Game Designer - Cofounder

Location: New York

ABOUT THE ROLE

At General Intelligence https://www.generalintelligencecompany.com/, we’re building highly-capable autonomous agents for startups. Our goal is to enable the one-person, one-billion-dollar company.

Our product, Cofounder https://cofounder.co/, enables entrepreneurs to start and run companies. Using it should feel more like a company-building game where users coordinate agents, unlock roadmap nodes, run missions, build artifacts, grow departments, and make revenue go up.

We’re looking for a game designer to make Cofounder more fun, intuitive, and strategically deep.

This is a game designer role for someone with real strategy game taste. You should be familiar with the grand strategy genre as well as gameplay loops involving the genre. You understand why games like Civilization, Stellaris, Factorio, StarCraft, RimWorld, XCOM, or EVE become addictive: macro loops, micro loops, compounding strategy, progression, complexity, constraints, feedback, and reward.

Your job is to translate those instincts into product.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

- Design gameplay loops for Cofounder: missions, goals, departments, progression, maps, unlocks, rewards, and recurring user actions. Translate these gameplay loops into actual direct product surface for our users.

- Turn “run your company” into clear, intuitive game mechanics users understand.

- Build compounding strategy into the product: decisions should matter, systems should interact, and progress should create new options.

- Make agent workflows feel fun, fast, and rewarding instead of abstract or confusing.

- Work with design and engineering to spec, ship, measure, and improve gameplay-driven product experiences.

- Study user behavior to optimize and identify loops.

- Push Cofounder toward the feeling of a great strategy game while keeping it useful for real companies.

WHO YOU ARE

- You have 5+ years of experience in game design, game systems design, or gameplay design.

- You have worked in the gaming industry, ideally on strategy games, simulation games, live-service games, management games, MMOs, RPGs, or other systems-heavy products.

- You have shipped player-facing gameplay systems, not just managed tasks or roadmaps.

- You deeply understand strategy games: macro loops, micro loops, progression, pacing, compounding systems, tutorials, rewards, and retention.

- You know how to balance fun, clarity, pacing, and utility.

- You care about product quality and craft.

- You are high agency.

- You have aura. If you don’t know what this means, it’s not a fit.

HOW WE WORK

In-person only in New York. You’ll be in the room with founders daily. Relocation assistance is available.

High agency. We hire smart people and get out of their way.

Outcomes over inputs. You’re measured on what ships and what gets better.

Direct feedback. You’ll hear what’s working and what’s not; same applies in reverse.

Ship fast, iterate daily. Taste matters, but perfection is the enemy of progress.

WHAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT GENERAL INTELLIGENCE?

Real leverage. You will have a legitimately unlimited token budget for AI tools.

No bureaucracy. You’ll be frustrated by red tape everywhere else after working here.

Small, elite team. You work directly with founders and engineers building agents.

Craft matters. Speed is key, but sloppiness isn’t tolerated.

Responsibilities

Design gameplay loops for Cofounder: missions, goals, departments, progression, maps, unlocks, rewards, and recurring user actions; Translate these gameplay loops into actual direct product surface for our users; Turn 'run your company' into clear, intuitive game mechanics users understand; Build compounding strategy into the product: decisions should matter, systems should interact, and progress should create new options; Make agent workflows feel fun, fast, and rewarding instead of abstract or confusing; Work with design and engineering to spec, ship, measure, and improve gameplay-driven product experiences; Study user behavior to optimize and identify loops; Push Cofounder toward the feeling of a great strategy game while keeping it useful for real companies

Requirements

5+ years of experience in game design, game systems design, or gameplay design; Worked in the gaming industry; Shipped player-facing gameplay systems, not just managed tasks or roadmaps; Deeply understand strategy games: macro loops, micro loops, progression, pacing, compounding systems, tutorials, rewards, and retention; Know how to balance fun, clarity, pacing, and utility; Care about product quality and craft; High agency; Have aura; Familiar with the grand strategy genre and gameplay loops involving the genre

Nice to have

Experience with strategy games, simulation games, live-service games, management games, MMOs, RPGs, or other systems-heavy products

Benefits

Relocation assistance; Unlimited token budget for AI tools; No bureaucracy; Small, elite team; Work directly with founders and engineers building agents