Character Art Director (Stylized Games | Mobile)

Job description

**This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Character Art Director (Stylized Games | Mobile) based in Romania.** The Character Art Director will shape the visual identity of an exciting, unannounced game project, creating stylized characters that captivate players through distinctive personalities, expressive designs, and emotional storytelling. This senior creative leadership role combines hands-on artistic contribution with the responsibility of defining and maintaining exceptional character art standards throughout production. You will guide character development from initial concepts to final in-game implementation, ensuring each character feels memorable, recognizable, and aligned with the overall artistic vision. Working closely with artists, animators, designers, and creative leaders across international teams, you will foster collaboration and elevate the quality of the entire character roster. This fully remote opportunity is ideal for an experienced art leader with outstanding visual judgment, a passion for stylized game art, and the ability to inspire creative excellence. ### Accountabilities - Define Character Art Direction: Establish and maintain a cohesive visual vision for stylized characters, ensuring consistency, originality, emotional appeal, and exceptional artistic quality across the game. - Drive Character Design and Storytelling: Develop and refine distinctive characters through expressive silhouettes, appealing proportions, shape language, color relationships, facial expressions, and meaningful visual details. - Translate Gameplay and Personality into Design: Ensure character designs communicate personality, motivations, emotions, and gameplay roles while remaining readable and recognizable at different camera distances and viewing angles. - Contribute Hands-On Artistic Expertise: Create sketches, paintovers, design explorations, and visual references to communicate creative direction and demonstrate the desired quality standards. - Oversee the Character Production Pipeline: Guide character development from early concepts through 3D production, materials, expressions, and final in-game presentation. - Establish Quality Standards: Develop character design guidelines, artistic benchmarks, and visual references that help maintain a consistent identity across a diverse character roster. - Review and Elevate Artwork: Provide detailed artistic feedback on concepts, models, materials, and presentations, identifying opportunities to improve character appeal and overall execution. - Collaborate on Animation and Gameplay: Work with animators, designers, and technical artists to ensure character designs support expressive movement, believable acting, emotional storytelling, and gameplay requirements. - Lead and Mentor Artists: Support character artists through constructive feedback, creative guidance, and mentorship, encouraging both artistic growth and high-quality output. - Coordinate International Teams: Align artistic direction, feedback, and production priorities across distributed teams in Europe and the United States, communicating expectations through clear documentation and practical examples. - Balance Creativity with Production Needs: Maintain ambitious artistic standards while accounting for technical constraints, production timelines, and implementation requirements. - Take Ownership of Artistic Excellence: Proactively identify improvements and ensure the quality, consistency, and creative impact of character art throughout development. ### Requirements: - Professional Experience: At least 7 years of professional game art experience, including demonstrated experience as a Character Art Director, Art Director, or Character Art Lead. - Commercial Game Production: Experience contributing to commercially released games and a strong understanding of the end-to-end game development process. - Exceptional Portfolio: A compelling portfolio showcasing high-quality stylized character design, distinctive personalities, strong visual storytelling, and outstanding artistic judgment. - Character Design Expertise: Deep understanding of character appeal, stylized anatomy, proportions, silhouette design, shape language, color theory, composition, and expressive visual details. - Visual Storytelling Skills: Proven ability to create characters whose designs clearly communicate emotion, personality, identity, and intent. - Artistic Judgment: A keen eye for detail and the ability to identify subtle design decisions that significantly improve character quality and memorability. - End-to-End Production Knowledge: Experience guiding character art from initial concept through final in-game implementation, with an understanding of production workflows and technical considerations. - Art Direction and Quality Management: Ability to establish artistic standards, maintain a cohesive visual identity, and guide the development of a varied character roster. - Hands-On Artistic Skills: Proficiency in communicating creative direction through sketches, paintovers, visual explorations, and actionable artistic feedback. - Leadership and Mentorship: Experience leading or mentoring artists, providing constructive feedback, and collaborating with multidisciplinary creative teams. - Stylized Game Art Knowledge: Strong understanding of stylized character production and the relationship between character design, animation, technical implementation, and gameplay. - Communication Skills: Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with fluency in English and the ability to articulate creative direction clearly. - Location and Collaboration: Based in Europe and comfortable working with international teams across different time zones. - Mobile Game Development: Experience with Unity3D and mobile game development is an advantage. - Additional Artistic Styles: Familiarity with pixel-inspired, simplified, or highly stylized visual aesthetics is beneficial. - Character Variety: Experience directing both humanoid and non-human characters is a plus. - Animation-Friendly Design: Strong understanding of facial expressions, character acting, and designing characters that support expressive animation. - Production Documentation: Experience developing character art bibles, visual guidelines, and efficient production pipelines is desirable. - Franchise and Original IP Experience: Experience developing characters for established franchises or original intellectual properties is an advantage. - Co-Development Experience: Previous experience collaborating with external creative teams in a co-development environment is beneficial. ### Benefits: - Competitive Compensation: Salary and compensation package based on experience and location. - Fully Remote Work: Flexibility to work remotely from within Europe. - Creative Ownership: Significant influence over character identity, personality, artistic direction, and visual quality. - Exciting Game Development: Opportunity to contribute to an unannounced game project and help shape its creative vision. - International Collaboration: Work closely with experienced artists, animators, designers, and creative leaders across European and US studio hubs. - Long-Term Opportunity: Full-time, long-term collaboration with opportunities for continued professional development. - Annual Team Retreats: Opportunities to connect and collaborate with colleagues through annual team retreats. - Supportive Creative Culture: Join a friendly, collaborative environment that values artistic excellence, creativity, and shared learning.