About the role
Role Overview
Location: UK Remote or West Midlands-based
Type: Full-Time Contractor
Note: No visa sponsorship available.
The role involves developing, owning, and delivering visually striking and immersive game lighting setups to elevate mood, support gameplay, and enhance the player experience for internal projects and co-development partners. Key responsibilities include shaping atmosphere, defining visual tone, and bringing game worlds to life.
Responsibilities
- Block out, implement, and optimise complex and dynamic lighting, including gameplay‑driven, ambient, and cinematic lighting setups.
- Ensure seamless lighting integration from prototype to final implementation.
- Collaborate with Art, Design, and Creative teams to interpret and uphold the quality bar and visual identity of the game.
- Actively participate in content reviews, providing creative input and incorporating feedback.
- Follow best pipeline practices for content creation, optimisation, and performance.
- Ensure lighting meets visual quality standards and runs smoothly across target platforms.
- Proactively communicate and collaborate across disciplines to uphold delivery requirements.
- Work with Leads and the Production team to prioritise tasks, raise issues, and deliver work on time.
Essential Qualifications
- Proven lighting experience within games.
- Portfolio demonstrating:
- Strong understanding of the lighting pipeline and quality expectations.
- Variety of modern, high‑quality real‑time PBR lighting work within an established style.
- Strong understanding of Unreal Engine lighting:
- Lumen, VSMs, atmospherics/volumetrics, Lightmass, mesh distance fields, post‑process effects, exposure control, and colour grading.
- Experience with profiling and optimising lighting setups for various platforms using tools such as RenderDoc or Unreal Insights.
- Experience creating LUTs or colour‑grading profiles.
- Familiarity with GPU Lightmass or baked GI workflows.
- Demonstrated command of fundamentals: composition, value control, colour theory, mood, readability, and guiding player attention.
- Effective communication and collaboration skills.
- Ability to manage time effectively and own end-to-end delivery of work.
- Passion for gaming and a drive to deliver visually stunning experiences.
Desirable Skills
- Understanding of Blueprint and other approaches to create bespoke Unreal lighting solutions and systems.
- Understanding of cinematography and photography fundamentals (exposure, composition, colour theory, contrast, lens behaviour).
- Skills in adjacent areas such as Cinematics, Concept Art, or Environment Art.
- Previous shipped title(s) within a relevant game art production pipeline.
Company Culture and Benefits
- Friendly, nurturing, and collaborative work environment.
- Opportunity to work on market-leading AAA titles and IP with globally reputable partners.
- Involvement in a sustainably growing independent studio.
- Exposure to a wide range of projects and learning opportunities.
- Inclusive and diverse workplace committed to equal opportunities.
Application Requirements
- Submit portfolio and cover letter.
- Samples from previous studio work must be cleared for release by copyright owners.
- Online portfolio links are preferred; showreels accepted via Dropbox or secure sharing platforms.
- Applications are stored on a private cloud-based system for recruitment purposes only, in compliance with GDPR.