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 also involves working within the constraints of our game's systems and mechanics to help define the art process and production pipeline for creating game art able to be integrated into our procedurally generated level generator system. 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, effectively 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 remote contractor position which requires regular collaboration online during Seattle time work hours, 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 international meetings with external contributors.

Quests

Champion the product's aesthetic quality by providing clear direction and feedback to both internal and external contributors.
Unify and advance the artistic direction of a project currently in pre-production.
Develop and enforce our visual style, making sure that all art accurately represents the game's lore.
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, artistic development, and conceptual process for the game, including directly contributing to art production when necessary.
Take the lead to create 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.
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 list 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 Lead or Art Director 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.
This role involves designing, setting up, 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, 2D 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.
Balance and prioritize tasks to meet deadlines, working within agreed timeframes and budgets.
Able to work remotely using various collaboration tools.
Strong written, visual, and verbal English language communication and presentation skills.
A passion for the videogame industry and a desire to grow within it.
Proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel, and Visio.
Proficient in visual graphics tools: Adobe or Corel.
Passion to learn new tools and technologies.
Authorized to work in USA. H1B transfers and sponsorship for employee conversion are not available.

Bonus Points

3D modeling experience is a plus.
Familiarity with building special effects in Unity.
Experience designing 2D art assets for procedurally generated game levels – within Unity, Double bonus!

About Us

Seismic Squirrel is a small, close-knit videogame studio with a passion for developing well-crafted strategy games that are easy to learn, hard to master. 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.

If this sounds like an exciting opportunity for you, please submit both your cover letter and résumé to Seismic Squirrel.