9
open roles
Job opening
Game Art Director 2D Mobile Games
Director
This is a remote role on a yearly renewable contract. Seed-funded mobile game studio behind a polished, well-reviewed casual puzzle title is hiring a hands-on Art Director to set the visual direction of its games and build it themselves, guiding other artists along the way. Remote, yearly renewable contract, 8+ years experience.
About the Role
We're a boutique mobile games studio building a curated portfolio of Mahjong-themed puzzle games for a global audience. We're looking for a hands-on Game Art Director to define the visual direction of our games and build it alongside the team.
You'll create stylized 2D isometric environments, backgrounds, and props - moving fluidly between concept art and production-level execution. The goal: warm, polished, highly stylized worlds with the kind of appeal seen in top casual puzzle and renovation games.
This is a player-coach role - you'll set art direction and mentor other artists, but a significant part of your time will still be spent making game art yourself.
What You'll Do
Own the art direction, visual identity and quality bar of the game.
Create concept art and set the visual language for environments, characters, props and other assets.
Create stylized 2D and isometric environments, backgrounds and props, and guide others doing the same.
Make game art yourself, from concept to final production.
Write the style guides and set color palettes, lighting, composition and visual standards.
Review artwork and improve it through feedback, paintovers and your own iterations.
Guide internal and external artists and keep their work consistent across the game.
Work with Game Design, Product and Development so the art supports gameplay and the player experience.
Set up AI-assisted art workflows that speed up exploration, iteration and production without hurting quality or style consistency.
What We're Looking For
Experience in isometric 2D art for mobile games, ideally casual, strategy or puzzle games.
Concept art and visual development skills across environments, characters, props and world-building.
A portfolio of stylized, warm, polished isometric 2D game art environments.
Solid fundamentals in composition, color, lighting, perspective, form and visual storytelling.
Advanced Photoshop and digital painting skills, and the ability to make production-quality assets yourself.
You've defined and maintained the visual direction of a game before.
You've made games for international mobile players.
You can work as an Art Director and as an individual contributor at the same time.
Use of AI in art creation: generative AI, image-to-image, inpainting, style control, iteration, and fitting AI into a professional art workflow.
Nice to Have
Casual, puzzle, tile-match, renovation or decoration games.
Stable Diffusion, Flux, ComfyUI or similar AI art tools.
AI model or style training, LoRAs or other ways of keeping visuals consistent.
Unity and mobile game art pipelines.
3D-to-2D workflows in Blender or similar tools.
Working in a startup or small multidisciplinary game team.
Please note: This position is for one of Playdawn's clients, and successful candidates will be hired directly by the client, not by Playdawn.
Our client is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. They are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace where all individuals are treated with respect and have equal access to opportunities, regardless of race, color, religion, gender, age, disability, or other protected characteristics. They believe that diversity fuels innovation and creativity, and they strive to create an environment where everyone can thrive and contribute to shared success.
PD-547