Art Director

About us 

Play With Fire is the newest studio in Amber's family, and we are looking for someone who has the ability to reimagine one of the worlds most famous video game IP's and can handle the pressure of having their art direction be the central pillar of our game. They will collaborate with a prolific indie creative director and be a critical creative team member and guiding force on the project.  

About the role 

In this work from home era, we have found increasing success working with partners from a wide variety of disciplines. We believe that a talented, multi-discipline, autonomous, Art Director can help us craft the game, help us identify short comings and work with discipline leads to establish and prioritize new game features. 

In this role in particular, we are flexible and can accommodate candidates that work outside of Romania, so anyone who has the experience and is able to work comfortably in a remote environment on our schedule will be considered. 

The successful candidate will be a senior game artist, with a deep passion for games and their connected discipline (Modeling, Animation, UI). 

The position will implement compelling designs from conceptualization to implementation, oversee the art team and collaborate with design and engineering teams to create varied and compelling gameplay and art across the full spectrum of the game. 

Candidates must have a passion for designing, implementing, and maintaining state-of-the-art art assets. Applicants should be enthusiastic about the opportunity to collaborate and lead other artists across disciplines, seek out opportunities to dive in, solve problems, and make improvements wherever necessary with maximum autonomy. 

The ideal candidate has a good amount of experience leading art teams on ambitious projects and can lead, produce content and implement art with the team. 

The Quest: 

• Be highly creative. Imagine and communicate your vision to the team to develop new content that players will love while evangelizing the game vision among the team 

• Developing and maintaining visual aesthetic throughout the product 

• Lead and direct a team of artists in a remote team while providing feedback and art critique 

• Think strategically about art and how it informs the player experience 

• Heavily involved in every stage of a game’s development cycle being responsible for the highest quality art for the product 

• Through pre-production, leads the creation of storyboards, logos, user interfaces, character design, environments and all other visual material and concepts. Defining visual targets and style guides 

• Motivates the team, keeping artists focused, and efficiently devises solutions to mitigate art product risks 

• You work closely together with the producers, programmers, game designers and creative director - Interpret the needs of all development disciplines such as design and engineering into amazing final artwork 

• Content - Able to produce artwork in multiple styles via expert knowledge of visual language and themes to provide directional benchmarks for the whole team 

• People - Evaluates, hires and manages all art disciplines and third parties/outsource. Develops leadership and empowers the team by sharing ownership and autonomy. Uses experience to help with scoping and risk management on projects from both a creative and technical point of view 

• Tech - Oversees the production of art tools, production pipelines, content creation. Has the technical knowledge required to realize the artistic vision. Identifies new tools and evaluates competing products for suitability/cost/use. Has a thorough and broad technical understanding of assets and best practices 

The Skills: 

• Strong understanding of art fundamentals, multiple art styles, anatomy, appeal 

• Mandatory excellent communication skills 

• Experience as an art director or production designer in a game studio 

• At least 5 years hands-on experience on games, ideally from scratch 

• The ability to adapt to and innovate new styles and techniques 

• Strong knowledge in building design or environment art, as well as different art-styles, techniques, and workflows in game development 

• Strong collaborative nature to partner with senior art director and discipline leads 

• In-depth knowledge of all aspects of asset creation including modeling, texturing, animation, sprite production, UI and VFX 

• Openness to learn new tools and game engines 

• Deep understanding of art disciplines and their workflow 

• Maintaining up-to-date knowledge of cultural, design, and business trends 

• Strong leadership skills in order to lead a large number of people toward a singular vision 

• Strong communication and leadership skills combined with a start-up mentality, strong determination and ownership for the product 

• A portfolio demonstrating previous work is required 

• Passion for making and playing great games, demonstrating an awareness of current titles, genres, and industry trends 

Nice to have: 

• 3D, VFX, or Animation + Rigging experience at a game studio 

• Experience creating and optimizing game art for PC/Console 

• Shipped multiple AAA products as a Lead Artist or Art Director 

• Experience with JIRA, Perforce, GitHub and other Project Management Tools 

• Experience with Unreal Engine 4 

The Reward: 

• A fun and dynamic industry where you can make a difference. 

• Additional Days Off - according to Amber’s internal policy.  

• Professional and friendly work environment. 

• An attractive salary package with private medical services. 

• Awesome and talented colleagues. 

• Support from all your teammates. 

• Access to training and learning programs.