[Hiring] Senior Character Artist @Squanch Games

Role Description

As a Senior Character Artist at Squanch Games, you'll help create memorable characters, creatures, talking weapons, aliens, and whatever other weird things our games call for. Every day, you'll be sculpting, modeling, texturing, and bringing characters to life while working closely with Art Direction, Concept, Animation, Rigging, Tech Art, and Design. You'll be someone the team can count on to take ownership of character assets from concept through final implementation.

We're a small, fully remote, comedy-focused studio that loves creativity, experimentation, and pushing what we can do in games. Our characters are a huge part of that. We want someone with strong artistic fundamentals who can take a character from concept through a polished, game-ready asset while preserving the personality that made the idea fun in the first place.

There's a lot of creative freedom here, but that comes with ownership. We value artists who share their work, communicate clearly, ask questions, flag problems early, and help find solutions. You'll work across different projects and visual styles, so being adaptable, collaborative, and comfortable figuring things out is important.

What You'll Do:

• Create high-quality characters, creatures, clothing, hair, and related assets from concept through final in-game implementation.
• Quickly develop proxies and blockouts to establish silhouettes, proportions, and forms for early gameplay, rigging, and animation.
• Sculpt high-poly models including hard surfaces, create optimized low-poly assets, and handle topology, UVs, texture baking, painting, and material creation.
• Maintain strong artistic quality while meeting performance budgets and technical requirements.
• Work with Concept and Art Direction to translate 2D designs into compelling 3D characters, contributing creative solutions when concepts aren't fully defined.
• Collaborate with Rigging, Animation, and Tech Art to ensure characters are properly constructed, deform correctly, and function in-game.
• Implement, troubleshoot, and review character assets directly in Unreal Engine.
• Help maintain character workflows, quality standards, documentation, and best practices.
• Provide constructive feedback and support to other artists and external development partners.
• Share progress regularly, communicate challenges early, and follow through on commitments.
• Embrace feedback and iteration while helping push the quality and creativity of our characters.

Qualifications

• Senior-level professional experience creating characters for games or equivalent demonstrated production experience.
• At least 2 shipped games as a Character Artist, with hands-on Unreal Engine production experience.
• A strong portfolio demonstrating production-ready character work, including sculpting, anatomy, silhouettes, topology, textures, materials, optimization, and engine implementation.
• Strong experience with ZBrush, Maya and/or Blender, Substance 3D Painter, Photoshop, or comparable tools.
• Ability to quickly create proxies, blockouts, high-poly sculpts, and optimized low-poly models.
• Strong understanding of UVs, texture baking, texture painting, material creation, and real-time character optimization.
• Solid understanding of rigging, animation, topology, and deformation requirements.
• Ability to independently take character assets from concept through implementation in Unreal Engine.
• Strong artistic fundamentals with the flexibility to work across different characters, projects, and visual styles.
• Comfortable receiving and applying feedback, collaborating across disciplines, and iterating throughout production.
• Strong communication, problem-solving, and time-management skills.
• A self-starter who takes ownership, communicates progress, and follows through in a fully remote environment.
• Someone who enjoys experimenting, contributing creative ideas, and occasionally making something wonderfully strange.

Nice to Have:

• Experience with MetaHuman or similar character systems.
• Groom/hair creation experience.
• Experience with clothing and cloth simulation workflows.
• Experience developing advanced shaders and character materials.
• Experience working with outsourcing or external development teams.
• Experience developing stylized characters and creatures.

Art Test:

Depending on your portfolio and prior experience, an art test may be required as part of the interview process.

Benefits

• Salary range: $108,000 to $130,000, depending on experience and skill.
• Employer-paid health and dental insurance for employees and eligible dependents.
• Low-cost vision insurance for employees and eligible dependents.
• Employer-paid short- and long-term disability insurance.
• Paid parental/family bonding leave.
• 401(k).
• FSA & DCFSA.
• Flexible PTO and work schedule.
• Fully remote studio.
• One-time work-from-home setup stipend.
• Monthly remote-work expense stipend.
• Monthly customized snack box delivered to your home.

Location:

We are a fully remote studio operating from all over the United States! While we haven't hit all 50, we encourage applicants from across the country to apply and help us complete our map.

Equal Employment Opportunity:

Squanch Games provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, creed, marital status, registered partner or civil union status, disability status, medical condition, genetic information, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including but not limited to recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.