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Creative Director

About PLAYSTUDIOS

PLAYSTUDIOS is the developer of award-winning casual games for mobile and social platforms, including POP! Slots, myVEGAS Slots, myVEGAS Blackjack, and my KONAMI Slots. The apps are powered by the company’s groundbreaking playAWARDS loyalty platform, which enables players to earn real-world rewards from more than 70 iconic hospitality, entertainment, and leisure brands across 15 countries and four continents. playAWARDS partners include MGM Resorts International, Wolfgang Puck, Norwegian Cruise Line, Resorts World, Gray Line Tours, and Hippodrome Casino, among others. Founded by a team of veteran gaming, hospitality, and technology entrepreneurs, PLAYSTUDIOS apps combine the best elements of popular social games with exciting casino gaming mechanics. To learn more about PLAYSTUDIOS, visit www.playstudios.com

As we expand our portfolio of free-to-play apps, we’re looking for an experienced and ambitious Creative Director for our my KONAMI game team, to create design and art assets that delight our players and reward their deeper engagement. In collaboration with the Creative Team, you will produce content for our social casino games, meta-game promotions, and live operations features.

As a self-starting professional, you will have an original design sensibility, complex art, and tools skills, and an ability to work within complex software development pipelines to accomplish the desired deliverables. You’ll have a passion for play, a healthy respect for our players, and you won’t take no for an answer when it comes to making our games better. You thrive in a fast-paced deadline-driven environment and are able to balance quality with the demands of an aggressive production schedule.

In addition to a well-developed sense of typography and a strong sense of visual hierarchy, draughtsmanship, line-work, color-sense, rendering, and layout skills, you possess the ability to combine illustration with graphic design and promotional layouts.

The Creative Director will work directly with the Product Director to create in-app mini-games and engagement features for our Facebook and Mobile platforms contribute to the concept design of new verticals and platforms and contribute to the wider marketing and promotional efforts of the Company. The Creative Director helps to set the standards and pace for the wider art team, mentors junior and senior talent and is responsible for the execution of the creative roadmap.

Responsibilities

• With your Product Director, execute concept and production designs while working side-by-side with the broader creative team to bring engagement features, mini-games, and in-game advertising interactive assets to life.
• Participate in new project brainstorms.
• Own every stage of production for new features, starting from approved wireframes: from concept sketches and layout through final line art, color roughs, final paint, font selection, and font treatments, and final asset handover.
• Manage and mentor the entire my KONAMI art team.
• Manage the feedback pipeline for outsourced creative work
• Prepare pre-production and turnover packages for 3-D production.
• Brief and collaborate with VFX and SFX Artists to deliver the finishing touches to features.
• Work closely with Producers and Product Owners to ensure that projects meet the PLAYSTUDIOS standard of excellence, satisfy marketing goals, and are produced on time and within budget.
• Maintain brand- or product-focused guidelines to design on-target, on-market solutions.
• Collaborate and communicate with your supervising Product Director and Producer(s) for the creation of concepts, presentation materials, project style-guides, and final refinements of projects through the production cycle
• Work directly with your supervising Product Director to deliver high-quality art assets, on time and appropriately formatted for the target platform.
• Work independently to meet milestones and optimization targets.
• Maintain high standards for design and production values within the department.
• Contribute to technical solutions and pipeline design for the production and delivery of art assets, to help maximize PLAYSTUDIOS’ technology potential.

Required

• BFA or advanced degree in a relevant field, or equivalent professional experience, and 8-10 years of experience in a comparable position/industry.
• Leadership experience for a mobile or online game or consumer product, with senior accountability to business and product stakeholders.
• Expert-level knowledge of Adobe Creative Cloud, as well as general understanding of 3-D and VFX design, pipelines and technology, and our game software development pipelines. Also requires an appreciation of and ability to lead and deliver our various game art styles.
• Vision and talent to engage in evolving our apps to stay fresh and current
• Wide experience creating visual effects for both Facebook and Mobile games using Adobe Creative Suite, Maya, 3DS Max, After-Effects, and in-game FX systems including Flash, Unity, Timeline Effects, and other tools and in-game FX systems.
• Must understand the importance of collaboration with peers and stakeholders of different disciplines (e.g. Developers and Product Managers).
• Production experience with an interest in and aptitude for entertainment design for narrow bandwidth environments.
• Strong 2D/3D, typography, and design sense.
• Ability to communicate well across different teams, organized, motivated, and understands time management.
• A portfolio that demonstrates an ability to integrate high-quality illustration with strong design and typography, and awareness of presentation and current mobile best practices. Focus on the entertainment industry preferred.
• Experience managing and providing feedback to external vendors and outsourcing teams
• Ability to work globally and in multiple time zones

Preferred

• Art direction, graphic design, and/or illustration experience in a design or advertising agency.
• Experience designing in-game promotional content, social media art assets, or marketing content for games or related products.
• Knowledge of additional current production technologies and their relevant application – e.g. Maya and related products such as Modo or Z-Brush, After Effects, etc.

Benefits and Perks

• 100% health benefit coverage for you and your dependents!
• Performance-based bonuses.
• 401K plan and stock options.
• Flexible vacation policy.
• Great downtown Austin location with extensive nearby dining options and vibrant nightlife.
• Employee-driven entertainment, happy hours, and team-building events.
• Catered lunches multiple times per week.
• Snacks and drinks available in the kitchen.
• Casual work environment.
• An open, collaborative workspace.
• Commuter benefits program.
• *** During COVID 19 we are currently working from home

PLAYSTUDIOS is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants will be considered regardless of their sex (includes pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, and related medical conditions), race, age, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, military or veteran status, or other protected category under the law.