Senior Indie Game Developer

About Tecla

Tecla is a recruitment and staffing agency. We work with some of the best technology and gaming companies in the US, connecting them with top talent across Latin America. We handle the contracting, payments, PTO, and the ongoing relationship. You work directly with the client team on the day-to-day.

About the client

A small, ambitious indie game studio that ships PC games on Steam. They've already shipped a Steam title in the roguelike/deckbuilder space and are now focused on a clear strategy: small, sharply-designed games priced at $4.99 or under, including incremental, roguelike, deckbuilder, and small sim, built with a lean team using AI coding tools as a force multiplier.

The first project you'll work on is an incremental mining game with adventurous fantasy lore. Tight, frenetic, arcade-y. Small in scope, big in feel. The full identity of the studio and game is shared once we move into conversation.

What this role actually is

You will be the developer who turns the founder and creative lead's vision into a shipped game. He owns design end-to-end: game design documents, prototypes, and final creative authority all live with him. Your job is to take the prototype, build the real thing, and own the day-to-day craft: pacing, feel, balance, polish, the hundreds of micro-decisions that separate a "fine" indie game from one people obsess over.

You will not just be a coder. AI tools (Codex, Cursor, Claude Code) handle a lot of the typing. What we need from you is taste, judgment, and the lived experience of having shipped games yourself. You'll be deciding when an unlock feels rewarding, whether a number should tick up faster, where the loop sags, what to cut. You'll be testing your own builds constantly and pushing iterations to the founder and creative lead for weekly playtest feedback.

There's also a coordination layer to this role. The studio works with a full-time artist already on the team, and will bring on freelancers as needed for audio, sound, music, and other specialized work. You'll coordinate with them inside the shared codebase and Godot project, and you'll use AI tools wherever they can speed up or fill in for that work, like generating placeholder audio, prototyping sound effects, or drafting briefs. The goal is to keep the team small and the iteration loop tight.

What you'll do

• Lead day-to-day development of the studio's games, starting with the mining incremental game in Godot
• Use AI coding tools (Codex, Cursor, Claude Code) as your primary workflow, not as a curiosity
• Make all the small design and feel decisions inside the founder and creative lead's direction; ship iterations fast
• Playtest your own builds obsessively; the game has to feel right before it gets to him
• Coordinate with the studio's full-time artist on integrating sprite sheets, animations, and visual feedback
• Coordinate with freelancers helping with audio, sound, music, and any other specialized work
• Use AI tools to fill in or accelerate work where it makes sense (placeholder audio, prototyping, briefs, etc.)
• Take a game from prototype to Steam release in roughly 6 months
• Ship the mining game by October, then move on to the next title

What we expect from you

Required:

• Shipped indie games as a solo or near-solo developer (Steam, itch.io, mobile, web; what matters is that you've gone all the way from idea to public release)
• Games you've coded yourself using AI tools. Your portfolio must include at least one game you built with Codex, Cursor, Claude Code, or similar. It can be small. What matters is that you've shipped something built with AI assistance and have opinions about how to use these tools well.
• Working English. You read, watch, and play in English; you engage with English-language indie game communities. You're also fluent enough to prompt AI coding tools, write code, and write commits in English all day. You won't need to speak English verbally on the job (the studio works in Spanish/Portuguese/etc.), but written and prompting fluency is non-negotiable.
• Strong taste for fast, frenetic, arcade-y indie games. If your favorite games are slow, contemplative, narrative-heavy experiences, this isn't the right fit.
• Deep familiarity with the indie scene. You know what's launching, what's working, what's not.
• Self-directed. You can make hundreds of micro-decisions per week without asking permission, and you know when something is important enough to escalate.
• Comfortable working in Godot, or able to ramp up in it within a week using AI tools (we don't need Godot veterans; we need people who learn fast)

Strong plus:

• Experience inside a small studio (collaborating with artists, audio designers, producers)
• A real love of incremental/idle games, deck builders, roguelikes, or small arcade games
• Previous Steam release
• A track record of finishing things. Half-built abandoned projects don't count.

How you'll work with the client

• The founder and creative lead gives ~5 hours per week to playtesting, feedback, and creative direction. You operate autonomously the rest of the time.
• Final creative authority sits with the founder and creative lead. You'll have enormous latitude on implementation and feel, and your input on design will be welcomed and often acted on. When there's a disagreement, he decides. If that arrangement bothers you, this role will make you miserable. Please don't apply.
• The studio values constructive disagreement. Push back, propose alternatives, make a case. That's part of the job. Just don't sulk when the call goes the other way.
• Weekly cadence: you ship a build, he plays it, gives feedback, you iterate.

Schedule and commitment

This is a remote role (work from home, anywhere in Latin America), but it is not freelance work. We are looking for someone who treats this as their one full-time job and gives it their full attention.

• 40 hours per week, Monday through Friday

Browse our curated collection of remote jobs across all categories and industries, featuring positions from top companies worldwide.

• 9 AM to 6 PM in your local time zone, online and available for meetings and collaboration
• Exclusive role: no other clients, freelance projects, or full-time jobs on the side

If you're looking for a side gig or planning to juggle this with other work, please don't apply.

Compensation

• $2,000 USD/month flat, paid as a contractor through Tecla
• Profit share on every game shipped, paid directly from the studio. When a game does well, you make meaningfully more.
• PTO and holidays
• Work from home, anywhere in Latin America

How to apply

Send us:

1. Your resume.
2. A portfolio of games you've worked on. Include links to playable builds where possible. Your portfolio must include at least one game you coded yourself using AI tools (Codex, Cursor, Claude Code, or similar). It can be small.

If we move forward, you'll be asked to come prepared to discuss your work with AI coding tools, your taste in indie games, and what you think makes an incremental game feel good to play.

Process

1. Application review. We respond to every qualifying applicant.
2. Intro call. A short conversation to understand your background and confirm fit on the basics.
3. Conversation with the founder and creative lead. 30–45 minutes to talk shop, share more about the studio and the game, and see if there's mutual fit. Come prepared to discuss your work with AI coding tools, your taste in indie games, and what you think makes an incremental game feel good.
4. Paid 2-week trial task. The studio shares a branch of the current build and defines a scoped feature for you to ship in two weeks. Paid at the full monthly rate prorated. This is the real interview, and a successful trial leads directly to a full-time engagement.

We respect your time; we'll move fast and make decisions quickly.