Senior Level Artist

About the Position

Senior Level Artist

Ghost Story Games is a self-publishing game development studio founded by Ken Levine (Creative Director of System Shock 2, Bioshock, and Bioshock Infinite) and former Irrational Games developers. The studio’s mission is to create narrative-driven experiences rooted in immersive world building and gameplay.

Responsibilities

• Prototype and execute on visually stunning environmental spaces that are both well attuned to the gameplay experience and tell bold, cohesive visual stories in support of the script and overall vision of the world.
• Collaborate with level design to support gameplay, keeping in mind things such as navigation, pacing, compositional sight lines, cover, verticality, and AI.
• Serve as the key driver of all visual assets supporting spaces under your responsibility. This includes highly proactive and collaborative engagement with Art Leadership, Level and Narrative Design, Concept Art, and External Art Vendors to plan, prototype, and implement supporting assets, within an established pipeline and technical specifications.
• As a Senior Level Artist, you are also expected to keep active tabs on the performance profile of all levels under your responsibility, ensuring visual content is authored efficiently and fits within established memory and performance budgets. For the Senior role we expect active collaboration beyond just your own content responsibilities, including working cross-functionally with other content disciplines to analyze the overall performance profile of spaces and strategize together on any balanced plans for optimization.

Requirements

• Established experience in the game industry as a mid-level to senior Level Artist, preferably with experience working with larger, complex productions.
• Proficient art and technical experience within a real-time Game Engine (Unreal 4 is a plus).
• Experienced eye for form, line, value, rhythm, composition, and crafting deliberate visual hierarchy reads (focus direction, small-medium-large shape balance, ‘80/20 rule’).
• Familiarity with performance evaluation and optimization – working mindfully within metrics to maintain a smooth player experience.
• Experience with effective team-based iteration techniques, including a thoughtful consideration of the bigger picture of the overall game experience and creative vision and a ‘order of operation’ and ‘ROI’ approach to iterative development.
• Ability to learn and understand technical tools and systems so they can be pushed to the limit to create the most visually interesting spaces.

Nice to Have

• Passion for deeply narrative-driven games, particularly First Person Shooters.
• Additional traditional art or architecture background.
• Experience working effectively and collaboratively with a diverse mix of internal and distributed teams.

We Offer

• Competitive salary range between $90,200 and $133,520 per year.
• Opportunity to work on a highly anticipated game led by Ken Levine.
• Collaborative and supportive studio culture.

About the Company

Ghost Story Games is committed to fostering and celebrating the diverse thoughts, cultures, and backgrounds of its talent, partners, and communities throughout its organization. As an equal opportunity employer, Ghost Story does not discriminate or retaliate against any employee or job applicant because of their race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity), national origin, age, disability, and genetic information (including family medical history), or on the basis of any other trait protected by applicable law.

When Applying For This Position:

Please watch the following GDC talk given by Ken Levine: Narrative

Please be aware that Ghost Story does not conduct job interviews or make job offers over third-party messaging apps such as Telegram, WhatsApp, or others. Ghost Story also does not engage in any financial exchanges during the recruitment or onboarding process, and the Ghost Story will never ask a candidate for their personal or financial information over an app or other unofficial chat channel. Any attempt to do so may be the result of a scam or phishing exercise. Ghost Story’s in-house recruitment team will only contact individuals through their official Ghost Story email addresses (i.e., via a ghoststorygames.com email domain). If you need to report an issue or otherwise have questions, please contact [email protected]