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Nightdive Studios, Inc.NI

Character Artist (Contract Position)

Nightdive Studios is a video game developer dedicated to restoring and re-releasing classic and forgotten video games for modern platforms.

Nightdive Studios, Inc.

Employee count: 11-50

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OBJECTIVES OF THIS ROLE

We are in the process of staffing up our development team with outstanding talent to tackle a brand new sci-fi project using Unreal Engine 5. This is an excellent opportunity for someone who is tired of being a cog in a larger machine but would rather be directly responsible for crafting high-quality characters for the final game while working with a lean team.

To capture and preserve the essence of the games we all grew up with, we welcome applicants with unique skill sets and backgrounds. If you are passionate about making a meaningful contribution to some of the most significant games in the industry, we’d love to hear from you!

REPORT STRUCTURE

  • This role reports directly to the Project Lead, Lead Artist and Producer while working closely with other artists.
  • This role is responsible for liaising with Design, Engineering, Animation, Audio, and QA to integrate features smoothly across disciplines and to fulfill the shared vision of the project.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

  • Create high-quality character models (hero characters, NPCs, creatures, etc.) across all phases: sculpting, retopology, UVs, baking, texturing, and in-engine setup.
  • Maintain strong visual consistency with the project’s art direction, ensuring characters feel cohesive across the entire cast.
  • Build clean, animation-friendly topology and silhouettes that support expressive motion and gameplay readability.
  • Author textures, materials, and shader setups that balance visual fidelity with performance requirements.
  • Collaborate with Tech Art and Animation to troubleshoot skinning, deformation, and character performance issues.
  • Implement characters in-engine, ensuring proper scale, materials, and naming conventions.
  • Be highly collaborative with other team members and willing to provide timely and constructive criticism to submissions from colleagues.
  • Respond well to feedback and constructive criticism to their submissions and workflows and be willing to quickly iterate on assets and systems.
  • Be self-motivated and highly adaptable to new workflows and processes while willing to learn new skills and insert into gaps within the team structure. We are looking for that “Indie dev” mindset.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

  • Ego-free, highly motivated, action-oriented, curious learn-it-all with a growth mindset
  • Comfort operating in ambiguous and unregimented environments
  • Experience with hard-surface character elements (armor, robotics, cybernetics, etc.)
  • Familiarity with rigging tools, skinning workflows, and ensuring meshes meet deformation, weighting, and technical constraints.
  • Proven knowledge of character art pipelines: sculpting, retopology, UV unwrapping, baking, texturing, and material creation using tools like Blender, Zbrush, Substance Painter, Marvelous Designer.
  • Strong understanding of anatomy, form, proportion, and silhouette across humans, creatures, robotics and stylized/realistic hybrid styles.
  • Shipped at least one AA+ title
  • Eager to take ownership over individual characters or features and see them through to completion.
  • Likes Sci-Fi and Horror media.

We are on the lookout for rockstars that are highly self-accountable. As this is a smaller team, there won’t be a lot of hand-holding as production begins to ramp up. If this kind of challenge excites you, we invite you to apply!

About the job

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Posted on

Job type

Full Time

Experience level

Location requirements

Open to candidates from all countries.

Hiring timezones

Worldwide

About Nightdive Studios, Inc.

Learn more about Nightdive Studios, Inc. and their company culture.

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The story of Nightdive Studios is a testament to the enduring power of passion and the importance of preserving digital history. It all began in 2012, not in a bustling tech hub, but on the open road. Stephen Kick, a former video game artist from Sony Online Entertainment, and his fiancée Alix, embarked on a soul-searching trip through Central America. During their travels, Stephen was struck by a desire to replay the classic 1999 game, System Shock 2, only to find it was unavailable for purchase on any modern platform. This frustration sparked an idea that would become his life's work. Rather than accepting that this beloved game was lost to time, Stephen took on the challenge of resurrecting it. He tenaciously tracked down the rights to the game, which were held by an insurance company, and successfully negotiated for them. This pivotal moment led to the founding of Nightdive Studios, a company with a noble mission: to bring lost and forgotten video games back from the depths of abandonware.

From these humble and adventurous beginnings, Nightdive Studios has grown into a respected name in the gaming industry, known for its expertise in remastering and re-releasing classic titles for contemporary audiences. The studio's approach is not just about making old games playable; it's about carefully enhancing them while preserving the original spirit that made them special. They developed their own proprietary KEX Engine, a powerful tool that allows them to breathe new life into vintage games, updating them with modern features and ensuring compatibility with today's hardware. The team at Nightdive is a global collective of talented individuals who share a deep love for classic gaming, many of whom were recruited from the very fan communities of the games they now work on. This distributed team model has been a core part of their identity from the start, allowing them to attract top talent from around the world. In 2023, Nightdive Studios was acquired by Atari, a move that promises to further amplify their mission of game preservation while allowing them to continue operating with the same passion and dedication that started it all.

Employee benefits

Learn about the employee benefits and perks provided at Nightdive Studios, Inc..

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Flexible working hours

A hybrid environment, blending remote flexibility with a collaborative and supportive team dynamic.

Paid Time Off

We believe in striking a balance between work and play, in equal parts as a core to creating great work.

Year-End Shutdown

We close for the holidays each year, so the team can rest and recharge together in preparation for the new year.

Learning and development

Interested in joining a talented team and developing your skills? Does working on an exciting remake project appeal to you?

View Nightdive Studios, Inc.'s employee benefits
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Nightdive Studios, Inc.

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