At Side, we partner with some of the world's leading developers and publishers to solve complex production challenges and help bring exceptional games to life. From concept through live operations, our co-development teams work as trusted extensions of our clients' studios, contributing expertise across design, engineering, art, audio, QA, and production.

We're looking for a Senior Level Artist to own game spaces from blockout through final polish, combining gameplay layout, world building, and visual composition. You'll work with a library of pre-generated assets to create, refine, and integrate spaces that are both visually compelling and effective to play.

This is a remote freelance contract for approximately 3–6 months, with up to 40 hours per week of support needed. Candidates must be available to overlap with the CEST team's working hours; location is otherwise flexible.

As these are project-based opportunities, positions may be amended, postponed, or withdrawn as a result of changing client requirements and project priorities.

Requirements

What you'll be doing:

Level & World Building

• Own spaces from blockout through final polish, balancing gameplay layout with visual composition, staging, lighting, and world-building.
• Create, refine, and integrate pre-generated assets into cohesive, playable game environments.
• Make intentional decisions about player flow, composition, sightlines, and navigation to support the gameplay experience.

Unreal Engine & Performance

• Build and polish environments in Unreal Engine with a strong understanding of composition, lighting, and in-engine presentation.
• Manage streaming, HLODs, draw calls, frame budgets, and memory budgets, personally optimizing spaces to meet performance targets.
• Use Unreal PCG and Houdini to support efficient world-building and asset placement workflows.

Gameplay Integration

• Implement level features, triggers, and interactives using Unreal Blueprints.
• Collaborate with design, art, and engineering teams to ensure spaces support both gameplay and visual goals.
• Take ownership of spaces across multiple stages of development, from initial blockout through a shipped, cancelled, or personal project.

What we're looking for:

• 5+ years of experience in level design, level art, or world building.
• A portfolio demonstrating composition, staging, lighting, and playable spaces built in-engine; portfolios should show environments from a player's perspective rather than primarily props or asset reels.
• Deep experience building worlds and spaces in Unreal Engine, with the ability to own both gameplay layout and visual execution.
• Strong gameplay layout literacy, including the ability to make and articulate intentional decisions around player flow, navigation, sightlines, and spatial composition.
• Experience owning a space through multiple stages of a development pipeline, including shipped, cancelled, or personal projects.
• Proven experience managing and optimizing streaming, HLODs, draw calls, frame budgets, and memory budgets.
• Working knowledge of Unreal Blueprints for implementing level features, triggers, and interactives.
• Experience with Unreal PCG and Houdini.
• Ability to work independently and take ownership of a space from blockout through final polish.

Nice to have:

• Experience with material and shader authoring.
• Experience with terrain tools such as Gaea, World Machine, or equivalent.
• Background in architecture, urban planning, or production design.
• Experience working on open-world or large-scale streaming worlds.
• Experience authoring tools using Python or Blueprints.

Benefits

• Competitive Salary.
• Dynamic, multicultural and fun environment.
• You will be working for the world's leading provider of game services.
• We empower our people and offer regular progression opportunities to ensure our employees flourish.

About Side 
Side (formerly PTW) is a global video game development and services provider, offering technical and creative solutions to many of the largest developers and studios around the world. Founded in 2009 and drawing on 30+ years' experience from our parent company in Japan, Side has since grown to become a global force with 20 studios in 14 countries across North America, Europe, South America, and Asia. 

Our industry-leading services include game development, art production, audio production, quality assurance, localization, localization QA, player support, community management, and datasets. 

Experience our side of life. For more information, visit www.side.inc