Hazelight is an independently owned game development studio led by Josef Fares director and writer of A Way Out, Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons and our upcoming game It Takes Two.
At Hazelight we like to push creative boundaries by constantly exploring new interesting concepts. Story-driven games and extraordinary experiences will always be the focus of our creations.
We have an exciting opportunity to join the studio as our Art Director. You might be wondering what does it mean to be an Art Director at Hazelight? In this role, you will collaborate with a strong team of artists (environment, character, concept, technical & VFX). You will head up the task of finding a visual style for the project and work with the art team in realizing that visual style consistently throughout the game. A major part of the job will be to bridge the gap between art and other departments. Your role will involve assisting the art team in translating the narrative and gameplay vision.
At Hazelight all the artists have a lot of creative freedom and ownership over their own work. You will be the person in the art team with the bird's eye view over the entire project, guiding and inspiring each artist to realize how their work can fit even better within the art direction of the project.
What we look for:
- A very strong game art portfolio, displaying a wide range of excellently realized scenes. In the scenes, all aspects including composition, characters, detailing, lighting and atmosphere should all mesh together into very impressive final images.
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- A very strong concept art portfolio, displaying a wide range of excellently realized scenes and characters. You need to be equally comfortable painting expressive and dynamic characters, as you are painting impressive environments with excellent mood, lighting, depth, and atmosphere.
What other types of skills we'd like to see:
- 5+ years of experience in the games industry with at least one shipped title, participating in all parts of a development cycle.
- Excellent communication skills. You can verbally describe the pros and cons of complex visual approaches, ideas, and concepts.
- A true team player, you are able to collaborate with the entire team in the pursuit of always finding the best possible visual solutions for the game.
- A very flexible mind. A key aspect of all Hazelight games is variation, and an important part of the art director role is being able to allow for that variation while maintaining a consistent visual style.
- Ability to work with a broad range of different themes and styles. From fantasy to contemporary to science fiction, realistic or stylized. Not even we know what the next Hazelight title will look like!
- Excellent understanding of gameplay. You have a firm grasp of how game art can be used to visually guide the player and explain gameplay concepts.
- You are able to take initiative and full responsibility for pushing the visual quality in a project.
Nice to have:
- Experience working in Unreal.
- Understanding of the technical art aspects in computer games. Shaders, post-processing, performance, etc.
- Experience with UX/UI Design.
If you like what you hear so far then we’d love to hear from you, please send your application with an introduction letter telling us a little bit about yourself, CV + portfolio (in English).