Experienced Game Artist – Mini franchise | Wellington NZ

About the role:

Permanent full-time on-site in Wellington, NZ – 40 hours per week – $74-$100k+ based on experience. Due to Covid-19 travel and immigration restrictions, applicants must currently be living in New Zealand or have a valid work visa.

We’re Dinosaur Polo Club, an award-winning video game design studio full of lovely people making games in Wellington, New Zealand. It’s been an exciting few years for us with our games, Mini Motorways and Mini Metro, which continue to be big successes! Growing in size, we are on the look-out for an enthusiastic and experienced game artist to help us continue to develop our Mini franchise. Hopefully that someone is you!

We’re looking for a games artist with several years of professional industry experience and a strong graphic design focus – someone who loves to iterate and has a good eye for detail. Given that you’ll be working on games like Mini Motorways and future Mini titles it would be ideal if your skills lie in the graphic design, UI or UX space and you’re comfortable working in Unity. You will be working alongside an art team with extensive experience in these areas so there will be plenty of support and handover time to help you get up to speed. You’ll also be working closely with our other departments, including working with our programming team on implementation guides and our game design team to ideate exciting new concepts.

What you'll do in this role:

• Support and continue the art development of the Mini franchise, including Mini Motorways, and future Mini titles.
• Develop and maintain concept imagery, visual design documentation and previsualisation material.
• Create high quality game assets including UI, 2D and 3D assets, animations and marketing material from concept to completion in Unity.
• Ensure that developed and implemented art assets respect the creative vision of the game and meet the studio’s quality standards.
• Regularly take part in art and project reviews, both offering and responding to feedback from your peers.
• Nurture a close working relationship with your department and wider team, liaising with the other departments to ensure robust understanding of implementation requirements.
• Share knowledge, recommend best practices and support the development of other  team members.
• Work alongside others to define and improve the studio’s workflow, tools, and processes.
• Be a part of both a department and studio team, actively seeking to develop a method of communicating that is understandable to those outside of your immediate department

The skills and experience we're looking for:

• At least 2-3 years professional industry experience as an artist;
• Confidence and experience with Unity;
• Experience with the Adobe Suite or equivalent software;
• Fantastic organisational skills, with a high level of initiative;
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, fluent in English;
• An interest in developing unique and high-quality video games;
• Dedication to working in a professional, inclusive, and supportive environment.

Your skills may also include:

• Experience in After Effects or equivalent software;
• Experience in Maya or equivalent software;

About us:

At Dinosaur Polo Club we value a healthy work-life balance where our dinos can flourish both inside and outside of the studio. We have a creative team, opportunities for growth, and a wholesome, supportive studio environment.

We value diversity and believe that our team should be as varied and wonderful as the people who play our games all around the world. Differences such as disabilities, gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity and any other aspects of various cultures and identities are important perspectives that contribute to an inclusive, well-rounded, and engaging work environment. We know we’re creating better games when we have varied perspectives and experiences contributing to them. Women, LGBTQ+ community, Māori and Pasifika  – we especially want to hear from you! 

If there is anything we can do to allow for easier participation in the interview process, please let us know at careers@dinopoloclub.com.

What we can offer:

• A lovely bunch of skilled and enthusiastic team members for you to work alongside.
• Generous training allowance for things such as conferences, workshops, online courses and self-directed learning.
• Dedicated training days.
• Support structure including regular one-on-ones.
• Team activities such as a quarterly pot-luck lunch, movie nights at the studio, holiday functions and more.
• Healthy snacks, yummy treats, and close proximity to some of Wellington’s best eateries! Plus an impressive array of locally made tea and coffee.
• Quarterly personal discretionary wellness allowance.
• Quarterly bonuses based on studio performance.
• Monthly workplace massages.
• Friday afternoon socials.
• Flexible workplace with core hours and optional work-from-home days.