Lionhead Studios uses Amiqus Games (a division of the Alexander Mann Group) as its
master recruitment vendor. Amiqus are a leading recruiter in the games industry
and manage a small group of preferred suppliers on Lionhead Studio's behalf.
If you need any further information on how to apply please do not hesitate to get
in touch ASAP.
Current openings
Standard Scripter ::
Salary to £28K pro rata per annum. - 9 month contract
1 – Scripter on Milo & Kate
Overview :
Successful applicant will be part of the scripting team working on a brand new IP. They will be responsible for the scripting of in-game quests and interactive cutscenes.
Required :
- Proficient with scripting languages (LUA in particular)
- Experience of scripting in-game content
- An ability to be able to contribute to the game design.
- Needs to be an good communicator
- Ability to take direction and work as part of a team
- Good problem solving skills
- Self motivated
Desirable :
- Able to provide examples of past mission designs in shipping titles
- Familiarity with XBOX 360 development platform
- Experience with Game Editing tools (for example: UNREAL ED)
- General experience and ability to quickly comprehend internal tools
^TOP^
Network Programmer ::
Salary – negotiable at this stage
Contract position – 10 months.
The role involves developing and maintaining the network code of an unnanounced title.
Required Experience :
- The ideal candidate will have worked on the networking systems of at least one shipping game
- A proven track record of working on networking systems
Desirable Experience :
- Experience working with both the Xbox 360 and PC
- Experience with web programming helpful
Specific Skills :
- Advanced C++
- Xbox Live! Network coding
^TOP^
Senior Engine Programmer ::
Contract position – 10 months.
Salary – negotiable at this stage
Overview :
The successful applicant will be willing and able to work on all aspects of a rendering engine, and preferably have experience of both PC and Xbox 360 development.
Main duties :
- Help architect and design any PC-specific features.
- Manage and direct a team of programmers.
Required Experience:
- The ideal candidate will have worked on the 3D engine of at least one shipping game
- A proven track record of working on rendering engines
- Experience with working on the Xbox 360 and with DirectX on the PC.
- Experience managing small teams of programmers.
Specific Skills:
- Advanced C++
- Strong maths
- DirectX and shader programming.
^TOP^
Standard Environment Artist ::
Salary – to £35K pro rata - 9 month contract
- This is an environment artist role.
- ZBrush skills essential
- 3D software and Photoshop experience essential. Experience with Softimage (XSI) is a bonus.
- Has a passion and strong drive for quality.
- Can come onto a team and be immediately productive.
- Ability to take direction and work as part of a team
^TOP^
Senior Environment Artist ::
Salary – to £34K/annum - 7 months contract
Overview :
For Lionhead Studios to maintain its position as the jewel in Microsoft’s crown we need the most talented people in the industry to work for us.
To that end we are currently looking for a top-flight senior environment artist to help us build new worlds within the Fable Franchise.
Fable II’s recent 3million sales success is in no small part thanks to its incredibly talented environment team and we need fresh blood to help up create the rich landscapes and towns that our ambitious designers require.
We’re looking for candidates with a proven track record of work on high quality shipped titles. This is an opportunity to work with industry leading talent and we’re keen to see artists who still have a passion for creating games and feel they have something extra to give.
Requirements :
Successful applicants will be able to show a genre leading portfolio and also boast the extensive practical knowledge of:
- Photoshop
- Zbrush
- A major 3D package
We’d be delighted if candidates could also tick some of the following boxes:
- Prior Senior or Lead level experience
- Knowledge of XSI
- Architectural experience
- 2D concept skills
- Experience outside of environment work
We’re looking for someone who will not only be able to be a creative genius on a daily basis but is also able to create exceptional quality assets to a tight schedule. This senior role requires a high level of technical ability along with the capacity to feedback on tools and creative issues in a positive and proactive manner.
^TOP^
Animator ::
Fable 3
Salary – to £25K/annum - 5 months contract
Overview :
We require a highly motivated and talented Animator to work on a high profile title within an established and successful team. The ideal candidate will have the ability to produce high quality hand keyed animation and ensure that all animation tasks are completed on time and in the correct style.
