Lead artist

Galaxy Grove is a game studio in Utrecht, Netherlands, specialising in high quality 3D management and building games (entertainment games, not applied/serious games). Our games have a strong atmosphere, striking art and unique, intuitive gameplay. We are currently a team of 12 people and have recently released our first game Station to Station, to great critical acclaim. Galaxy Grove is founded and led by award winning game industry veteran Joost van Dongen (Awesomenauts, Swords & Soldiers, Blightbound, Robo Maestro, Proun, Cello Fortress, De Blob). Galaxy Grove is looking for a lead artist to join us in July or later. As lead artist, you lead the art team as well as create art assets yourself. You guide the art team in achieving the creative director’s vision for the visuals of our games. You will work with us on our unannounced upcoming management & building games. Our art team is currently still relatively small, consisting of 4 people in the next 6 months, so the lead role will only take up part of your time. The rest of the time you will make art assets for our games, including 3D voxel art in MagicaVoxel. It’s okay if you’ve never made voxel art before: if you’re good at 3D, you can learn the specifics of voxel art during the job. Big bonus if you happen to be great at animation. We plan to grow the art team significantly over the coming years, so your role will gradually shift more towards the lead artist role. This will give you the time to gradually grow further into the lead role. You’ll also be involved in the games and company as a whole, like joining in playtests and sharing your ideas and thoughts for our games. Galaxy Grove is an inclusive game studio where everyone with a passion for making great games is welcome. We believe in helping each other get better at our craft, in learning new skills, and in a healthy work-life balance where overtime and crunch are avoided. Responsibilities: Make sure all art fits the creative director’s vision for the art of the game(s) Guide the art team and give feedback on their work Supervise and guide art interns Make learning plans with all artists and guide them in achieving those learning goals Help judge applicants (for job openings, internship openings and freelancers) Work with art outsourcing partners Potentially be involved with several different games simultaneously Create art yourself, including 3D voxel art Requirements: Excellent at making 3D art Has experience guiding interns and/or employees in a professional setting Has a good understanding for what makes a game pretty and what makes it stand out visually Has a good understanding of the limitations and possibilities of real-time 3D game art Is good at giving feedback to help others improve their art Cares deeply for the wellbeing of the art team Cares for spending time efficiently: only making art better when there’s a good balance between how much time it takes and how much better it makes the game, and understanding that if the game needs it, quantity might sometimes take precedence over quality Cares for how art and gameplay work together to create the user experience, including readability and understandability of art Good at switching focus (since guiding the art team means a lot of interruptions from your own asset creation work) At least 5 years of professional experience as artist in the games industry (not necessarily as lead artist) Plusses: Had the lead artist role on a professionally released game Skilled at animation and rigging Experience with Blender Experience with MagicaVoxel Any skills in other art fields, for example in procedural art, UI art, video editing, shaders, VFX and/or concept art If you think you could do the job but don’t meet some of the requirements, then we encourage you to apply anyway. This is a hybrid position, with Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday working from the Galaxy Grove office in Utrecht. The other days can be either working from home or from the office, depending on your preference. We don’t do fully remote and can’t help you with getting a visa, so you need to have an EU passport to be able to apply for this job. You will also need to be willing to work from the Netherlands during the job so you can actually come into the office on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. To apply, please send an email to jobs@galaxy-grove.com. Please include: A link to your extensive portfolio, showing the quality of your best work, but also the diversity of your skills CV Cover letter