Art Director

Location: Montreal

About us:

At Amber, we're always on the hunt for the most talented individuals in the industry to join our team. We're dedicated to delivering top-notch service to our customers and know that our employees are key to making that happen. We offer attractive compensation packages and plenty of chances to grow with us, and we're always on the lookout for ways to do things better.

Our team works together towards common goals and we value each member's contributions to our mission of continuous improvement and innovation.

About the role:

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.

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…