Required Experience:
- Previous experience in computer games development/film/TV essential
- A high quality animation reel showing clear and proven understanding of character animation, physicality, weight, motion etc
- A good knowledge of relevant animation packages (ideally XSI)
- Proactive attitude, good interpersonal skills, and a team player
- Ability to communicate clearly and concisely
Desirable Experience:
- A knowledge of games pipelines and associated tools
- A degree in animation/an art background (particularly life drawing)
^TOP^
Level Designer ::
Fable 3
Salary – TBC - 6 months+ contract
Overview :
Successful applicant will be part of the Level design team working on a high profile Xbox 360 Action Adventure game. They will be responsible for the construction of in-game levels.
Main Duties:
- Plan, prototype and build in-game levels using 3D world editor.
- Design and document combat encounters and other game play sequences.
- Work closely with the script department in the placement of AI, triggers and events.
Skills and Experience:
- Familiarity with level editors (i.e. Hammer, Unreal Ed etc…)
- Excellent written/verbal communication
- Able to work under pressure, managing multiple activities in an organized manner
- Have a demonstrable track record of problem-solving and creative thinking
- A love of games and a passionate desire to create them
- Some experience of building simple 3D models
- Ability to quickly adopt new tools & techniques
Required Skills:
- Knowledge of scripting languages (for example LUA)
- Experience of Visio and sketch-up
^TOP^
Standard Engine Programmer
::
Fable Team
Salary £30-£40K/annum
Permanent position
Job Title: Engine Programmer.
Overview :
The primary focus of the role involves polishing the quality of certain aspects of the Fable III 3D rendering engine, as well as adding new features to it, such as new shaders / materials for hair or skin rendering. The successful applicant will be willing and able to work on all aspects of a rendering engine, from character rendering to water rendering, and also have experience with rendering optimisation.
Main Duties:
- Work with the engine lead, the technical artist and the art director in order to implement new features and workflows to the right quality level
- Produce high quality, high performance code taking advantage of the Xbox 360 hardware
- Help with the stability of the Fable III engine
- Help with the performance of the Fable III engine
Required Experience:
- The ideal candidate will have worked on the 3D engine of at least one shipping game
- At least two years experience of working on games rendering engines
- Experience with working on the Xbox 360
Specific Skills:
- Advanced C++
- Strong maths
- Shader programming
^TOP^
Standard Gameplay Programmer ::
Fable Team
Salary - £25-35K/annum - Permanent position.
Job Title – Gameplay Programmer
Job Description
The primary focus of the role involves working with certain combat systems in Fable III, including updating and maintaining Fable’s “Crescendo combat” system, and also some work on the magic system. The successful applicant will be willing and able to work on all aspects of gameplay including, but not limited to, the camera, multiplayer, simulation and GUI.
Main Duties:
- Taking ownership of Fable’s camera systems, with a particular focus on the “Crescendo combat” systems (which includes camera overrides).
- Assist in the work to improve the hero character’s combat.
- Working to ensure that all of the features worked on work in multiplayer over Xbox Live.
- Helping to implement new and enhance existing gameplay systems according to the needs of the project.
Required Experience
- The ideal candidate will have worked on at least one shipping game.
- At least two years’ experience of working with C++ at a production quality level.
- Experience with working on Xbox 360 is an advantage, but not strictly required.
Specific Skills/Tools
- General C++ (required)
- Advanced C++ (desired)
- Lua (desired)
- Code Optimisation (desired)
^TOP^
Senior Natal Technology Programmer ::
Core Tech Group/Milo team
Salary - £30-42K/annum - Permanent position.
Overview
Reporting to the Head of Technology, the role involves working within Lionhead's Central Technology Group R&D team to develop innovative technology for the XBox 360 Natal controller. Our Natal tech will be used across all Lionhead projects to provide new user interface experiences for our future games.
Main Duties:
- Develop custom skeletal tracking solutions
- Apply machine learning techniques to gesture and image recognition
- Research new user interface paradigms
- Work with project leads to integrate centrally developed Natal code into game projects.
- Develop robust testing strategies for Natal code.
Required Skills and Experience
- Advanced mathematical based problem solving.
