Benfica Football Merge is a Merge Idle game where players manage a squad of characters—based on Benfica’s Men’s and Women’s teams—that generate coins over time. The game blends merging mechanics with light team management.
As the Principal Game Designer on Benfica Football Merge, I led systems design, economy balancing, and progression planning. I used spreadsheets to model the in-game economy, simulate coin generation, and fine-tune player progression. I also used Machinations to test and validate the progression system, ensuring a smooth and rewarding experience.
As a contract project that involved the brand of a football team (S.L. Benfica), there were some predefined requirements, as well as a constant communication with the brand representatives.
I studied multiple successful mobile games that had football clubs branding, made some notes on what was being done, and where I could carry over to our game.
I built a full modular Excel sheet to simplify the design and later on, the balancing of the economy.
The way I see it, a good, well designed freemium economy for a mobile game should always prioritize the experience of the free to play grind, while having the direct purchases influence only on convenience and cosmetics.
When this is done correctly, there is a sense of fairness on the overall experience, enhancing the retention time in a healthy way, which is the main go with this type of game.
Core Loop: The primary gameplay centers on merging characters and upgrading them to star players to boost coin generation and Team Power Level. This involves strategic tradeoffs between immediate coin output and long-term gains.
Side Loops:
Cup Mode: Team-based challenges with goal-scoring mechanics, tied to team Power Level and entry costs.
Scout System: Enables summoning strong players for specific positions, with acceleration options using currency.
Structural/Crowd Upgrades: Offers permanent team enhancements that scale with Power Level progression.
Monetization strategies included:
Premium currency (conceptually for direct purchases or skipping grind).
Scout System & Ads (accelerating scouting by watching ads).
Eagle Coin Rewards (multiplying rewards by watching ads).
Freemium Model to offer shortcuts while maintaining fairness for free players.
This project taught me the importance of adaptable design. From handling client feedback to planning scalable monetization strategies, I learned how to integrate multiple gameplay and economy layers seamlessly. Creating a modular economy system allowed for efficient testing and balancing, and thinking through the user experience in every feature ensured the game remained engaging and accessible.
Additionally, planning from scratch and working with a team of talented professionals further improved my communication and project management skills. Although the game is no longer available on stores, the lessons from this experience have continued to inform my approach in future projects.
Release: March 2021
Platform: Android
Tenure: Jan 2021 - Jul 2021
Role: Systems Designer