Retro Studios
Founded in 1998, Retro Studios is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nintendo Company, Ltd. Retro is a state-of-the-art game development studio, working in conjunction with Nintendo to bring award-winning games to Nintendo’s cutting-edge next-generation platforms. Retro Studios is located in beautiful Austin, Texas. With rolling hills, scenic waterways, abundant wildlife, vibrant music and film scenes, and a laid-back cosmopolitan culture, Austin is a dynamic city with an excellent quality of life. Austin’s sunny weather also supports a great range of outdoor activities, providing plenty of venues for top-notch game developers to recharge and unwind.
DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES
- Collaborate with the Art Director, Artists, and Designers to define the look of our projects by working to establish a consistent visual direction for characters, environments, props, effects and mood using all art tools available.
- Adopt a broad range of styles from realistic to highly stylized based on goals and direction for a given project in order to produce concept art with an appropriate sense of color, drama, shape language, personality, and design.
- Take ownership of concept work for various characters, environments, and props while actively collaborating with other disciplines such as Design, Art, and Engineering in order to achieve high-quality, innovative concept art
- Author character, environment, and prop concept art in the form of thumbnails, sketches, breakdowns, reference sheets, paintings, and other digital imagery
- Design visually cohesive fictional worlds and characters
- Create technical and aesthetic breakdowns of concept art to support art, design and engineering efforts
- Provide visual contextualization support for gameplay design efforts at all stages
- Perform research as necessary to support visual development
- Work with Art Director, and Leads to provide feedback and guidance to Artists
- Create storyboards, background illustrations, and promotional artwork
- Provide and receive feedback professionally
- Mentor less senior team members
*This job description outlines primary duties and requirements and is not intended to identify all tasks that may be performed; individuals occupying the position may be required to perform other duties. The company may modify job duties from time to time, either in practice or in writing.
SUMMARY OF REQUIREMENTS
- Has five or more years’ industry experience as a concept artist, including at least one complete product cycle
- Excellent 2D drawing skills with a strong grasp of composition, color theory, perspective, lighting, environment and architecture
- Mastery of fundamental artistic principles
- Online portfolio with high-quality examples of character and environment concept art
- Experience executing a wide range of artistic styles
- Demonstrated ability to develop visual representations of abstract ideas
- 3D art skills, including modeling, sculpting, material creation and lighting is a big plus
- Good communicator, self-motivated, driven to grow professionally
- Undergraduate degree in art-related subject, completion of an intensive art training program, or equivalent experience
