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Art Director (Unannounced Project)

WHO WE ARE

We’re ArenaNet. We make the games we want to play and infuse them with innovation, hand-crafted detail, and creative passion. As developer and publisher of the award-winning Guild Wars game series, we’re proud to share our passion for the online worlds we’ve created with over 11 million players worldwide.

WE ARE LOOKING FOR

ArenaNet is seeking an Art Director. As Art Director, you will work collaboratively with project leadership to drive the look and maintain visual quality across all art disciplines with both internal and external partners.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Maintain visual integrity throughout the entire project, ensuring consistency and highest quality within the boundaries of the existing art direction.
• Direct the work of multidisciplinary artists, including character, environment, VFX, animation, Tech Art, UI art, and others to achieve quality and continuity with the Game Director’s vision.
• Work closely with the team on ensuring a shared artistic vision across the team for the game, defining how to transform our 2D concepts into a 3D game space and helping the team refine that vision to create the spectacular.
• Inspire, guide and provide art direction for art teams by providing feedback, guidance, and critique.
• Work closely with the creative, design, engineering and production teams to develop and execute concepts and ideas.
• Oversee leads who are managing art pipelines, assets, and external outsourcing.
• Provide clear process and best practices for existing art content pipelines, with proactive focus on areas of improvement.
• Mentor and grow the artists on the team.
• Develop and ensure quality assurance protocols for art asset creation.
• Partner closely with the directors of other disciplines to build a close partnership of positive collaboration, actively providing feedback on the game, process, and goals to ensure all parts of the game succeed, not just art.
• Create a culture of collaboration where the art team partners closely with other disciplines to build a virtuous development cycle where all artists are actively engaging across the product to reach development goals.
• Promote and reinforce a healthy culture within the art department.
• Communicates in a clear, positive and professional manner with all levels of internal staff and external partners.
• Ability to partner with teams outside Art Direction purview, such as narrative and cinematics, to improve and deliver on the holistic game experience.
• Mentor an associate art director to build their skills and abilities to help prepare them to become an Art Director in the future.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL

• 10+ years’ experience creating video game art.
• 5+ years’ experience as a Lead Artist or Art Director on major shipped titles.
• Have experience working on online multi-player games / games-as-a-service model games.
• Solution-oriented approach to problem solving, with the ability to take initiative and explore options.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, ability to interact with colleagues from interns to executives.
• Experience building style guides and documentation for how to build assets within an art style.
• Experience working closely with outsourcing and co-dev studios to create art assets that align with the artist vision, style, and quality for a product.
• Demonstrates dedication, adaptability & accountability in own work and areas of responsibility.
• Love to play the games you work on and actively engage with design and engineering teams as a force multiplier.
• Passion for games!