Art Director (Gamedev)

TL;DR

Art Director (Merge Dragons!): Spearhead the artistic direction for Merge Dragons! from pre-production through live operations with an accent on visual strategy, team leadership, and production pipelines. Focus on defining art plans, mentoring art leaders, collaborating with product design and tech art, and integrating emerging technologies like AI tools.

Location: Hybrid - 2 days per week in our London office (UK), remaining days remote

Company

Studio behind popular titles like 1010!, Six!, Merge Dragons!, and Merge Magic!, proudly part of the Zynga & Take-Two Interactive family, working in small self-managing teams with high ownership and autonomy.

What you will do

• Lead end-to-end visual direction for Merge Dragons!, from pre-production to live operations
• Define art strategy and tactical plans for predictable delivery of high-quality assets and features
• Manage and mentor art leadership team, fostering high-performance culture aligned with company values
• Collaborate with Product, Design, and Tech Art to create scalable UI/UX solutions in Unity
• Oversee production pipelines and outsourcing, meeting creative goals within technical constraints
• Present art vision and updates to organization and studio leadership
• Evaluate and integrate trends and technologies like AI to optimize art pipeline

Requirements

• Proven leadership of art teams through full game development lifecycle, from concept to live ops
• Strong knowledge of Unity pipelines and aligning art vision with technical performance
• Cross-discipline collaboration to turn game systems into player-centric experiences
• Mastery of colour theory, lighting, composition to influence game direction
• Strategic mindset for new art features and production challenges
• Communication skills for creating style guides, mood boards for internal/external teams
• Energetic, collaborative attitude

Nice to have

• Experience in mobile gaming sector
• Leading UI/UX direction for shipped titles
• Portfolio showing high-level UI visual quality and UX thinking
• Experience with robust UI design systems

Culture & Benefits

• Small self-managing teams with high autonomy, ownership, and impact
• Razor-sharp focus on tangible impact, constant improvement, and collaboration
• Highly competitive salary, company bonus scheme
• Private medical care, life insurance, favorable pension, healthcare cash plan (dental/optical)
• Onsite chef for breakfast/lunch/treats, amazing tech and consoles