Videogame Art Director (Remote)

Seismic Squirrel LLC

Job Title: Videogame Art Director

The Game: A vehicular RPG videogame set in an alternate history 1930s New York.

Role: Defining and unifying a cohesive visual style, leading the production pipeline for art.

Experience: Mid-Senior Level, 8+ years of professional work in video game production.
Must have successfully shipped at least one title in the role of Art Lead or Art Director.

Location: USA or Canada (Remote) – Must reside within the UTC-4 to UTC-8 timezones.

Company Size: 10

Pay: $52 - $68 USD per hour – Depends on skills and experience.

Job Type: Full Time Employee

Portfolio Required: All applicants must submit a portfolio demonstrating mastery of visual design principles and examples of delivering a product with visual consistency in its execution.

Overview

Seismic Squirrel is a close-knit fully remote videogame studio with a passion for developing well-crafted story-based games. Our nimble size allows for everyone to have a voice in the projects we create, demanding the ability to be both detail-oriented and flexible.

We are looking for a creative and resourceful Art Director to join our team and set the visual style and tone for our game. This position involves working within the constraints of our game's systems and mechanics, setting and story, to manage the art process and production pipeline for game art and models. This is a hands-on role. It demands a clear understanding of visual design and its role in creating an immersive gameplay experience.

The ideal candidate communicates effectively in a small cross-functional team environment, clearly presenting their ideas to stakeholders for signoff. They should bring a passion for working within an iterative development environment, bringing a collaborative spirit and an enthusiasm for videogames.

This is a fully remote position which requires regular collaboration online during our core work hours (9:00 AM – 3:00 PM Pacific), attending relevant team meetings (e.g. daily scrum, retrospectives, sprint planning, and design meetings). Occasional calls during late evenings, nights, and early mornings should be expected for meetings with international contributors. H-1B transfers and sponsorships are not available at this time.

For more information about Seismic Squirrel, go to http://www.SeismicSquirrel.com/

Quests

• Champion the product's aesthetic quality by providing clear direction and feedback to both internal and external artists and modelers.
• Manage and enforce our visual style, making sure that all art accurately represents the game's lore.
• Advance the artistic direction of the project.
• Clearly communicate the artistic vision to the team and to project stakeholders to see the vision through to execution.
• Help foster and maintain the creative relationship between external talent and internal creative teams.
• Lead the look & feel and artistic development for the game, including directly contributing to art production when necessary.
• Mentor junior artists to foster their professional growth.
• Manage the art style guides and similar supporting documentation.
• Create written and visual feedback (e.g. red lines, paint overs) to guide the art team on quality, maintaining consistency with the style guide and the existing art library.
• Work with the production team to estimate timelines and schedules, setting goals for both short and long-term planning.
• Manage art team deliverables, ensuring they meet the defined objectives.
• Organize and manage art asset lists to ensure all deliverables are on time and accounted for.
• Work with the marketing team to ensure accurate brand representation.

Character Stats

• 8+ years of experience in videogame development with at least one shipped game in an Art Director or Art Lead role through the full lifecycle of game development.
• Candidates should have experience with: Concept development, Visual Design, Prototyping, Content Creation Pipelines, Testing, Optimization, Scheduling, and Managing Deliverables.
• Possess a strong understanding of visual design principles.
• Experienced with raster and vector art, 2D and 3D animation, rigging, and visual effects.
• This role involves managing and troubleshooting the art production pipeline in Unity, therefore you must have excellent technical problem solving and a thorough understanding of Unity's scene building, rendering, and post processing methods.
• Hands-on experience integrating art assets and troubleshooting art asset related issues in Unity.
• Can adapt quickly to change, seeking solutions which leverage work already done to mitigate disruptions to production.
• Demonstrates leadership skills through proactive problem solving and diplomacy.
• Strong self-discipline, a motivated, a self-starter with a drive for excellence.
• Organized and detail-oriented, yet able to work fast and loose when needed.
• Courteous and patient, able to give and receive constructive and inspirational feedback.
• Able to work effectively with people having a variety of personalities and backgrounds.
• Excellent problem-solving skills, resourceful, able to simplify complex problems.
• Adept at balancing and prioritizing tasks to meet deadlines, working within agreed timeframes and budgets.
  
• Skilled at working remotely using various collaboration tools.
  
• Possesses strong written, visual, and verbal English language communication and presentation skills.
  
• Passionate for the videogame industry and a desire to grow within it.
• Proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel, and Visio.
• Proficient in visual graphics tools (e.g. Adobe Photoshop) and 3D modeling tools (e.g. Blender, 3ds Max).
• Passionate to learn new tools and technologies.
• Authorized to work in the USA (US CFR §274a.12, Title 8). H-1B transfers and sponsorships are not available at this time.

Bonus Points

• Familiarity with building special effects in Unity.
• Familiarity with Adobe XD is a plus.
• Practical knowledge of UML is a plus.

If this sounds like an exciting opportunity for you and you're located in the USA or Canada, please submit both your cover letter and résumé to Seismic Squirrel.