Avalanche Studios
is hiring
Animator
Avalanche Studios Group and its incubation team are seeking an Animator for work on a game prototype, working with a focused team of designers, programmers and technical artists. The ideal candidate brings extensive experience in animating human characters, with a strong focus on traversal mechanics and realistic physical interactions. In this role, you will take a significant ownership and responsibility applying your passion for animation, highly developed technical skills and creative problem - solving abilities to contribute across multiple aspects of the project. You thrive in a dynamic, collaborative environment where testing, iteration, and open discussion are essential to discovering and refining the most engaging player experiences. With a player-centric mindset, you are deeply passionate about creating fun, immersive gameplay experiences and prioritize how players feel and interact with the game above the underlying systems themselves.
What you'll do
- Be a key contributor to a prototype team of six people
- Own the production of animation content for a prototype focused on traversal and physical interaction
- Collaborate with programmers, tech artists, and tech animators to build an immersive experience where players feel like part of the world they interact with
- Share responsibility with the rest of the team for the overall stability, health, and success of the prototype
Who you are
- A highly skilled Animator who is passionate about animation and video games
- Strong skills and a deep understanding of animation fundamentals in a realistic style
- 5+ years of experience working as an Animator in the games industry
- Ability to demonstrate excellence in the production of keyframed and mocap animations for humans
- Extensive knowledge of current animation techniques and third-party animation software, including Maya and MotionBuilder
- Experience implementing animations in Unreal Engine
- Strong communication skills and experience working in a team environment
- Comfortable with rapid prototyping and iteration cycles, including frequent team playtesting and feedback
- Experienced in collaborating with designers to interpret and develop high-level briefs, identifying the best artistic and technical approaches to achieve gameplay goals
- Motivated by diverse tasks and dynamic areas of responsibility
The studios first game, Just Cause, released in September 2006, met with great success and quickly established Avalanche as a studio at the forefront of open world game development. With a unique and proprietary games technology known as Avalanche Engine, Avalanche Studios’ design team was empowered to create groundbreaking games which opened many doors for a rapid company expansion. In 2007 and 2008, the company doubled in size and also moved to a new studio location, where it began work on three AAA projects based on original IP.
After experiencing the 2008 and 2009 recession, Avalanche Studios released Just Cause 2 in March 2010 on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. The game has since won numerous awards, including the IGN Editor’s Choice Award and has established a huge fanbase worldwide. Several DLC expansion packs and a PSN release followed.
In 2009 Avalanche Studios started a new studio – Expansive Worlds (www.expansiveworlds.com) to focus on socially-connected online games distributed directly to consumer. Expansive Worlds released its premiere title, theHunter (www.thehunter.com) in 2009, achieving a thriving subscriber base.
2011 was a very exciting year for Avalanche Studios as the studio released its first Xbox Live Arcade/PlayStation Network game, Renegade Ops, with a PC version distributed through Steam shortly thereafter. Based on the same underlying technology as Just Cause 2 and featuring massively destructible environments and 4 player online co-op, Renegade Ops received high praise from the international press.
Additionally in 2011, the company announced its expansion into North America with the opening of a new AAA development studio in Manhattan’s SoHo district. The New York studio officially opened its doors on November 15th, 2011 and is hard at work on Project Mamba, a console and PC title scheduled for release in 2014.
At present, Avalanche is working on three AAA projects based on original and licensed IPs for release in 2013 and 2014. The company employs more than 170 staff across its Stockholm and New York studios and continues to be owned and managed by its founders. The future of Avalanche Studios has never been brighter.
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