 |
Nihilistic Software is continuing over 10 years of stable growth to become one of the largest independent studios in North America. Located in idyllic Marin County, California, we focus exclusively on creating AAA titles for
PS3 and
XBOX 360 in action, adventure, and RPG genres for the
core gamer. We offer benefits no corporate studio can match, like
royalty-sharing and
equity ownership. We believe in hiring creative, dedicated, talented people and letting them do their job.
These positions are full-time, on-site in the Marin County / San Francisco Bay Area. We offer competitive salaries, full employer-paid benefits, and direct royalty profit sharing. We also offer team members direct equity in our company after completing their first full project cycle.
Senior Console Graphics ProgrammerNihilistic Software is seeking an experienced and talented Console Graphics Programmer to continue to develop the company's proprietary engine technology on our current unannounced next generation console action-adventure title with a top publisher.
Applicants must have a strong sense of rendering architecture and modern graphics pipelines. A keen sense of how to balance performance with a flexible and robust feature set that meets the needs of the project is also required.
Professional experience working on rendering on the PS3 and/or XB360, architecting new rendering engines, and working with new or in-development hardware is ideal. A passion for playing and creating AAA action games is also highly desirable.
The Console Graphics Programmer collaborates with the engine team and other development team members to specify, document, design, implement, profile, optimize and debug engine code throughout the project cycle.
Responsibilities:
- Developing and maintaining the core technology to be used in commercial AAA game titles.
- Analyze code performance and optimize code appropriately for speed and memory usage.
- Design and implement new visual systems based on new research or techniques.
- Absorb documentation on new hardware and software systems in order to implement new features.
- Design and implement efficient low-level systems to support higher-level programmers and pipelines.
- Contribute to the overall design of the technology plan of the company and the game titles.
- Research new graphics techniques and assess their suitability for adoption into the game engine.
- Keep abreast of latest developments in hardware and software via developer support, conferences, publications, etc.
Qualifications:
- B.S. degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience.
- 6+ Years experience in game development and/or 3 quality shipped titles in a key engine role.
- 5+ Years of console development experience in an engine role.
- Hands on experience in two or more of the following areas: Lighting and Lighting Pipelines, Shaders and Shader Frameworks, Rendering Architecture, Anti-Aliasing, Shadowing.
- Up-to-date knowledge of current graphics techniques such as per-pixel lighting, HDR/Tone mapping, shadow mapping, deferred rendering techniques, etc.
- Strong technical skills:
- 6+ Years of C++
- 5+ Years of graphics programming experience
- Solid foundation in 3D math
- Low level coding experience(PS3 SPU intrinsics, PS2 VU microcode, PS2 MIPS, Xbox SSE instructions, etc)
- Previous experience working with multi-core architectures
- Experience with high-level shader languages (HLSL, CG)
- Experience working with platform profiling tools also a plus
- PS3 or XB360 experience is desirable, but not required for this position.
- Ability and strong desire to actively contribute to a highly creative and collaborative team environment, generating innovative solutions.
- Positive, professional attitude and interpersonal skills; effectively and productively communicate with leads, engineers, artists, designers and managers.
- Excellent writing skills; ability to clearly and concisely define specifications, feature sets and system designs through articulate, well organized technical documents.
- Ability and willingness to accept and follow direction as well as to seek out, provide and respond positively to critical feedback.
- Disciplined and self-motivated with a strong work ethic; able to work well autonomously, meet deadlines, prioritize and tackle multiple tasks and complete deliverables with a high quality standard.
- Be willing to work closely with, a small group of talented people in an open, fun and relaxed development environment.
Bonus Qualifications:
- Rendering experience on a 3rd or 1st person action game.
- Wide range of game system experience (particles, animation, physics, streaming, sound, etc...).
- Enjoys helping content creators get the most out of the engine technology.
- Has a passion for playing and creating games and can articulate that passion clearly and analytically.
Senior/Lead UI Designer/Artist Nihilistic Software is hard at work on its new projects and is looking to fill out our team with a UI Designer/Artist. The ideal candidate would be ready to work closely with Designers, Programmers, and Artists to conceptualize, implement, and polish a cohesive user-interface from start to finish. He or she should have the creativity and skills to create a unique, themed look for the game and associated materials (logos, websites, marketing materials, etc.).
Requirements:
- Excellent UI/HUD/Front End design skills.
- Solid understanding of videogame UI/HUD/Front End concepts and standards.
- Up-to-date Flash, Flash Animation and Flash scripting skills with any toolset.
- A strong sense of Graphic Design.
- Should be a gamer, and have a passion for video games.
- Ability to work closely with a small group of people in an open environment.
- Creativity, motivation, enthusiasm, flexibility.
Recommended Skills:
- Between 3 to 5 years experience working in games.
- Strong painting and drawing skills (traditional and digital).
- BA in art/graphic design.
- Knowledge of Front End/UI "TCRs" for console platforms.
- Scaleform experience.
- Experience with AfterEffects or similar "post" package.
- Knowledge of print/prepress.
If you feel you meet these qualifications, please email your resume using the subject "UI Designer/Artist"
Character RiggerNihilistic Software is hard at work on its new, Next Gen project. We're looking to bring one more member aboard to fill out our animation team.
Responsibilities:
- Set-up and rigging of character models.
- Work with animators to design, create, and maintain animation rigs for characters that are clean, efficient, and animation friendly.
- Design user interfaces and controls for characters and facial animation systems (Bone and blend shape driven).
- Maintain and improve current animation pipeline tools for game export, animation sharing, and motion capture transfer between character rigs.
Experience:
- Extensive knowledge of skeletal and deformation systems and the principles of character motion required to build high quality characters of all types (bipeds, quadrupeds, snakes, etc).
