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Salary: USD 90,200 - 133,520 / annual
Ghost Story Games, founded by Ken Levine (Creative Director of System Shock 2, BioShock, and BioShock Infinite) and former Irrational Games developers, is seeking a Senior Level Artist to join the team on Judas, a highly anticipated narrative-driven game. The studio is known for creating immersive, story-focused experiences with novel technology that allows the visual world, gameplay, and narrative to unfold dynamically and adapt to each player's journey.
In this role, you will prototype and execute visually stunning environmental spaces that serve both gameplay and narrative needs. You'll collaborate closely with level design to support gameplay mechanics including navigation, pacing, compositional sight lines, cover, verticality, and AI considerations. As the key driver of all visual assets for spaces under your responsibility, you will engage proactively with Art Leadership, Level and Narrative Design, Concept Art, and external vendors to plan, prototype, and implement supporting assets within established pipelines and technical specifications.
A critical aspect of the Senior role is performance stewardship: you will monitor the performance profile of all levels under your responsibility, ensuring visual content is authored efficiently and fits within memory and performance budgets. You are expected to collaborate cross-functionally with other content disciplines to analyze overall performance and strategize balanced optimization plans.
You will be a proactive problem solver who enjoys cross-department collaboration, asks engaging questions, and can pitch both creative and technical ideas as well as process improvements. For the Senior level, the studio is particularly seeking individuals with proven ability to work on challenging cross-functional tasks with high autonomy, knowing when to seek advice and when to take initiative. You should bring a significant force-multiplication contribution, supporting and mentoring junior artists, and becoming a valuable resource others seek out for advice while fostering a supportive studio culture.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Established experience in the game industry as a mid-level to senior Level Artist, preferably 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 (focus direction, shape balance, 80/20 rule)
- Familiarity with performance evaluation and optimization, working within metrics to maintain smooth player experience
- Experience with effective team-based iteration techniques and understanding the bigger picture of overall game experience
- Ability to learn and understand technical tools and systems to push them to create visually interesting spaces
- Experience and mindfulness towards both individual and team efficiency with proven ability to work on higher-ambiguity cross-functional tasks with autonomy
GREAT TO HAVE:
- Passion for deeply narrative-driven games, particularly First Person Shooters
- Traditional art or architecture background
- Experience working effectively with diverse internal and distributed teams