- Experience of image detection/processing algorithms and research
- Machine Learning Techniques (Hidden Markov Models, Bayesian networks, Kalman Filters etc.)
- Strong C/C++ programming.
- Excellent technical communication, written and verbal.
- Thorough understanding and experience of the game development process.
Desired Skills and Experience
- Automated Testing
- Library and API development
- Perforce source control
- XBox 360 development experience
- Code optimisation (performance and memory usage)
^TOP^
Senior Engine Programmer ::
Milo Team
Salary – Approx £35-£50K/annum.
Permanent position
Job Description :
To work with an existing engine helping to improve existing systems and implement new requirements.
Main Duties :
- Develop, maintain and evolve core engine systems
- Liase across different disciplines to identify engine requirements
- Working with the rest of the team to ensure the engine features and functionality are fully utilised
- Creative and innovative design of new engine features to ensure the project is at the forefront of technical innovation.
- Regularly measure and optimize engine performance
Required Skills and Experience :
- In depth DirectX 9 knowledge
- Extensive knowledge of Vertex and Pixel shaders.
- Post processing
- Multithreaded architectures
- Skinning
- Static/dynamic lighting models
- Excellent C++ programming knowledge (with preferably 5+ years experience)
- 3+ years' development experience on consoles.
- Focused, results orientated, self-motivated, with excellent debugging skills.
- Be willing to work on all areas of 3D game engine development.
- Minimum 1 published next gen title.
- Capable of producing clear and concise documentation.
- Be a strong team player with the ability to interface with other team members.
- Able to meet tight deadlines.
- Experience in identifying bottlenecks and optimising existing/future rendering code.
- Self-motivated, able to work with minimal direct supervision
Desirable Skills and Experience :
- Xbox 360 / Xbox or PC development experience
- Full responsibility of a 3D engine used within a shipped project.
- Have experience in or knowledge of next generation graphic techniques and a general enthusiasm and interest in them.
- Mentoring and coaching of more junior staff will be expected
^TOP^
Senior Animation Programmer ::
Milo Team
Salary – Approx £35-£45K/annum.
Permanent position
Objectives :
Candidate will be responsible for synchronising and combining the main character animation systems which cover locomotion and facial areas. Their main goal will be to create a character that can deliver a strong emotional performance and realistic motions. They will also be responsible for maintaining our existing animation pipeline to allow animators to realise their work in game.
Main Duties:
- Be a positive, active, and contributing team member
- Using and maintaining the character locomotion system
- Body and face animation synchronisation using in house systems
- Updating the XSI and Motion Builder animation pipeline with new features.
- Using and potentially creating procedural animation systems for face and body
- Using IK/FK/ragdoll effectively on the character when appropriate
- To be proactive and help with problem solving
- Must be a team player and know the importance of listening to others
Required Qualifications and Experience:
- Experience with animation systems:
- Skeletal character animation
- N-way blends
- Key frame animation
- Motion trees
- Segmented and skinned surfaces,
- Animation exporters (XSI preferred).
- Expertise in C++.
- Strong 3D math background.
- 3+ years C++ professional games development experience, ideally with a concentration on animation programming.
- Strong communication skills, work ethic and motivation.
- Good eye for animation aesthetics and good eye for believable human motions.
Desirable Experience:
- Havok Animation SDK
- Havok Behaviour SDK
- Experience in using IK systems
- Preferred experience in working with articulated bodies and/or physical animation
- Experience with animation pipelines from content creation through to game.
- Self-motivation, the ability to pre-empt potential issues and problems in the current pipelines/tool set and understanding the importance of rapid development and iteration in game development is paramount.
Core Skills
- C++
- Vector and matrix maths
Desired Skills
- IK and procedural animation systems
- Animation pipeline knowledge
Environment
- Microsoft Visual Studio
- Perforce
- Xbox 360 SDKs
^TOP^
Activity Designer ::
Salary open depending on experience
Permanent vacancy
Milo & Kate project
Overall Responsibility :
Work closely with the lead designer & the design team to create & implement the activities, following the overall design vision of the game. The designer needs to be experienced in hands on game mechanics, have excellent “game sense” & really understand what’s required to make a game fun to play. The designer must be able to create design documents that convey concepts & ideas to fellow team members, explaining game systems, control schemes, flowcharts, diagrams, formulas, spreadsheets & anything else required to effectively communicate their vision. The designer must be able to contribute to the implementation of the activities, through scripting (LUA), playing, testing, tweaking & feeding back into the process in order to constantly refine, improve & polish the experiences.
