2D Artist/Animator job

TL;DR:
Indie studio hiring 2d artist to create painterly art, preferably watercolors. Strongly prefer someone who also animates, but apply anyway if you think you have the art style we’re looking for. We’re looking for someone who can dedicate 10+ hours/wk to this. This is an emotionally compelling, narrative-driven point and click game with environmental puzzles, alternate reality game elements, and gorgeous, hand-painted art. Think Kentucky Route Zero meets Grim Fandango meets That Dragon, Cancer. There is a regular stipend plus generous profit shares. We’ll also launch a crowdfunding campaign. We plan to distribute on Steam, and go from there. Hopefully Xbox or PS4, who knows. To apply, please email a link to a portfolio of your work or website and a resume to twinalchemy@gmail.com. The rest of our team is complete (composer, voice actors, programmers, etc.) Please only apply for the position requested. Here's a game trailer: Greatgoldbird.com

Story:
What do you do when a cryptic floppy disk arrives in the mail for a job you never applied for? Who is Henry Combs? Does he speak in prophecies or fever dreams? What does he want, and what did he lose?

Great Gold Bird, Great Dark Yawn is a narrative-driven, atmospheric point and click game in the style of Kentucky Route Zero with the intimacy and rewarding exploration of Gone Home, but with logic-based environmental puzzles like Grim Fandango. Originally conceived and produced as an alternate reality game/interactive theatre proejct, we’ve kept several ARG elements from its original iteration. What makes our gameplay really unique is that with optional side puzzles, you can explore off-game media such as a strange youtube channel, an old geocities webpage, and conspiracy podcasts. You can simply play the game, or you can dive to the bottom of that deep, dank subreddit rabbit hole. Your call. Aesthetically, we’re layering textures of found footage and hand-painted assets to create a surreal, dreamlike environment that mirrors the narrator’s state of mind. This story explores themes of memory, regret, ambition, parenthood, conspiracies, and the natural world. Cormac McCarthy and Mary Oliver are major literary influences. Our story is set in Austin, TX: home of mom and pop roadside museums, INFOWARS, extreme yard art, and “keeping it weird.” It has also been my community for the last four years. I couldn’t imagine a better backdrop for this story. All of the areas in the game are based on real locations in Austin that can be toured and visited. Script and GDD will be sent to final candidates!

Production:
We are almost finished with our demo/first act of our 5-act game. After that, we’ll launch our kickstarter. Our original animator/illustrator has started another position (but will continue to do some special projects with the game), so we need someone whose style can blend well (seamlessly?) with his or at least complement it. You’ll most likely be doing 75-90% of the art work and will therefore reap 75-90% of pay and profit shares originally allotted to the position. Unless you work incredibly quickly and have a really compelling, original art style, we’re only interested in similar art styles (i.e. painterly). If you can do a digital paint-by-number style, I’d like to see that, too. We’re a startup indie team, not a AAA studio. There’s pay involved and a good shot at making plenty of money in the long run if the game is commercially successful, but this is a passion project for us.

Art:
We want to see art that looks like (or at least looks good with) the art used in our trailer: Greatgoldbird.com

Team:
You’ll be working with…
- A creative director/writer who’s an award-winning playwright with plays produced in NYC, Chicago, Austin, and Atlanta. Also, a creator of interactive installations and alternate reality games.
-A badass composer who has scored numerous video games and films, and who has been featured in SPIN, Paste, and Pitchfork.
- An awesome programmer/level designer and his assistant. This guy just had his first major Xbox release. There’s nothing they can’t do together.

To Apply

To apply, please email a link to a portfolio of your work or website and a resume to twinalchemy@gmail.com. The rest of our team is complete (composer, voice actors, programmers, etc.) Please only apply for the position requested, unless you want to be our PR person for profit shares?