as the files above, so you can copy a line or compare it with your own.
Ava Sorensen
Game Designer, Systems and Economy
Austin, TX | ava.sorensen@example.com | (512) 555-0193 | portfolio.example.com/ava-sorensen | linkedin.com/in/sample-ava-sorensen
Game designer with six years in systems, economy and level design. Owns progression and weapon balance for a free-to-play multiplayer shooter with about 400,000 monthly players and runs its weekly playtests. Earlier designed and scripted levels for a story-driven puzzle adventure.
Experience
Systems Designer, Bluebonnet Interactive, Austin, TX (04/2022 to Present)
- Design progression and the in-game economy for a free-to-play multiplayer shooter with about 400,000 monthly players.
- Rebalanced 40 weapons using telemetry; weapons in common use rose from 5 to 14 and no single weapon passed a 15% pick rate.
- Wrote specs for three seasonal events with engineering, art and live operations, each shipped on schedule.
- Run weekly playtests with 20 to 40 players and turn the findings into tuning changes.
- Built data tables in Unreal Engine so designers can tune rewards without engineering help.
Level Designer, Copper Kettle Games, Austin, TX (07/2019 to 03/2022)
- Designed and scripted six levels in Unity for a story-driven puzzle adventure, from paper maps to final layout.
- Blocked out spaces in ProBuilder and iterated with environment artists on landmarks and lighting.
- Cut the hardest puzzle's quit rate by about half after watching 30 playtest recordings.
Shipped titles
- Breakline (PC, consoles): systems designer, 2023 to present
- The Lamplighter's Key (PC, Switch): level designer, 2021
Education
BS, Game Design and Development, Hill Country Technical University (05/2019)
Skills
Systems and economy design, Combat and weapon tuning, Level design and blockouts, Design documentation, Telemetry analysis, Unreal Engine 5 Blueprints, Unity, Google Sheets, Machinations, Jira, Running playtests, Writing clear specs for engineers
How to make the sample yours
Choose a specialty for the headline
Studios hire level designers, systems designers and economy designers for different reasons. Name yours, even if you have done a bit of everything.
Back balance changes with data
Pick rates, win rates, completion and drop-off points: say which telemetry you used and what moved after the change.
Show you can build, not just write
One bullet on prototypes or scripting you did yourself (Blueprints, Lua, C#) answers the question every lead asks a designer.
Link a portfolio with breakdowns
For each project: the design problem, a video or playable build and two or three images of documents, maps or tuning sheets.
Keep monetization honest
If you designed economies, describe player outcomes alongside revenue, and leave out confidential financials.
Keywords to keep where they are true
Terms this kind of resume is usually searched for. Use the posting's exact wording, and only for work you have done.
- game design
- systems design
- level design
- game economy
- combat tuning
- game balance
- playtesting
- design documentation
- Unreal Engine Blueprints
- Unity
- telemetry analysis
- live operations
- player progression
- prototyping
Mistakes to avoid
- A story pitch or game idea in place of shipped or tested work.
- Calling yourself a designer on a project where you only wrote ideas down.
- Balance claims with no data or playtest evidence.
- Portfolio links that require a login or a download to view.
How the sample PDF reads in text extractors
We exported this sample with Resumity's PDF exporter in Chrome on 2026-10-29 and read the file back with three open-source text extractors. This shows whether software that turns a PDF into text can recover it; it is not a test of any commercial applicant tracking system. How we test templates.
| Extractor | Name, email, phone | Headings | Bullets intact |
|---|---|---|---|
| pdf.js 4.10.38 | All found | 5 of 5 | 8 of 8 |
| pdftotext (Xpdf) 4.00 | All found | 5 of 5 | 8 of 8 |
| pypdf 6.13.0 | All found | 5 of 5 | 8 of 8 |
Frequently asked questions
What should a game designer portfolio include?
Three or four projects with the design problem, your solution, a video or build and evidence from testing. One-page design documents and level maps are worth showing; long pitch decks are not.
How do I become a game designer with no studio experience?
Make and finish small games, mods or tabletop designs, test them with real players and document what changed. Put them in the custom list as shipped work if people played them.
Should a game designer list programming skills?
Yes, at the level you really use them. Scripting in Blueprints, Lua or C# lets you prototype alone, which leads value.
How is a level designer resume different from a systems designer resume?
Level designers show spaces, pacing, blockouts and encounter design; systems designers show rules, tuning and economies. Keep the template, change the first skills column and the bullets.
How long should a game designer resume be?
One page, with the portfolio doing the detailed work.
Will applicant tracking systems read this Daniel PDF?
The sample PDF read back with its contact details, all 5 section headings and all 8 bullets intact in three open-source text extractors (pdf.js, pdftotext and pypdf). Commercial systems such as Workday, Greenhouse or Taleo were not tested, and each employer configures its own.
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