- Extensive experience and knowledge of Maya and MEL scripting, knowledge of Maya API is a plus.
- Excellent working knowledge of character animation tools and setup environment in Maya.
- Experience using Havok a plus.
- Animation and/or modeling experience a plus.
- MotionBuilder experience a plus
- Minimum 2-3 years industry experience setting up both low and high-res characters.
Applicants should:
- Be motivated, enthusiastic, and ready to work hard in a fun and relaxed atmosphere.
- Be motivated to develop and maintain a strong knowledge in his/her expertise.
- Able to take direction and work closely with a small group of people in an open environment.
- Able to prioritize tasks and manage their own time effectively.
- Have a passion for video games.
If you're interested, please email your resume (Web pages/online portfolios are much appreciated) using the subject "Character Rigger".
Sound Designer/Implementer We're looking for a talented and diverse individual who considers great audio to be one of the most important elements in a successful video game.
In the role of Sound Producer, you will interface with external sound creators to direct their efforts, and incorporate the sounds directly into the game using a variety of tools.
On the Design side, you must be able to effectively communicate with both audio and non-audio savvy developers to help craft an effective soundscape for our upcoming games. You will also work with programmers to direct audio feature sets and implementation below the tool level.
Required Skills:
- Ability to work in conjunction with our audio programmers to implement audio features.
- Leadership to drive all aspects of game audio, both the technical and aesthetic.
- Hands-on experience with implementation tools (FMOD, Scream, or similar).
- Organization skills to manage asset libraries, localization, scheduling, and approval of assets.
- Good ear for quality audio and balanced soundscapes.
- Communicate project status and needs to rest of team.
- Identify and mitigate risks to product completion and quality.
- Self-motivated, flexible, adaptable, and practical.
- Attention to detail and pride in workmanship.
Desired Experience:
- Experience directing voiceover studio sessions.
- Previous shipped titles in an audio role on any platform.
- Previous experience directly with console (XB360, PS3) audio issues.
- Familiarity with audio asset production tools (Pro Tools, etc.).
- Experience with localization issues.
- Experience with TCRs for console platforms.
- Passion for videogames and experience as a player and consumer of games.
If you're interested, please email your resume and demo materials using the subject "Audio Producer/Designer"
3D Artist - Painter/Modeler Nihilistic Software is hard at work on new projects and is looking to fill out our art team with an additional Painter/Modeler. The ideal candidate would possess well rounded skills in 3D modeling and digital painting with a forte in game environment creation.
Requirements:
- Excellent 3D modeling skills (mechanical and organic).
- Excellent painting skills (traditional and digital).
- Strong Maya skills.
- Good ZBrush skills.
- 2 to 3 years experience working in games; console experience a plus.
- A passion for video games.
- Ability to relocate to the San Francisco Bay Area.
- Ability to work closely with a small group of people in an open environment.
- Creativity, motivation, enthusiasm, flexibility.
If you're interested, please email your resume and demo materials using the subject "3D Artist - Painter/Modeler"
Console Network ProgrammerNihilistic Software is seeking an experienced and talented Network Programmer to develop the company's network technology on our current unannounced next generation console action-adventure title with a top publisher.
Applicants must have a previous network experience on console hardware.
Professional experience developing multiplayer functionality on PS3 and/or XB360 systems is ideal. A passion for playing and creating AAA action games is also highly desirable.
The Network Programmer collaborates with the programming team to specify, document, design, implement, profile, optimize and debug network systems throughout the project cycle.
Responsibilities:
- Developing and maintaining the core network technology to be used in commercial AAA game titles.
- Work with Gameplay programmers to develop and maintain multiplayer systems.
- Analyze code performance and optimize code appropriately for speed and memory usage.
- Absorb documentation on new hardware and software systems in order to implement new features.
- Design and implement efficient low-level systems to support higher-level programmers and pipelines.
- Research new software techniques and assess their suitability for adoption into the game engine.
- Keep abreast of latest developments in hardware and software via developer support, conferences, publications, etc.
Qualifications:
- B.S. degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience.
- 4+ Years experience in game development and/or 2 quality shipped titles.
- 2+ Years of console development experience in an engine role.
- Previous experience writing network code on top of TCP/IP and UDP protocols.
- Thorough understanding of issues related to networking such as DNS, NAT, firewall, security methods, voice chat, peer-to-peer and client server models.
- Hands on experience in two or more of the following areas: Core Systems, Streaming, Networking, Audio, Physics, Animation, Graphics or Simulation (e.g. Cloth, Water, Wind, etc...).
- Strong technical skills:
- 4+ Years of C++
- Low level coding experience (PS3 SPU intrinsics, PS2 VU microcode, PS2 MIPS, Xbox SSE instructions, etc)
- Previous experience working with multi-core architectures
- Experience working with platform profiling tools also a plus
- PS3 or XB360 experience is desirable, but not required for this position.
- Ability and strong desire to actively contribute to a highly creative and collaborative team environment, generating innovative solutions.
- Positive, professional attitude and interpersonal skills; effectively and productively communicate with leads, engineers, artists, designers and managers.
- Excellent writing skills; ability to clearly and concisely define specifications, feature sets and system designs through articulate, well organized technical documents.
- Ability and willingness to accept and follow direction as well as to seek out, provide, and respond positively to critical feedback.
- Disciplined and self-motivated with a strong work ethic; able to work well autonomously, meet deadlines, prioritize and tackle multiple tasks and complete deliverables with a high quality standard.
- Be willing to work closely, and work hard with, a small group of talented people in an open, fun and relaxed development environment.
Bonus Qualifications:
- Multiplayer development experience on 3rd or 1st person action game.
- Has a passion for playing and creating games and can articulate the passion clearly and analytically.
SUBMISSIONS WILL NOT BE RETURNED
|
|
