posted: Friday July 12th 2024, edited Tuesday August 6th 2024, edited Friday September 6th 2024
LAST CALL! Apply by Friday September 13th 2024 to be considered.
Superbrothers A/V is looking to hire some people in 2024
Superbrothers Audiovisual Inc, the tiny videogame art and design organization known for 2011's iOS hit Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, 2012's Sound Shapes and 2021/2023's ambitious PS5 effort JETT: The Far Shore + Given Time, is developing a new 2D mystery action pixel videogame, working with a publisher. This new project will transition from prototyping to pre-production in ~October, and it's about time we got some job postings up and circulated.
A little more info about this project and opportunity:
We think this project is going to be pretty fun to work on, some good people on the team, generally pretty relaxed, some good senior people are already on and around the project.
Development is projected to take a couple years through to the end of 2026, into early 2027.
The project is being planned to be satisfyingly finite, immediately legible, entertaining, funny, and generally satisfying for a broad audience. We're planning to ship it at a very high quality.
In short, this should be a good gig, hopefully a great gig, reliable, challenging in good ways, a project to be proud of, and a good stepping stone for intermediate people as they progress through their careers.
So, who are we looking for?
We’re seeking a ~32 hours/week intermediate technical designer ramping up in ~October 2024 and running to early 2027. This would be someone with some technical chops and some design chops, someone highly reliable with an ability to organize and refine, someone who knows their way around a Unity editor and can shoulder a lot of different kinds of in-engine design work, someone who will be core to the REV org from now until ship. For this role we’re looking for someone in eastern time zone, living in Canada. For more details, see below.
We’re also scouting a gameplay specialist who can be involved in higher level conversations about gameplay experience design, and who can then get in-engine to the low level to help us whip our mechanics, levels, combat and game feel into shape. For more details, see below.
General guidelines for prospective Superbrothers personnel:
these are contractor type roles, even the full time role
compensation is intended to be reasonable, comfortable, competitive
people with interesting and diverse backgrounds are encouraged to apply
location: working remote, but in eastern time zone
being Canadian is a bonus (due to easier paperwork)
ideally personnel would be able and willing to get to Montreal for a coupla days once or twice a year
core personnel:
~intermediate technical designer (core)
workload: full time, 4 days a week, or 5 if that’s your preference
but with some vacas here and there, and lighter summer hours mid-Jul to late Aug
term: ~October 2024 to early 2027
compensation: reasonable, comfortable, competitive, with a retention bonus on ship (ie. plz stick with the project)
location: working remote, but your location matters
eastern time zone is a must
being a Canadian resident is pretty much a must, easier paperwork
ideally able and willing to get to Montreal for a coupla days once or twice a year
duties:
you’ll work with creative director, designers, engineer, working within an existing vision, to tidy, order and help shape everything in-engine under the hood, to make the project easier for everyone to work with
you’ll get your shoulder under the bulk of the in-engine editing and (non-coding) dev work and co-own the Unity project / scenes with the other two full-time personnel C + BZ
duties as described by REV lead engineer BZ aka Bronson Zgeb (co-founder of KO-OP, GNOG, Hitman: GO)
prototype gameplay features
test and evaluate designs
seek to improve game features and pipelines
able to meet technical standards of the project
duties as described by REV creative director C aka Craig D. Adams (founder of Superbrothers, sworcery, JETT):
day to day in fall 2024 you'd play a key role in moving the project from its messier prototype phase towards an organized and architected pre production phase, ordering assets and objects in-engine, making gameplay more reliable and performant, working to establish a strong foundation for vertical slice work starting in winter 2025, you’ll attend to dry but necessary tasks like cleaning nested prefabs and tuning naming conventions for high searchability, taking the lead in keeping the project tidy under the hood, but this is a small team and you’ll also be pitching in on juicier work like helping to shape levels, combat and gameplay, and being in general design conversations
qualifications:
high producer statistic
you will effectively get things done by capturing, sorting, prioritizing, clarifying, communicating, and following up
you're accountable, you've got good instincts, you're easy to work with
you like a clean scrubbed spreadsheet and a refreshed task board, you're okay to communicate with bulleted lists
