Creative Director

About Us

Hidden Acorn is a new game studio based in the San Francisco Bay Area building our first title: a competitive, PvP real-time strategy game launching across all major platforms. We're a small, ambitious team and we are looking for talented, passionate people who'll build it with us from the ground up.

About the Role

Hidden Acorn is looking for a Creative Director to own the vision across every player-facing discipline: art, narrative, design, and sound. The decisions you make early will set the direction for everything that follows, and we're looking for someone who understands the weight of that and is energized by it rather than intimidated by it.

What You'll Do

Define and maintain the creative vision for the game across all disciplines, including visual style, UI/UX, narrative tone, sound design, and overall player experience, ensuring everything that ships feels cohesive and intentional
Work with artists, designers, and engineers to translate abstract creative goals into concrete, actionable direction the team can execute against
Own the art direction: develop and maintain style guides and reference sheets, conduct asset reviews, and sign off on anything that goes in front of players
Shape the game's narrative and world-building, including characters, factions, lore, and dialogue tone, working closely with writers and designers to ensure consistency across all content
Direct audio by working with composers and sound designers to ensure music and sound effects reinforce the game's identity
Collaborate with external artists, studios, and contractors by writing clear briefs, giving specific and useful feedback, and maintaining quality across all partners
Make final creative calls on ambiguous or contested decisions quickly and clearly so the team can keep moving
Participate in design discussions and push back when a mechanic or system works against the creative direction

What We're Looking For

3+ years in a creative leadership role, ideally at a studio with at least one shipped title
Strong portfolio spanning at least two disciplines; we want to know where your home base is and how far you've stretched beyond it
Demonstrated ability to define and defend a cohesive visual and tonal identity across a multi-year project
Experience directing external collaborators: you've written briefs, given revision notes, and gotten great work back
A keen eye for what makes creative work land or miss, and the communication skills to articulate it without demoralizing the person who made it
Comfortable operating in a small team where process is minimal; you build structure where it helps and step around it where it doesn't

Nice to Have

Background in or genuine love for RTS games, strategy games, or games with a strong faction and army identity
Experience directing audio as part of a broader creative role
Familiarity with Unreal Engine, or at least a working understanding of what's technically expensive versus trivial
Experience working with a global or distributed team

What We Offer

One of the most senior seats on the team; you'll shape the game's identity from near the beginning, not inherit someone else's decisions
A small, passionate team where your voice carries in every room
Remote-friendly
Competitive compensation based on experience, including equity

Please submit your portfolio and resume to [email protected]