Founding Art Director for new Game Project

At Six Lines Studios, we're building something new with Gua: Only Ba Remains; a 3D action metroidvania for PC and Consoles built on Daoist and Confucionist cosmology. Using Tai Chi, the game's central mechanic is the flowing pivot between yin and yang states. The philosophical and martial arts foundations are Chinese. What's built on them is contemporary and global. I am looking for an Art Director to join as a founding team member and shape the visual identity of this IP from the ground up.

What this role is:

This is an Indie founding position. You would be the person who determines what this world looks like. Eight cosmologically distinct zones, each requiring its own visual register, unified by a shared design language that you develop. The visual direction doesn't exist yet. That's the job.

Qualifications:

• Experience developing a coherent visual language across a large project, not just individual assets
• Understanding of how art direction decisions affect gameplay, specifically legibility, player attention, and state communication.
• Genuine interest in or familiarity with East Asian visual traditions.
• Comfort working from philosophical concepts rather than reference image boards.
• Willingness to engage with Taoist cosmology as the structural foundation of the game, not as surface decoration.

Extras:

• Experience with non-photorealistic rendering or custom visual approaches in real-time 3D
• Portfolio showing meaningful visual range
• Background in narrative-driven production design alongside or instead of traditional game concept art

The practical reality:

This project is in its concept and pre-funding stage. We will actively be preparing grant applications and pursuing publisher conversations with studios that have shipped comparable AA titles. A founding team position means equity participation and creative ownership of the visual direction. not a salaried role at this stage. The right person sees that as an opportunity, not a compromise.

The studio will be based in the Rotterdam - The Hague area in the Netherlands. Remote collaboration is possible, but proximity to the Netherlands is preferred for the working relationship this role requires.

What to do when reaching out:

Send work that shows how you think about visual and/or narrative worlds. If you have thoughts on what a contemporary, non-historical game built on Daoist cosmology should look like, share them. If you've read this far and have questions, that's a good sign too.