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Concept Art Lead, Character - Unpublished Fighting Game
4 years ago
Established in early 2016, the Hong Kong Studio is Riot’s first international game development studio. We’re a diverse team, representing more than 15 nationalities and partnering with teams in the LA headquarters on League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics, and Legends of Runeterra. On top of this, we’re currently building teams for VALORANT, a character-based tactical shooter, and Project L, our take on the fighting game genre.
While operating like a startup—with autonomy and total ownership—we’re doubling down on our goals to build a world-class studio in a vibrant, international city, on a continent that is home to the League of Legends World Champion teams. The Hong Kong Studio is looking for talented, passionate people across all aspects of game development to help build Riot’s blueprint for a global, multi-studio world... and to make great games!
We focus on working together to promote individual autonomy, ownership, collaboration, and inclusivity so every Rioter can be their best while we boldly pursue games. This means less emphasis on titles and hierarchy and more emphasis on creating the right environment to ship excellent experiences to players.
That’s where you come in.
As Character Concept Art Lead for Project L , your craft expertise, leadership and eye for creativity will help bring characters to life in an exciting new fighting game featuring some of the most iconic characters in Runeterra.
You’ll expand and support a high performing external team, and give them the guidance and context they need in order to deliver amazing character concepts that set industry standards on craft and match the Project L art style. Through a mix of craft training and hands on leadership, you will level up the team’s craft, mediate and resolve craft disagreements and misalignment, and keep the team motivated towards creating excellent experiences for our players. Using your broad knowledge of art, craft and technique, you’ll set clear goals for your team, and make sure the process of delivering those goals is as smooth as possible for both your team and their stakeholders.
You will partner closely with the product teams and other artists, ensuring that the concepts are not only excellent in a vacuum, but also effectively promote and align with larger products. You will maintain your own craft skills, inspire creativity and keep a high quality bar with hands on concepting work as you deem necessary.
Responsibilities
- As overall character concept art lead on the team, you will oversee the quality of the work the team delivers, and set the bar for excellence
- You will build a world class team by sourcing AAA concept art talent in China, and develop and grow their concepting skills through training and feedback
- You will collaborate with Rioters worldwide, to make sure product goals are fulfilled and working practices are appropriate
- You will set a clear vision, provide consistent feedback, build trust with your team
- You will drive the development of Style Guides and Process Guides
- You will lead and improve team rituals to support high quality craft and individual growth
- You will accomplish your mission with complete autonomy if the need arises; you're dedicated in finding creative and effective solutions to vigilantly eliminate difficult problems
Required Qualifications
- Demonstrated ability to create high quality character concepts, including an understanding of how to produce assets which are critical in driving the creative process
- Extreme proficiency in concept art fundamentals such as anatomy, composition, design and color theory
- Proven experience leading/mentoring teams and individuals. Growth minded and motivated towards teaching, enabling, and coaching other concept artists
- Experience giving thorough direction and delivering timely, clear feedback
- A strong communicator and able to convey abstract/sophisticated ideas in a concise way, in English or in Chinese
- Proven experience leading/mentoring teams and individuals. Growth minded and motivated towards teaching, enabling, and coaching other artists
Desired Qualifications
- Experience teaching art, and character concepting in particular, online or in person
- Familiarity with League of Legends Characters, IP Universes and Lore
- Fluent in written and spoken Mandarin a plus
Our Perks:
- Full relocation support
- Full health insurance for you, your spouse and children
- Open paid time off
- Retirement benefits with company matching
- Life insurance, parental leave, plus short-term and long-term disability
- Play Fund so you can broaden and deepen your knowledge of our players and community through games
- We will double down on your donations of time and money to non-profits
Don’t forget to include a resume and cover letter. We receive a lot of applications, but we’ll notice a fun, well-written intro that shows us you take play seriously.
As a part of the application process, candidates will be expected to provide a portfolio of their work.
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