Environment Art Review Artist [Contract] (Retro Studios)

Nintendo•Austin, TX

3h•Onsite

About The Position

Retro Studios is seeking an Environment Art Review Artist for a contract position in Austin, Texas. This role involves reviewing outsourced environments and assets to ensure they meet the project's artistic vision, quality standards, and technical specifications. The artist will provide feedback to external artists, estimate asset creation times, create or refine art assets, test environments in-engine, and use debugging tools for performance analysis and optimization. Additionally, the role includes mentoring external artists, assessing their capabilities, contributing to documentation, and collaborating with internal and external teams to refine art pipelines.

Requirements

4+ years of experience in video game production as an Environment Artist with a shipped game (or equivalent experience).
Strong working knowledge of Maya, Substance Painter, and other industry-standard tools.
Deep understanding of modern game production pipelines, including artistic and technical requirements.
Strong grasp of fundamental art principles, including color, composition, value, structure, perspective, and basic lighting concepts.
Solid understanding of world-building fundamentals for games, such as player pathing, focal points/POIs, detail distribution, composition, and set dressing.
Strong knowledge of asset optimization techniques and the ability to maintain high-quality visuals within technical constraints.
Exceptional verbal, written, and visual communication skills.
Excellent organizational abilities and strong problem-solving skills.

Nice To Haves

Experience creating lighting for environments, doing lighting reviews, and providing constructive and actionable lighting feedback.
Experience working on an outsourcing team or closely collaborating with external vendors/artists.
Experience leading and/or mentoring a small art team.

Responsibilities

Review outsourced environments and assets to ensure alignment with artistic vision, quality bar, and technical specifications.
Deliver clear, timely, and actionable feedback to external artists.
Provide accurate time estimates for art asset and environment creation.
Create or refine art assets while maintaining visual and technical consistency.
Test environments and art assets in-engine for visual quality, technical standards, and performance.
Use debugging tools to analyze performance metrics and propose optimization strategies.
Mentor and guide external artists to improve their output, efficiency, and adherence to best practices.
Assess external teams' capabilities regarding production, optimization standards, and performance requirements.
Help produce documentation, visual examples, and guidelines for art asset creation, optimization, and performance.
Collaborate with external partners and internal departments to refine and evolve pipelines for outsourced environment assets.