Environment Artist-Expression of Interest

Blind-Squirrel-Games; Auckland; On-site; NZD 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Blind Squirrel Games in Auckland is seeking an Environment Artist to create immersive environments for ports, co-development, and full game work. You will collaborate with art leadership, designers, and engineers to deliver high-quality environments that meet project directions and technical constraints.

The role emphasizes ownership, collaboration, and mentoring as needed, with a path toward more senior responsibilities for experienced candidates.

Qualifications

• Minimum three years of industry experience in environment art; five+ years for senior-level responsibilities.
• Portfolio demonstrating high-quality environments and assets.
• Shipped at least two titles as Environment Artist for seniorlevel roles.
• Understanding of environment art pipelines and production workflows.
• Proficiency in 3D modeling, texturing, material creation, and integrating assets into a game engine.

Responsibilities

• Create environments, terrain, models, textures, and assets using current industry-standard software and methods.
• Develop realistic or stylized content aligned with project art direction.
• Maintain visual quality and consistency across assets and environments.
• Apply composition, lighting, and material techniques to create engaging spaces that support gameplay.
• Integrate assets into the game engine and refine their appearance in context.
• Collaborate with production to define tasks, schedules, and deliver work on time.
• Work with artists, designers, and engineers to create visually compelling environments.
• Optimize geometry, topology, textures, materials, and asset organization for budgets.
• Identify and help resolve performance bottlenecks related to environment content and rendering.
• Iterate on assets based on feedback from art leadership and playtesting.
• Document environment art pipelines and best practices for reference.

Skills

Environment art

Storytelling

Time management

Collaborative

Tools

Maya

3ds Max

Photoshop

ZBrush

Substance Designer

Substance Painter

Unreal Engine 5

Jira

Job description

Environment Artist-Expression of Interest

About Blind Squirrel Games

At Blind Squirrel Games (BSG), creating exceptional games is just the start. As a proud, independent studio, we collaborate with developers and publishers who value innovation and excellence, serving as a trusted partner in bringing high-quality games to life. Our work spans ports, co-development, and full game development, each with its own creative and technical demands.

With studios in Irvine, California; Austin, Texas; Auckland, New Zealand; and Manizales, Colombia, we bring together global talent to build outstanding games. Guided by the Blind Squirrel Way, the standard for how we work, our teams operate with ownership, accountability, and collaboration.

People are central to our success. We prioritize an inquisitive, proactive, and collaborative environment where individuals can make meaningful contributions. We value skills and experience while recognizing that talent develops through hard work, resilience, and a commitment to growth. We welcome diverse perspectives and believe inclusion strengthens our teams, our ideas, and our work.

About the Opportunity

Environment Artists play a vital role in creating immersive worlds and bringing ambitious games to life. Our work spans ports, co-development, and full game development, each with its own artistic and technical challenges. If your experience aligns with this work, we welcome your interest in potential upcoming opportunities.

Supported by the Art Director and Project Leads, you will create high-quality environments, terrain, models, textures, and assets that align with each project’s visual direction, design requirements, and technical parameters. Projects may call for realistic, highly detailed environments or stylized, expressive worlds.

The scope of environment ownership, pipeline improvement, and team guidance will reflect your experience and demonstrated capabilities. These opportunities are for full-time positions based in Auckland, New Zealand, with a fully onsite requirement at our studio.

Environment Artists at BSG…

You understand the environment art pipeline and bring an artistic skillset developed through hands-on game development. You consider how composition, materials, lighting, and environmental storytelling work together to create compelling spaces that support gameplay.

You translate artistic direction into polished assets and environments while balancing visual quality, technical requirements, and production timelines. You take ownership of your work, set high standards, and recognize when feedback or collaboration will improve the outcome.

You are collaborative, open-minded, and receptive to direction. You work effectively both independently and alongside artists, designers, and engineers. As your experience allows, you also guide artistic decisions, improve workflows, and mentor other artists.

Responsibilities

• Create environments, terrain, models, textures, and assets using current industry-standard software and methods.
• Develop realistic or stylized content that aligns with the project’s established art direction.
• Maintain visual quality and consistency across assigned assets and environments.
• Apply composition, set dressing, lighting, and material techniques to create engaging spaces that support gameplay.
• Integrate assets into the game engine and refine their appearance and functionality in context.
• Collaborate with production to define tasks, establish realistic schedules, and deliver work on time.
• Work closely with artists, designers, technical artists, and engineers to create visually compelling and performant environments.
• Optimize geometry, topology, textures, materials, and asset organization to meet technical budgets.
• Identify and help resolve performance bottlenecks associated with environment content and rendering settings.
• Use procedural techniques where appropriate to support efficient creation of large-scale environment elements.
• Iterate on assets and environments based on feedback from art leadership, designers, and playtesting.
• Communicate progress, dependencies, and challenges clearly to the project team.
• Document environment art pipelines, workflows, and best practices for reference and training.
• Contribute to workflow improvements and provide guidance and constructive feedback to colleagues as appropriate to your experience.
• Perform other relevant duties and responsibilities that support company, department, and project objectives.

Qualifications and Education Requirements

• A minimum of three years of industry experience in game development specializing in environment art; five or more years is expected for candidates considered for more senior-level responsibilities.
• A portfolio demonstrating the ability to create high-quality environments and assets, with the depth and complexity of work reflecting your experience.
• Experience contributing to game development projects; candidates considered for more senior-level responsibilities are expected to have shipped at least two titles as an Environment Artist.
• Understanding of environment art pipelines, asset dependencies, and production workflows.
• Proficiency in 3D modeling, texturing, material creation, and integrating environment assets into a game engine.
• Strong foundational skills in composition, design, shape, structure, silhouette, and color theory.
• Ability to interpret art direction, receive feedback, and refine work to meet project expectations.
• Strong communication, organizational, and time-management skills.
• Greater ownership of complex environments, independent artistic and technical judgment, and the ability to improve pipelines and mentor other artists are expected for more senior-level responsibilities.

Preferred Skills

• Experience with ports, co-development, or full game development.
• Experience creating realistic, highly detailed environments and/or stylized, expressive environments.
• Strong knowledge of physically based rendering (PBR), lighting, rendering, and material authoring.
• Proficiency with Maya, 3ds Max, Photoshop, ZBrush, Substance Designer and Painter.
• Extensive experience with Unreal Engine 5; familiarity with Unreal Engine 4, Unity, or other contemporary engines.
• Experience with procedural environment generation and scalable asset workflows.
• Strong skills in set dressing, environmental storytelling, topology, UV mapping, and texturing.
• Experience optimizing environment content for different platforms and hardware capabilities.
• Proficiency with project management and task-tracking software such as Jira.
• A proactive approach to identifying issues and collaborating on practical solutions.
• Experience mentoring artists and supporting a collaborative team environment.
• A passion for environment art and game development.

Blind Squirrel Entertainment, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, marital status, medical condition, genetic information, disability, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

Eligibility for benefits and perks may vary based on position, employment status, and location.

Notice to Job Applicants: As part of the application process, certain personal information is collected, and submission of your application is considered your acknowledgement that you have read and understand our policies applicable to such process and consent to the collection and processing of your personal information in accordance with our Privacy Policy. To review our policies, please visit our [ website ] and click [“ Privacy ”].