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Rare is a one-of-a-kind game studio where we create the kind of games the world doesn’t have, games that are uniquely Rare! Working here offers opportunities unlike anywhere else. You’ll be providing players with unforgettable shared experiences in games loved by millions worldwide. Our pirate adventure Sea of Thieves, launched in 2018, continues to thrive – and alongside that we’re busy creating our next magical world, Everwild, announced in 2019 to a global audience. We strive to make Rare an amazing place to work, embracing a culture of respect and building a supportive environment for our developers. Our custom-built Twycross studio is situated in the beautiful English countryside, surrounded by woodland and wildlife, with plenty of room for us to grow.
By joining Rare, you’ll be joining one of the finest studios in the industry with support from the wider Xbox Game Studios network. We’re always on the lookout for exceptional people who can bring their expertise and unique thinking to help make our team even stronger!
Team department mission
As a Technical Artist within the Character team at Rare, you’ll be responsible for delivering beautiful and captivating visual experiences to our players. You’ll contribute to a 35-year history of delivering visually stunning games, using cutting-edge techniques to solve problems, and showing your own inventiveness to tackle challenges that have not yet been solved in the industry.
Responsibilities
Technical Artists can expect to interact with almost every aspect of game production. This role is about marrying art and technology in unique, creative ways. Tech Art interns could find themselves working with engineers on implementation of gameplay features, with artists on tasks requiring high-quality VFX, or even with the Character TD, prototyping and implementing entirely new graphics techniques.
The desire to learn, fit into a team environment and positively increase the quality of the game as a whole is a must – everybody on the team gets their hands dirty in all areas of game production! It’s all about the individual’s strengths and passions. Whether it’s creating 3D models or 2D VFX content, writing shaders or something else that we’ve never seen before, we want artists who will bring their own unique views and ideas to the project and the drive to innovate in their areas of interest.
We’re big believers in high-quality artwork here at Rare and, since we’re developing our products as services, we aim for fast iteration using common methods. This means that we embrace modern development practices such as Continuous Delivery, automated testing, team art reviews and agile methods.
Key accountabilities
- Identify, implement, and iterate on game features and pipeline requirements, in conjunction with artists, designers, engineers and testers.
- Solve problems through the application of sound common sense.
- Continuously work to minimise technical debt and art quality debt and rework.
- Devote time to personal improvement to further your own game development, art and technical knowledge.
Qualifications
- Experience of producing CG art and a passion for the technology of state-of-the-art visuals and authoring techniques.
- A solid grounding in core art foundation and genuine enthusiasm for character art and current as well as future 3D art techniques.
- A portfolio or technical blog demonstrating your ability in CG art and/or coding.
Please note: it is not essential to have experience in computer games development or to be on a games-specific course.
Desirable experience
None of these are essential but the more the better:
- Experience with 3D graphics content generation tools (e.g. Maya, Houdini, ZBrush).
- Experience with 2D graphics content generation tools (e.g. Photoshop, Substance Designer, After Effects).
- Experience with off-the-shelf engines/editors (e.g. Unreal 4, Unity).
- Strong traditional art skills.
- A love for stylised visuals – exploring and understanding the art pipeline and rendering techniques involved.
- Artwork interests outside those prescribed by a university course (e.g. personal portfolio, online competitions, independent game projects, involvement in a modding community).
- Creative activities (e.g. interest in art principles, photography, creative writing, game art).
- Experience in writing shaders for real-time rendering (e.g. HLSL, GLSL, CGFX).
- Understanding of real-time rendering pipelines in modern game engines.
- Experience of any of the areas of game development mentioned in the Activities section of this document.
Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances.
