Who we are

👋 We’re Rascal Games, a new independent studio founded by 2nd-time entrepreneurs who sold their first company to Discord. We build games that are unapologetically multiplayer.

We’re fully funded through Series Seed with the support of seasoned game devs and investors like Patron, Mitch Lasky (early investor at Riot Games, thatgamecompany, Manticore Games), Stephen Lim (co-founder of VALORANT & Raidbase), Stanislav Vishnevskiy (co-founder of Discord), and a16z SPEEDRUN.

Project Wayward

We’re building Project Wayward, a shared world group-based PvE action-adventure game, inspired by games like Sea of Thieves, Valheim, and Fortnite.

Our goal is to capture the dream of adventuring in another world with friends. Think of the Fellowship traveling through Middle Earth or Frieren and Fern on their journey to the far North.

Who we’re looking for

We are seeking a 3D Art Lead & Artist to own the visual identity for Project Wayward. You will define a stylized art direction for the game and create assets directly as the primary contributor in a small but mighty team.

This is a lead role that will author major parts of the Project Wayward’s player experience and our studio culture. We’re big believers in building team comps around people vs. following set meta, so some responsibilities listed can be fluid amongst the founding team.

The ideal candidate is someone who is an expert at in-engine production but generally familiar with the entire art stack, including concept, environment, characters, and technical implementation to ensure smooth gameplay. You don't need to excel in all areas, as we expect to grow the team with your help. You will have the budget to hire outsourcers.

If the idea of adventuring every night with friends is exciting to you, we’d love to talk to you!

Responsibilities

• Set the visual direction and theme for a new IP.
• Create 3D visual assets, directly and via managing outsourcers.
• Partner with engineering to optimize performance of visual assets in Unreal Engine.
• Help scale the art discipline, both hiring and establishing our art process and culture.
• Help make a fantastic game for players who play to bond with friends.
• Help build a studio that you would be proud and excited to invite your friends to work at.

Qualifications

• Shipped or maintained a game as an Art Lead, Art Director, or senior art role.
• Expertise in creating stylized art for 3D games.
• Comfortable working in Unreal.
• Past experience with procedural content creation.
• Have worked on a game from concept to launch.
• (Bonus) Worked at an indie studio or built your own indie game!

You should join us if

1. You play games to bond with friends. Your most treasured gaming memories are made with friends.
2. You have experience building games from 0→1 and loved that journey.
3. You enjoy brainstorming ideas and bringing those ideas to life with your own hands.
4. You want to craft something new for players and put part of yourself into a game.
5. You are excited to play a major role at an early-stage studio and have the opportunity to shape its direction.

Benefits

• Competitive salary.
• Meaningful equity. This is a founding team role with high ownership and creative control. Success should be shared!
• Medical, dental, vision coverage for you and your family because health is #1.
• Unlimited PTO with company-wide breaks during holidays. This is a marathon, not a sprint.
• Friends who will never judge you during Steam sales.

In-person studio

We are operating as an in-person studio in the Bay Area or in Seattle.\* We believe being together delivers better results for early stage companies.

We will cover relocation expenses.

\*Final decision will depend on our ultimate team comp. Please reach out as long as in-person interests you!

How we work

We believe small teams with trust, ownership, and empathy can build durable games played by millions. We plan to stay small and nimble (5-7 people) for the early phase, so we can freely explore and find the fun first.

1. We value velocity above all else. But velocity isn’t just about building lots of things quickly, it’s getting to the right things that players actually want.
2. We take personal ownership of the entire player experience, regardless of our role.
3. We are our players. Just listening and understanding them isn’t enough. We have to go one step above and be them (and stay that way).
4. We believe the “right” way to build is the one that serves players and our team the best and not because it’s how we’ve done it in the past.

Our mission

We serve players who game to bond with their friends. Our players are driven by the desire to matter amongst their friends, and they love to make them laugh.

We deeply value building from strong opinions. Great games are built by out-delivering for a specific player. Mediocre games are built by trying to serve everyone.

Here’s a peek at some of the principles that guide us:

1. Unapologetically Multiplayer. Our games are meant to be played with a group. We ask “how can we make it even more fun when with friends?” even if it means sacrificing the solo player experience.
2. Challenging Games > Easy Games. Just like team sports, adversity brings people together.
3. Let Players Be Heroes. We empower individuals to shine or fail spectacularly, making epic stories for their group. The best shared stories are ones where you played a major role.
4. Play Together, Always. The best multiplayer games enable friends to always play together, no matter if they are of different groups, starting times, or duration played.
5. Find the Rhythm. Stories are born from the right rhythm of play—high action moments interspersed with time to digest and make deliberate decisions (we call this the “journey”). It's our job to define a good rhythm for players.