Lead Environment Artist - Console Games

Lead Environment Artist – Console Games

Location: Pune, India

About Gamefuel Studio

Gamefuel Studio is a game development and co-development studio working with game developers and publishers across multiple platforms and genres. As we expand our capabilities in console game development and co-development, we are looking for an experienced Lead Environment Artist who can create and oversee high-quality, production-ready environments for PC and console games.

About the Role

We are looking for a highly skilled and hands-on Lead Environment Artist with strong experience creating visually compelling, real-time game environments. You will be responsible for taking environments from concept and blockout through final in-engine implementation while establishing and maintaining the visual and technical quality bar for environment production.

The ideal candidate combines strong artistic ability, composition and world-building skills with a solid understanding of real-time environment pipelines and console performance constraints. This is a hands-on role. In addition to guiding other artists, you will be expected to create benchmark-quality environment assets and scenes yourself and solve complex artistic and technical production challenges.

Key Responsibilities

1. Create high-quality, production-ready 3D environments for PC and console games.
2. Own and oversee the environment-art pipeline from blockout and reference gathering through final in-engine presentation.
3. Establish visual benchmarks and quality standards for environment production.
4. Translate concept art and Art Direction into compelling, cohesive 3D environments.
5. Ensure environments maintain strong composition, scale, visual hierarchy, storytelling and gameplay readability.
6. Work closely with Level Designers to ensure environments support gameplay requirements while maintaining the intended visual quality.
7. Implement and validate environment assets and scenes in Unreal Engine.
8. Work with lighting and technical-art teams to achieve the desired atmosphere and visual quality.
9. Optimise environments for CPU, GPU, memory and streaming performance on target platforms.
10. Identify and resolve visual and technical issues within environments.
11. Help establish scalable environment-production pipelines and workflows.
12. Review environment assets and provide clear, actionable feedback to artists.
13. Mentor environment artists and help develop the overall capability of the team.
14. Estimate environment-production effort and assist producers with planning and scheduling.
15. Collaborate effectively with internal teams and client stakeholders throughout production.

Must-Have Experience

1. 7+ years of professional experience in game environment art, with experience operating at Senior or Lead level.
2. A strong portfolio demonstrating high-quality environments created for modern PC or console games.
3. Professional experience creating environments for real-time game engines.
4. Strong hands-on experience with Unreal Engine.
5. Expert proficiency with industry-standard 3D tools such as Maya, 3ds Max or Blender.
6. Strong experience with Substance 3D Painter/Designer and modern PBR workflows.
7. Strong understanding of environment composition, scale, perspective, colour, lighting and visual storytelling.
8. Experience creating modular environment systems and reusable asset kits.
9. Strong understanding of game-ready modelling, UVs, baking, texturing, LODs and optimisation.
10. Strong understanding of materials, shaders and real-time rendering considerations.
11. Experience working within polygon, texture, memory and performance budgets.
12. Understanding of level streaming, asset loading and environment-performance considerations.
13. Ability to create benchmark-quality artwork while providing effective direction and feedback to other artists.
14. Ability to understand and work within an established Art Direction and technical pipeline.
15. Strong communication and problem-solving skills.
16. Console Experience
17. We are particularly interested in artists who have contributed to commercially shipped console titles.
18. Candidates with direct experience working on games released for PlayStation and/or Xbox will be strongly preferred.

Candidates should be able to clearly explain:

1. The titles and platforms they worked on
2. Their individual contribution to environment production
3. Environment specifications and technical constraints they worked within
4. Their approach to environment optimisation
5. How they managed asset density, draw calls, memory, LODs and streaming requirements
6. How they collaborated with Level Design, Lighting, Technical Art and Engineering
7. Production or performance challenges they encountered and how they resolved them

Good to Have

1. One or more commercially shipped PlayStation or Xbox titles.
2. Experience working on AAA or comparable high-fidelity game productions.
3. Strong experience with Unreal Engine 5.
4. Experience with Nanite, Lumen, World Partition and modern Unreal environment workflows.
5. Experience with large-scale or open-world environments.
6. Experience with procedural environment-production techniques.
7. Experience with Houdini or similar procedural tools.
8. Experience with terrain and landscape-authoring tools.
9. Strong foliage and vegetation-production experience.
10. Experience creating custom materials and working with shader systems.
11. Understanding of lighting and post-processing workflows.
12. Experience profiling and optimising complex real-time environments.
13. Experience working with proprietary or custom game engines.
14. Experience across different visual styles, from realistic to stylized.
15. Previous experience in a game-development services, co-development or outsourcing environment.

Leadership Expectations

1. As a Lead Environment Artist, you will be expected to:
2. Establish and maintain the visual and technical quality bar for environment art.
3. Translate Art Direction into clear and actionable guidance for the environment team.
4. Remain actively involved in production and personally create benchmark-quality work.
5. Review work and provide constructive, technically informed feedback.
6. Identify artistic, production and technical risks early.
7. Define efficient approaches for modularity, asset reuse and environment construction.
8. Mentor artists and improve the overall capability of the team.
9. Balance visual ambition with gameplay requirements, schedules and technical constraints.
10. Collaborate closely with Art Direction, Level Design, Lighting, Technical Art and Engineering.
11. Communicate effectively with internal teams and client stakeholders.

Portfolio Requirement

1. A portfolio is mandatory for this position.
2. Please include examples of your strongest environment work along with, wherever possible:
3. Final in-engine environments
4. Asset and modular-kit breakdowns
5. Wireframes and topology
6. Texture and material breakdowns
7. Lighting examples
8. Foliage and terrain work
9. LOD and optimisation examples
10. Performance considerations or technical breakdowns
11. Shipped-game examples
12. A clear description of your individual contribution to each project

Why Join Gamefuel

1. This is an opportunity to play an important role in expanding Gamefuel Studio's console and high-end game development capabilities.
2. You will work on varied game projects, collaborate with experienced development teams, establish quality standards for environment production and help build a strong environment-art capability within Gamefuel.