Game Economist

RealPlay is a fast-growing Tel Aviv startup in the gaming industry. At the heart of how we operate is a fascination with what moves people, and the craft of creating experiences that do. That's where you come in. As a Game Economist, your medium is numbers that become feelings. You set prices, odds, rewards and pacing; players experience anticipation, the rush of a long shot landing, the pride of a goal reached on their own terms. It's the work of an empath with a system. You imagine the experience from the player's side, then model the economy that produces it. The theory underneath is behavioral economics (in its broad sense): how people actually experience reward, risk and progress. The aim is an experience that's exciting in the moment and meaningful over time. In this role, you will: Shape the rhythm of the player experience: anticipation, reward and progress. Set the terms of exchange: what things are worth, what they cost, and how value flows between players and the game. Author the economy's logic: one coherent intent that every part of the system serves. Prototype before you ship: model, simulate and playtest your designs. Close the gap between intent and reality: run experiments, read how players actually respond, and refine until the experience matches what you meant. Who You Are You speak from the player's point of view. You explain a design by what it makes people feel, and argue with specific player moments. Asked to add a new currency, your first question is "what's the fantasy here?" You have a feel for economies, and you audit it. You often sense a price is wrong before you can say why. Then you work out why, and keep score on how often your instinct was right. You think in mechanisms. When a number moves, you want the incentive that moved it. You distrust a result you can't explain, and one that explains too much. You hold strong intent loosely. You're committed to the experience, not to your current version of it. When players respond differently than you predicted, you change the design; when a metric looks great and the game feels hollow, you notice. You play the long game. You hold a clear view of where the economy should be in a year, and you defend it against short-term wins that cost more than they return. You're not rigid either: you know which tactical moves serve the strategy, and you make them. Academic research background, especially in economics, psychology and the wider social sciences and humanities. Behavioral economics and psychology, in the broad sense: how people perceive value, price, risk and reward. Applied microeconomics: pricing, elasticity, price discrimination. Modeling dynamic systems, from a spreadsheet to a simulation in Python or similar. Statistics, experimental design and causal inference. Game theory and mechanism design.