Hello!

It's me, your friendly neighborhood Adam Saltsman, director and co-founder of Finji, an award-winning game developer (Overland, Canabalt) and publisher (Tunic, Chicory, Night in the Woods) located in Grand Rapids, MI. We are ready to hire a VFX artist to help us make our next game.

This is a paid, part-time, work-for-hire contract position with a duration of at least 18 months. We are accepting remote collaborators for this role. You would be working closely with our core creative team to build stylized magical and combat effects as well as assisting with environmental ambience and other interactive feedback for the game. Finji works with a diverse set of collaborators and folks from under-represented groups are strongly encouraged to apply.

We will be accepting applications until Monday, October 2nd, 2023.

The Game

This is the part of the posting where normally we would include a bunch of information about the game you'd be working on... but we can't do that yet. Thank you for understanding!

We can say a few things about the art style though. Existing assets have stylized, nuanced geometry, clean textures, legible shapes that work well at different distances, stepped animations, and stylized lighting and colors.

The Job

This position would begin with a fully compensated four-week trial period (October 23 to November 17) before moving ahead with the full contract period.

Trial Period Responsibilities

• Design and implement magical combat effects

It will be important to build these out in a way that is consistent with the existing assets and game style as much as possible. And of course we anticipate being able to improve and refine these elements throughout the project, but are hoping to jumpstart that process while we get to know each other.

Full Contract Responsibilities

• Create and implement all VFX for combat and puzzles
• Create your own meshes, shaders, and textures
• Deploy a mix of systemic, physical, and flipbook effects as needed
• Adhere to and help develop the VFX visual identity
• Work closely with the existing core creative team
• Collaborate with the art director, animator, level artist, designer, and character modeler
• Develop shippable game assets that are totally unique to this project
• Evolve the 2D and 3D shape language that bridges our concepts with a working game
• Comfortable with and ready to work in Unity
• Including but not limited to Shuriken, VFX Graph, and Shader Graph
• Insight and preferences about relevant plugins

We will also expect you to incorporate ideas from outside your discipline (within reason), engage with ideas through a risks/benefits lens, and work closely with the rest of the team to make the best game we can.

This role does not require or expect any travel, but opportunities to travel with the studio may be available.

Compensation

• Competitive base pay (distributed at the start of each month)
• Annual bonuses tied to company profit.
• Finji schedules more than 4 weeks of paid studio shutdown time every year.
• Studio commitment to a sustainable work-life balance and strict no-crunch policy.

About You

You love to translate 2D concepts into flexible, expressive, and efficient 3D assets. You’re excited to use VFX to emphasize combat interactions, give feedback on puzzles and story interactions, and help bring creatures to life. Whether its pollen in the air or a flash of cosmic energy, you’re delighted to see it in motion. You have a strong creative voice, but still know how to put the design needs of the project first. You've shipped at least two games.

You’re a good communicator. If someone asks you “Can we do \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_?” you usually answer in one of the following ways:

• “Sure! Put it on my list.”
• “I don't understand why you would want this. Can you explain?”
• “It sounds cool, but it will cost X time / energy. Is it worth it?”
• “We can’t do that, but maybe we can do something else to address the underlying need?”

When you don’t know how to do something, you research it and make a plan. Most of these plans are good, but you’re open to feedback and ideas from people outside your discipline. You clearly understand what problem we’re all trying to solve before getting to work on a detailed solution.

How to Apply

We’re funneling all interested parties through a new email address. Please include the phrase “finji vfx artist” in the subject line. We will reply to all serious inquiries in a timely fashion.

What to Submit

• Short cover letter
• Portfolio site
• Resumé or CV (with clear indication of shipped products and your role on those teams)
• Current location

You should expect to provide references or letters of recommendation if your application advances. This role will also require a brief, paid art test for anyone that moves on to the interview process.

Final Thoughts

Even if you don’t have the longest resumé or the biggest portfolio, we’d still love to hear from you. We are looking for candidates that like to solve problems in creative ways and who are good at communicating and collaborating. In our …experience, experience doesn’t guarantee those particular qualities.

A majority of Finji staff are from backgrounds under-represented in games, so even if you don't see yourself represented in the game industry at large, this might be a good place for you.