AAA Environmental Artist / Technical Artist for Unity URP Urban Fantasy Game Asset Upgrade

Job Description PoetCode Studio is seeking an experienced AAA Environmental Artist / Technical Artist to help upgrade the environmental assets for our Unity-based game, Dynasty of Magi. Dynasty of Magi is a hyper-realistic urban fantasy game world inspired by East Orange and Newark, New Jersey. The game environment is divided into five neighborhoods, with nine zones per neighborhood, for a total of 45 zones. The project is now focused on upgrading the current environment art to a high-fidelity Unity URP production standard while preserving the existing game layout, scale, gameplay function, and interactive asset systems. This is not a full modular rebuild. The selected artist or team will work from our current models and existing zone layouts, improving textures, materials, decals, UVs, atlases, state variants, and Unity integration. New models or mesh variants should only be created when the existing asset cannot support the required quality, damage state, silhouette change, or gameplay function. We are looking for an artist who can help establish the production quality bar, deliver a strong example home asset, contribute to the roadmap for production, and then support the completion of a Keystone Zone and remaining neighborhood assets. ⸻ Project Art Direction The visual style is grounded, hyper-realistic urban magical realism. The world should feel like a believable New Jersey urban environment first: residential homes, streets, sidewalks, storefronts, vehicles, vegetation, tunnels, cemetery assets, utility props, and landmarks should be physically grounded, properly scaled, and visually realistic. Magical elements should layer on top of that realism instead of making the base world look cartoonish or overly fantasy-stylized. Interactive environment assets use multiple visual states: State A – Charmed Renaissance Clean, restored, upgraded, and well-maintained. Assets should look new or renewed while still feeling believable and lived-in. State B – Run-Down / Urban Decay Dirty, weathered, neglected, tagged, faded, cracked, rusty, overgrown, and worn. This state should communicate trouble, decline, and neglect. State C – Dilapidated / War-Torn / Burned-Out Heavily damaged, burned, broken, mourning, defeated, and structurally distressed. Use mesh changes only where the silhouette truly needs damage, collapse, missing pieces, or exposed structure. State D – Mystic / Magical Transformation Reserved for key magical objects in each zone. This state may include glowing runes, magical symbols, animated shaders, ethereal materials, magical aura, custom VFX, and transfigured surfaces. For decals and damage details, we need believable variation. For example, cracked windows should not repeat the exact same crack pattern across every house. Graffiti, grime, posters, burn marks, cracked glass, stains, and decals should include variation by asset, neighborhood, and state. Custom murals may also be required. Lead-approved murals should change based on state: A = triumphant, B = troubled or sad, C = defeated or mourning, and D = magically transfigured. ⸻ Initial Scope The first phase is to establish the production quality bar and technical workflow. The selected artist or team will: 1. Review the current Unity assets, RFP, checklist, and sample zones. 2. Deliver an example home showing approved A/B/C state quality. 3. Demonstrate correct Unity URP/PBR materials, texture-size judgment, decal variation, and state readability. 4. Help create a practical production roadmap for the remaining work. 5. Complete the Keystone Zone 35 with the required assets for that neighborhood. 6. Continue into remaining zones and neighborhoods after the quality bar, workflow, and budget are approved. The example home is especially important. It will become the visual benchmark for all remaining homes, props, decals, vegetation, and environment-state work. ⸻ Responsibilities The artist or team will be responsible for: * Reviewing current Unity environment assets and identifying what can be upgraded through texture, material, decal, UV, or prefab work. * Creating AAA-quality texture and material updates for existing assets. * Creating new geometry only when required for damage silhouettes, missing pieces, broken structures, or assets that cannot meet quality requirements. * Producing A/B/C state variants for interactive environmental assets. * Producing State D / Mystic variants for approved key magical objects. * Creating or improving decals, graffiti, cracked glass, grime, burn marks, murals, posters, and state-based surface details. * Ensuring decal variation so repeated homes and props do not look duplicated. * Upgrading assets to Unity URP-compatible PBR materials. * Using appropriate texture sizes, including 4K only when necessary for hero assets, large façades, readable signs, major ground atlases, landmarks, or close-camera assets. * Creating LODs, optimized meshes, atlases, and efficient materials as needed. * Maintaining correct scale, pivots, naming, prefab structure, colliders, and gameplay integration. * Working in Unity and Perforce according to the project delivery workflow. * Coordinating with the art director and programmers to preserve gameplay mechanics and interactive state transitions. * Documenting asset changes, texture sizes, state implementation notes, known issues, and delivery paths. ⸻ Technical Requirements The ideal candidate should be comfortable with: * Unity environment art production. * Unity URP material setup and optimization. * PBR texturing workflows. * Substance Painter, Substance Designer, Quixel Mixer, or similar tools. * Blender, Maya, 3ds Max, or equivalent 3D software. * Game-ready asset optimization. * LOD creation and performance-conscious environment art. * Texture atlasing and material cleanup. * Decal workflows, graffiti, cracked glass, grime, damage, and mural integration. * Prefab organization and Unity scene hierarchy cleanup. * Perforce version control. * Working from existing game assets instead of rebuilding everything from scratch. * Collaborating with programmers on state-changing assets, colliders, VFX hooks, and integration requirements. ⸻ Target Platforms The long-term visual target is a high-quality game experience for Steam and Xbox, with the first release planned for mobile. Assets must therefore balance strong visual quality with real-time performance. The RFP target includes high-end 4K support where appropriate, while still maintaining optimized 1080p mobile performance. Artists must understand when 4K textures are justified and when 2K, 1K, 512, shared atlases, or trim sheets are the better production choice. ⸻ Preferred Experience Strong candidates should have: * AAA or high-end indie environment art experience. * A portfolio showing realistic urban environments. * Before/after environment upgrade examples. * Experience with damaged, abandoned, burned-out, or weathered asset states. * Experience creating multiple visual states for the same asset. * Strong texture/material judgment. * Unity URP experience. * Technical art experience. * Perforce experience. * Urban fantasy, magical realism, or supernatural environment experience. * Ability to work from a detailed RFP and production checklist. ⸻ Proposal Requirements Please include the following in your proposal: * Portfolio or reel showing environment art, realistic materials, and game-ready assets. * Examples of buildings, houses, streets, props, vehicles, vegetation, or decals. * Examples of damaged, abandoned, burned, weathered, or restored asset states. * Unity and URP experience. * Perforce experience, if any. * Your preferred 3D and texturing tools. * Whether you are applying as an individual or a team. * Your estimated approach for creating the first example home with A/B/C states. * Your availability and hourly rate. Please also describe how you would approach upgrading an existing house model into three states: clean/restored, run-down, and burned-out/dilapidated, while keeping it optimized for Unity. ⸻ Deliverables Initial deliverables may include: * Example home asset with A/B/C states. * Texture and material upgrade pass. * Decal and cracked-glass variation examples. * Optional vehicle and vegetation examples if requested. * URP/PBR material setup. * Texture-size and optimization notes. * Unity prefab/state setup notes. * Roadmap recommendation for Keystone Zone 35 and remaining neighborhoods. * Perforce-ready files and/or Unity Package delivery as agreed. ⸻ Project Type This is intended to become a long-term production relationship after the initial quality-bar and roadmap phase are approved.