Lead VFX Artist Unity | Gameplay VFX | UI Animation | Spine | Mobile Games About the Role This is a key role within our client’s team, where you will have the opportunity to unlock your full potential, bring your experience and creativity into their games, propose your own ideas and solutions, and have a real impact on the final result. We are looking for a hands-on Lead VFX Artist to lead and develop our VFX team while taking ownership of the artistic and technical quality of VFX across our game projects. The scope covers a wide range of real-time game effects — from gameplay and character effects to UI animations, transitions, rewards, and other visual feedback. You will work closely with 2D Spine Animators, UI/UX, Art, Tech Art, Game Design, Product, and Development teams. What Will Help You Succeed in This Role To be successful in this role, we believe the following skills and experience will help you make an impact, grow with the team, and succeed in our company: ● Leadership experience in game development, including team management, regular 1:1s, performance reviews, mentoring, feedback, and knowledge sharing. ● Strong experience with casual mobile games. ● Strong hands-on Unity experience, including gameplay VFX, character effects, UI effects and animations, Particle System, Shader Graph, shaders, implementation, and optimization. ● Strong hands-on Spine experience — ability to create animations, review source files, prepare assets, and integrate Spine animations into Unity. ● Ability to independently take VFX and UI animation from concept to final in-game implementation and polish. ● Strong visual and motion design skills with a good understanding of timing, composition, visual hierarchy, readability, and game feel. ● Ability to identify key gameplay moments and enhance their impact and player feedback through VFX and animation. ● Ability to evaluate a feature and determine the best implementation approach — Spine, Unity, VFX, or a combination of them. ● Ability to review the team’s work and source files, maintain artistic and technical quality, identify blockers, and propose practical solutions. ● Experience planning team workload, reviewing estimates, distributing tasks, identifying resource needs, and supporting predictable delivery. ● Experience building and improving VFX and animation pipelines, technical standards, and production workflows. ● Solid Technical Art knowledge, including performance optimization and an understanding of technical limitations on mobile platforms.
● Confidence in proposing multiple creative or technical solutions and clearly explaining the reasoning behind your recommendations. ● Strong communication and cross-functional collaboration skills. ● A strong portfolio demonstrating a range of game VFX, including gameplay and/or character effects as well as UI animation and effects. ● A gamer mindset — you enjoy games, understand player experience, and are interested in understanding why particular visual solutions work. What Will Make You Stand Out ● Proficiency in two or more of the following languages would be a strong advantage: Mandarin Chinese, English, and Ukrainian. ● Openness to potential relocation to Japan would be a strong advantage ● Experience working across multiple game projects or supporting multiple production teams ● Experience with poker, card, or casino-style games and an understanding of their gameplay and player experience. ● Experience with After Effects or other motion design tools. If you don’t have previous poker experience, a genuine interest and willingness to learn the game, its mechanics, terminology, and player experience will be highly valued. If your experience matches this role and you’re looking for an opportunity to lead a team, stay hands-on, contribute your ideas, and influence the quality of our games, we’d love to hear from you. Please send us your CV and a link to your portfolio — we look forward to learning more about you.