relevant experience
you've worked in Unity or similar engine and you've tidied, ordered and helped shape scenes and other assets in a prior videogame, ideally at least one that has shipped, ideally more than one
you know enough about development and engineering to be able to sustain a long deep conversation with our senior engineer
you have good enough game design instincts to be be able to take creative and design direction and get things in good shape
intermediate gameplay design specialist (core)
workload: variable and negotiated, could be 2 or 3 days a week
but with some vacas here and there, and lighter summer hours mid-Jul to late Aug
term: ideally ~October 2024 to late 2026, negotiable
compensation: reasonable, comfortable, competitive, with a retention bonus on ship
location: working remote, but location and timezone matters
preference for eastern time zone, or adjacent
preference for Canadian, easier paperwork
ideally able and willing to get to Montreal for a coupla days once or twice a year
duties:
you’ll work with creative director, designers, engineer to pull together an undeniably fun 11/10 sidescrolling action gameplay experience, working within an existing vision
you’ll shoulder relevant in-engine work and co-own the gameplay vision right through to ship
there are two main gameplay specialist contexts:
primary focus - combat and level design:
working within an established vision, whip these things into shape
deep understanding of contemporary platformer design
secondary focus - 3Cs and game feel:
help develop, tune and perfect an excellent side-scrolling character controller
excellent vocabulary and understanding of gamefeel to achieve a highly polished gameplay experience
able to communicate any needs to technical designers/engineers/directors in clear and measurable ways (metrics) while balancing less tangible inputs like gamefeel
qualifications:
high producer stat
you will effectively get things done by capturing, sorting, prioritizing, clarifying, communicating, and following up
you're accountable, you've got good instincts, you're easy to work with
you like a clean scrubbed spreadsheet and a refreshed task board, you're okay to communicate with bulleted lists
relevant experience
you're an expert in action videogames like Nidhogg, Hades, old school Castlevanias, Vampire Survivors, Dead Cells, Rogue Legacy, Spelunky
you've proven that you know how to tune, refine, polish and ship a relevant videogame
audio lead (core)
workload: variable, perhaps 2 to 4 days a week
but with vacas and patchy summers
term: fall 2024 to early 2027
compensation: reasonable, comfortable, competitive, with a retention bonus on ship
location: working remote, but
preference for eastern time zone
preference for Canadian, easier paperwork
ideally able and willing to get to Montreal for a coupla days once or twice a year
duties:
work with creative director, designers, engineer, music and audio contributors to pull together an outstanding and memorable videogame audio experience
qualifications:
high producer stat
you will effectively get things done by capturing, sorting, prioritizing, clarifying, communicating, and following up
you're accountable, you've got good instincts, you're easy to work with
you like a clean scrubbed spreadsheet and a refreshed task board, you're okay to communicate with bulleted lists
relevant experience
you've done something like audio lead work on another videogame
you will work in an engine like Unity with tools like fmod or wwise and make magic happen, can create audio and design sounds
Superbrothers is looking for the following non-core personnel.
audio or music specialists
are you a composer of a sound designer with some firepower and you'd like to get involved? okay to reach out if so
contributors-wise we have a notion of who we'll be working with, some familiar names and some new names, but now's a good time to get some other options on the table
2D art specialists
are you a pixel artist who knows how to work on a 2D videogame? could you help us set up a pipeline this fall? could you contribute pixels including animations in a Superbrothers style? please get in touch
or are you a concept artist who'd like to find a way to contribute art direction? get in touch
narrative design and mystery/puzzle design specialists
got relevant chops here? dug sworcery? want to be involved in something similar? get in touch
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If you fit the criteria for technical designer or gameplay specialist for ~October and you’d like to apply, or if you’d like to get in touch about another role, please send an email with a brief intro note and a cv and relevant info to hello@superbrothersHQ.com
If you sent something in: thanks! We’re got some great options.
We’ve been reviewing applicants in July, August and September and interviews are underway in September.
Try though we might, we’re a small outfit and we may not be able to get a reply out to each email. Thank you for understanding.