Main Responsibilities:
- Must have at least four years experience in a design role & have completed at least one published game in that role.
- Must have excellent "game sense", a hands on ability to understand what makes a game fun & why something doesn’t “feel” right & how to make it right.
- Must be able to show strong design skills & an excellent ability to communicate those skills, both verbally & through clear detailed documentation (we will supply a short design test to candidates whose CVs interest us).
- Must be prepared to come onto a major project, with a short development time & work exceptionally hard to achieve the required goals.
- Ideally, candidate would also have some LUA (or script/programming) experience.
^TOP^
Lead Artist (Art Manager) - Fable 3 Project ::
Salary – TBC - Permanent position
- Responsibility for the successful implementation and realisation of the set vision.
- Works with the art Director and tech teams to establish the best way to implement the Art Direction.
- Working with tech team on 3D engine featureset and bespoke toolset.
- Helps defines the pipeline and workflow for the art team.
- Hiring, Directing, Mentoring and directly managing the Art sub leads (currently 2 artists).
- Involved in Hiring, Directing, Mentoring the other artists as required (additional 4 artists).
- Reviewing content from a technical, functionality and quality perspective.
- Reviewing the output of outsourcing studios from the same perspective.
- Schedules the content creation deliverables with production.
- Is a member of the studio Senior Management Team.
- Reports to the Executive Producer.
^TOP^
Senior Animator - Fable 3 Project ::
Permanent Role
Salary – £32-45K/annum
Required Experience:
- Excellent key frame animation skills to demonstrate a strong understanding of motion, weight, emotion, acting and timing
- Experience within the games industry
- Knowledge of XSI and advantage but experience with a 3D package essential
- Good technical ability and knowledge of games pipelines and associated tools
- Good communication skills and ability to work within a team.
- To be able to work closely with other departments to realise a feature
- Strongly self motivated and adaptable
Desirable Experience:
- Management experience and working with and developing schedules
- A degree in animation/an art background (particularly life drawing)
^TOP^
Senior Character Artist - Fable 3 Project ::
Permanent Role
Salary – to 45K/annum
- Should be at or near the top of his discipline both technically, artistically and in quality terms.
- Will have had a number of years practical experience as a senior character artist in games.
- Should have worked on significant titles at the forefront of games development; Uncharted, Assassins creed, Gears, God of War III etc.
- Will have existing peer recognition as being an ‘uber’ artist.
- Should be able to demonstrate a high awareness of human anatomy and ideally, human motion.
- Would take direction from the Art Director and be able to closely interpret character concepts.
- Should be able to add style, artistry and value to a concept where required.
- Is an inspiration to the other artists, particularly character artists.
- Would be expected to mentor other artists as well educating his peers.
- Would report to the Lead Character Artist (or Art Manager?).
- May be required to act as a ‘character’ spokesperson for the company. Attend conferences etc.
- Should be extremely knowledgeable with Z-brush or similar and XSI or similar.
- No experience of man management or project planning required.
Candidates who has been pivotal character artists on AAA projects (such as Uncharted, God of War and Assassin’s Creed to name a few examples) are of particular interest and we would love to see the work of such individuals.
^TOP^
If you need any further information please do not hesitate to get in touch ASAP
Please send your CV's to Lionheadgames@amiqus.com.
Contact information:
Stig Strand,
Amiqus Games,
Chadwick House,
Warrington Road,
Birchwood Park,
WA3 6AE
stig.strand@amiqus.com
tel. +44 (0)1925 252588
fax. +44 (0)1925 252596.
Lionhead may post jobs on this website, but unless clearly stated otherwise, please
address all recruitment requirements, job applications or CVs to Stig Strand at
AMIQUS.