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What You Need to Know
💼 This is an mid level position, contracted for 3 months. We will consider applications from candidates with industry or marketing experience, however this is not a prerequisite.
🌈 Diverse candidates are encouraged to apply, with all suitable applications considered equally regardless of age, race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender identity or expression. We are looking to improve the diversity of our teams and believe firmly in the value of varied life experiences, backgrounds and cultures.
🏠 This role is fully remote, with regular virtual meetings via Google Meets and Slack for check-ins and reviews.
💵 3-month contract salary of £12,500 (Paid in Monthly Installments)
Based on candidate preference, this role can either be served as a fixed term contract, or as freelance contract.
Role Description
Looking to advance your cinematic artist skills in a fast paced gaming studio?
We are seeking a creative and independent Cinematic Artist to work as part of our Stronghold 4 team, handling the creation and implementation of in-game cinematic content. You will assist in bringing the cinematic campaign content to life with exciting in-game cutscenes.
You will use and develop skills associated with all aspects of cinematic development, including script analysis, blocking, editing and presentation. All to support the delivery and impact of a story-rich strategy campaign.
You will use our proprietary in-game cinematic creation tool to create exciting in-game cutscenes, helping the programming team with feedback and analysis to help improve the tool for Stronghold 4 and future projects.
Reporting directly to the Video and Cinematics Director, as well as working closely with the rest of the Stronghold 4 team, it will be your responsibility to plan and execute the in-game cutscenes.
This role is ideal for a mid-level candidate with experience of Unreal Engine 5 and a great visual portfolio. With a willingness to work independently on a variety of tasks that fall under the umbrella of cinematic production.
Your ultimate goal will be to assist in the development, review and implementation of all in-game cutscenes for Stronghold 4’s campaigns. However, there may be opportunities to work on pre-rendered content as well.
As this is a mid level position, our successful candidate will be self-driven and expected to manage assigned tasks through to completion independently
Key Responsibilities
⭐ Cutscene Assembly - Build, iterate, and polish in-game cinematic sequences from script/storyboard to final execution within Unreal Engine 5.
⭐ Tool Utilization - Utilize our specialized in-engine cinematic tools alongside standard UE5 features to streamline animation, layout, and scene setup.
⭐ Camera Composition & Framing - Apply strong cinematic principles (camera placement, focal lengths, movement, pacing, and staging) to maximize narrative impact within the engine.
⭐ Integration & Layout - Assemble character animations, environmental assets, props, and visual effects within either our special in-gamer cutscene tool or Unreal’s Sequencer to create seamless narrative moments.
⭐ Technical Troubleshooting - Work within established technical budgets, optimize cinematic performance, and resolve layout or technical animation bugs as they arise.
⭐ Collaboration - Coordinate with the cinematic and art teams to ensure assets integrate smoothly and visual quality remains consistent.
What You Need
⭐ A cinematic-focused portfolio showing Unreal Engine 5 experience
⭐ Experience with Unreal Engine 5
⭐ Experience with video editing
⭐ Experience with camera systems (both IRL and virtual!)
⭐ Proactive nature and a positive attitude
⭐ Excellent written and oral communication skills in English
⭐ A professional manner and experience working in a team
⭐ Be happy to turn your hand to any cinematic task needed
⭐ Strong organisational skills and experience working to deadlines
⭐ Be a quick learner who isn’t afraid to fail, learn and ask for guidance
What Sets You Apart
🌟 Experience with SVN or similar server sharing systems
🌟 Knowledge of and interest in cinematics across the video game industry
🌟 Experience working on offline / pre-rendered cinematic content made in Unreal Engine 5
Additional Details
How to Apply
Please apply by sending your application to the Video & Cinematics Director, Aaron Hayden. Please provide a CV, cover letter and cinematics portfolio.
Creators of the BAFTA nominated Stronghold series, Firefly Studios is a Devolver Digital strategy game developer with 25 years of experience publishing games on PC and mobile. Enjoyed worldwide by a community of millions, our games have a dedicated international following and rich legacy in strategy gaming.
As a company we are a growing, close-knit interdisciplinary group of around 40 people from across the world. All staff across programming, art, production, business, marketing and QA are talented, self-driven individuals who help us punch well above our weight as a studio.
At Firefly we value and benefit from individual expression and passion, which we do our best to nurture, support and channel into our games. We believe this, combined with a flexible working environment and room to grow at the company, makes Firefly a great place to work whether you’re starting out in games or looking for an empowering next step.
Feel the impact of a living medieval world on your castle economy and siegecraft, as you battle against hostile outlaws, rival lords and the elements themselves in this new narrative RTS set years before the events of the original Stronghold!
Stronghold 4 is the long-awaited next mainline entry in the Stronghold 'castle sim' series, bringing a cinematic story and medieval immersion to the forefront of real-time strategy.
Relive the glory of Stronghold, the original BAFTA-nominated real-time strategy game, with this new definitive edition of the classic 'castle sim'. Witness the game that started it all, carefully rebuilt using the source artwork, remastered music, returning voice talent and veteran developers of the first entry in this legendary series.
Travel back in time to the legendary crusades for the holy land, in this expanded definitive edition of the fan-favourite Stronghold Crusader! Engage in historical desert skirmishes reimagined with new gameplay content and upgraded visuals, faithfully reforged using the source artwork, music, returning voice talent and veteran developers of the original Stronghold.
We’ve been lucky to have some incredible jobs working at and partnering with some of the biggest brands in video games.
But we’ve never had more fun and been more fulfilled than when we were working with indie game developers.
Everyone in games should have that much fun.
Our hope is that Work With Indies will connect job seekers with the most rewarding, most inspirational, and most fun jobs they've ever had.
