House of How Games

We believe that a universe without fun would be a pretty dull place to exist… and that games are the best medium in the world to provide that fun. We love games which is why we make games. We make games to be a part of providing that outlet for escape, competition, exploration, social connection and so much more to a global audience of 3B+ players and growing.

We believe in authentic leadership, real conversations, making decisions, learning from mistakes but always continuing to move forward. We don’t want big company politics. We just want to do our best work with good people and have fun doing what we love.

We believe that our team performs best when everyone shows up as their authentic full self and we strive to empower everyone in the studio to be a game-maker. We encourage everyone to have an entrepreneurial mindset and we foster continuous learning and innovation.

In a time of so much industry consolidation, House of How is proud to be fully independent. We are based out of Bothell, Washington with remote game-makers all over the USA. We have a satellite studio in Boden, Sweden and are also now expanding our remote workforce in British Columbia, Canada.

Starting out as colleagues at Microsoft Games, our leads worked with each other for years before setting out on a new adventure together. From humble beginnings, we grew slowly and carefully to ensure we could control our own destiny. We are now at 75+ people and growing rapidly as our industry reputation is bringing more and more projects to the studio. Come join our team and be part of the amazing growth story of House of How Games and help us to entertain the planet!

Job Description

We are looking for a Senior VFX Artist to create snappy and visually stunning VFX. We are looking for someone who has a passion for games to drive our products to the next level. Day-to-day activities will include working closely with a dev team to concept, design, prototype and create VFX assets in a key part of quality experiences that make our games great!

You should have a broad knowledge of game engine technologies and art tools, a keen ability to create and meet estimates, and a good sense for the tradeoff between performance, flexibility, and aesthetics.

As a senior artist, you should also have a track record of coordinating with other disciplines and managing deliverables in coordination with multiple people on your team, creating and following processes and an environment that sets the project up for success.

Project Details

You will join us as a senior artist on one of our latest games made for Steam. It’s an IP tie-in with a well-known video game IP in partnership with a major publisher. The game is AA in scope with a particular focus on high-quality art and animation.

You’ll be supported by our Art Director with 10+ years of AAA game art experience.

Responsibilities

• Create high-quality VFX with Unity’s Shader Graph and VFX Graph, using a combination of particles, 3D meshes, and textures.
• Work closely with other disciplines to help define VFX styles and targets for new and existing projects.
• Work with the art team to help create and establish workflows, style guides, and process improvements.

Requirements

• 7+ years experience in game development as a VFX artist or equivalent, in collaboration with other technical and non-technical disciplines.
• Shipped at least one full AA/AAA game as an artist.
• Proficiency in Photoshop, Maya, Max or any similar software.
• Proficiency in Unity.
• Ability to create compelling shaders and particle effects with a strong grasp of performance and tuning.
• Portfolio that demonstrates your impressive skills and experience.
• Experience with creating stylized VFX.
• Experience and comfort with detailed and accurate project planning.
• Ability to offer mentorship to more junior developers on the team.
• Proficiency in source control systems such as Git or SVN.
• Written and Spoken English Fluency.
• Cleared to work and located in the United States, Canada, or Sweden, or able to work as an international contractor from other locations, preferably in Europe.
• Able to schedule your work day with at least 4 hours overlap with Western USA (more overlap is expected for employees in USA and Canada).

Bonus Qualifications

• Familiarity with ADO, Trello, Jira, or other task tracking systems.
• Experience with Cg/HLSL/GLSL shader languages.
• Willing to lead or share techniques with the team.
• Coding, Animation, Audio, etc. If you have any related side skills, please tell us!
• Experience with creating realistic VFX for potential future projects.

Compensation

Although we’re a relatively small-and-growing remote team, we work hard to offer competitive salaries regardless of location, as well as industry-leading healthcare coverage, flexible time-off policy, comprehensive dental/vision/life/AD&D benefits, discretionary bonus opportunities, 401(k) with matching, social clubs, career training events, and much more.

In addition, House of How employees also receive:

• 10 days of accrued paid time-off, increased to 15 days after three years of employment
• 14 paid House of How-observed holidays annually
• 2.5 paid floating holidays annually, prorated in the first year of employment based on start date

The base pay ranges for this role in Washington state, enumerated by rank, are as follows:

Washington State Pay Range

Artist: $45,000—$65,000 USD
Artist II: $50,000—$70,000 USD
Senior Artist: $60,000—$90,000 USD
Senior Artist II: $65,000—$95,000 USD
Senior Artist III: $75,000—$100,000 USD
Associate Principal Artist: $80,000—$130,000 USD
Principal Artist: $90,000—$140,000 USD

These ranges are determined by a multiplicity of competing factors, including work experience, transferable skills, training, business needs, and market demands. In other locations, these pay ranges may be adjusted, and they are subject to change.

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If you think you are a good fit, please apply below!
Please be sure to include the following:

• Resume as PDF
• Link to your demo reel or portfolio (ArtStation preferred, but will accept others if needed)
• Full list of your shipped games (in resume or portfolio)