Peace. NuChallenger is looking for one or two Concept Artists to help design and establish our characters and environments for an exciting new project. We can’t say much more than it’s a 3D stylized boxing (the sport) narrative game. The style will be heavily inspired by graffiti, Harlem Renaissance, and specific artist styles including Kerry James Marshall and Faith Ringgold. We’re looking for someone who can do characters and environments, or we’re open to splitting the roles if that makes sense. 

This role is for pre-production work and is a limited time contract, but based on performance and need this could potentially turn into a full project role. NuChallenger is a distributed studio, so everyone is remote.

Company & Team

NuChallenger is an independent games and culture studio based in the USA. We strive to make dope video games driven by art, music, and culture.  

With its founder, Shawn Alexander Allen at the helm (Rockstar Games, MLB), our first game, Treachery in Beatdown City, was released in 2020 on Steam and the Nintendo Switch.  It was named “The most relevant, antiracist video game of 2020” by the Los Angeles Times and our goal is to ensure that all of our games are held to that gold standard for truth in story-telling.

Our work is remotely-based, and a flexible work-life schedule is of paramount importance for our team. NuChallenger is a Black owned company that values diversity of talent - we’re all about a good, open culture, and we aim to work with great people.

Compensation

• Position located remotely.
• Hourly, from $30 - $40 based on experience. If this job excites you but the salary band is too low, please apply and let your portfolio do the talking. 

Responsibilities

• Sketch, ideate, and iterate on concept art in collaboration with other artists, writers and designers
• Gather and organize visual references
• Paint over both 3D block-outs and 2D concepts to improve and refine designs
• Draft concept art for use by Production Artists to create their game content
• Actively participate in art reviews and discuss your own process for any work in progress
• Collaborate closely with the Art Leadership on style explorations and produce quality designs that define and expand the look of the product

Core Traits (Skills, Knowledge, Experience)

• Strong knowledge, intuition and understanding of: 
  • Rendering proportional human forms. 
  • The variation of Black Skin tones and Hair texture. 
• Familiarity with various Black art styles & music, including Harlem Renaissance-inspired painting styles and Hip-Hop (which includes Graffiti).
• Strong linework and rendering skills with digital painting software.
• Strong shape language, understanding of color and lighting.
• Ability to take a rough design through to a fully realized rendered image.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and a willingness to give and receive both written and verbal feedback in a cross-disciplinary environment.
• Comfortable sharing in-progress work.
• Ability to work within specific styles, including a style set by another artist or art director.
  • Receive and provide objective feedback and produce art with an iterative growth mindset.
  • Collaborate with the Art Director and team to define sustainable concept milestones, deliverables and schedules while hitting budgets, quality goals, and dates.

Bonus Traits 

• Experience as a concept artist in a game production environment and/or freelance.
• Experienced and accountable with managing your time, expectations, communications, peer relationships and responsibilities while in a remote office.
• Passion for Black art and culture.
• Story-boarding skills and knowledge of the process.
• Experience creating key art for use with marketing materials & assets.
• Experience working in a 3D package (eg. Blender)

To Apply: 

For all inquiries, please click the apply button and fill out the provided form.

We’re looking to bring people on starting in either late December or Early/Mid January.